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DVD Format -Xbox 360’s Achilles’s Heel?

posted by Mark Fujii at 2:12 am.

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Just yesterday John Carmack announced some very bad news to Xbox 360 gamers at Quake-Con. id’s upcoming post apocalyptic racing/shooter hybrid, “Rage”, will more than likely end up taking a hit in the graphics department. Their justification? Simply put, Rage is too large of a game to fit on two Xbox 360’s DVD disc format, and id isn’t interested in investing in a third disc. Instead, the estimated 22 gigabytes of graphics will end up having to be compressed and squeezed onto two discs regardless of the inevitable degradation that they’ll suffer in order to make them fit.

While in the past I’ve voiced my skeptism about the true benefits of the blu-ray disc format, my indifference to having multiple DVD’s as opposed to one large Blu-Ray disc has always hinged on the presumption that the actual quality of the game doesn’t end up suffering. Having multiple discs for the Xbox 360 isn’t necessarily a new thing -Blue Dragon and Lost Odysee both featured multiple discs without any real indication of having lost anything as a result. However, if what John Carmack is telling us is true, this may be the first real instance where Microsoft’s decision to stick with the DVD format may be biting them in the butt. I think it’s safe to say that for a while now DVD’s have been the medium fo choice to publish games on, but now it’s looking as what may have been practical in the past now threatens to hamper the evolution of Microsoft’s home console.

Swapping discs is one thing (I have absolutely no problem with that) but I suppose it’s definitely worth keeping in mind that developers end up getting hit with expenses when their games are too large to fit on a single DVD. Gamer’s only end up suffering the inconvenience of swapping discs and never really pay any additional expense for the extra discs, but rest assured, someone definitely is. Though it may be a developers job to make an awesome games for their fans, at the same time they’re here to make money to. I can’t really say I fault them for electing to cut quality in favor of saving (perhaps) a sizable amount of cash. It’s not their fault that one of the most popular platforms on the market happens to be equipped with last-gen technology.

Is this a precedent for things to come? With games like Far Cry 2 pushing the boundaries of gaming graphics it almost seems inevitable that the trend might depart from the single disc releases that we’ve become acquainted with. First person shooters might start shipping on two discs for the Xbox 360. How many discs do you think Final Fantasy XIII might end up shipping on?

Or will developers just say “no” to paying extra to publish their game on multiple discs and follow id’s example by merely compressing data? Less modes, less options, less maps, less characters, worst graphics -could this be a sign of things to come? I remember back during the days of the Xbox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube that multiplatform games were rarely indentical due to hardware limitations. For instance, Jedi Knight II: Outcast on the Xbox was more or less identical to the PC version, but the Gamecube variant was severely toned down. Will history just end up repeating itself?

Personally I’m not that concerned. This coming Fall is bringing us titles like Fable 2 which looks graphically gorgeous, has the promise of in depth and robust game play, and is shipping on only a single disc. Will the DVD format hamper games in the future on the Xbox 360? Possibly.But with a deluge of top tier titles bombarding the Xbox 360 in the next few months, it’s definitely a worry that Xbox 360 owners will forget for another day.

Mark Fujii: I'm your typical college student who plays too much video games. I also work as an electronic sales associate, meaning I sell Ipods and violent video games to your children when not trying to sneak off and play Super Smash Bros while the boss isn't looking. Oh, and I'm totally awesome. True fact.