When the PlayStation 3 arrived in 2006, Sony was asking for $599 for a reason. With a built-in Blu-Ray player inside, the PS3 was state of the art technology and truly future-proof (3D gaming, anyone?). Many criticized Sony’s decision to include Blu-Ray in their newest console and didn’t quite understand its value, but game developers love the ridiculous amount of space they have for their games. How much you want to bet that Square Enix hated having to put their latest epic, Final Fantasy XIII, on three Xbox 360 discs, reducing the all over quality and resolution for the title? Yet another major developer is complaining over the lack of space on a DVD and how the problem is only going to get worse in years to come…
David Cox, Producer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which was one of the best games we played at this year’s E3, talked about the lack of space on the 360’s DVD disc which continues to showcase the advantage that the PS3 has with the Blu-Ray format.
Microsoft actually sent their tech guys to the studio to see the game and look at [how we’re] compressing it, but they said: “Okay, it’s good. You’re doing all you can.”
I think it’s something Microsoft are going to experience more and more – that they need to help developers overcome the storage problem. I mean, each console has it’s own issues [360’s smaller disc capacity and PS3’s slower loading times], but you have to work around them.”
One reason why developers don’t want their 360 titles to be more than one disc, is the fee per EXTRA disc that Microsoft charges for multi-disc 360 titles. Unless Microsoft cuts them a deal, the fee could eat into Konami’s profit. I would hate to see a game like God of War III, which was a whopping 40GB of data on one Blu-Ray disc, on the 360. 5 discs anyone?
David did reveal a juicy nugget of Castlevania: LOS news; even though Hideo Kojima is helping with the game, the game’s cutscenes aren’t the reason for the games massive size — the longest cutscene is 14-minutes and that’s the ending!
They’re pretty short. Our longest one is 14 minutes, which is the end sequence… The game’s around 24 hours long and every level’s different. We have so much variety and we re-use very little assets.
24 hours of Castlevania awesomeness? All on one disc? Looks like Blu-Ray is really paying off for the PS3. Look for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow this fall on one glorious Blu-Ray disc on the PS3. One thing is for sure, this 3D Castlevania is going to be full of Epicness and will finally prove that Castlevania can be done right in the world of 3D gaming.
[Source]
