Madden NFL 07 = 6.52GB

I personally think that any developers who say that they need Blu-Ray is just being lazy. The systems all have enough power to use compression on Audio and Textures to keep the file size down. Models and code take up next to nothing in space compared to Audio, Video and Textures.

The only reason you would really need more then 8.5GB is if you have a shit load of FMV and in this day and age you shouldn't, Any cut scenes should be done in engine by now

I think we're still a generation away from needing Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Maybe near the end of this gen we'll be seeing games that really need more then 8.5GB but not anything for the first few years. The only games I see needing more then 8.5GB are RPGs and no one cares if we need to get up and switch discs. We didn't complain about it with Final Fantasy VII-IX, No one made a big deal about it with StarOcean 3 and no one said a thing about it with Blue Dragon. 

I'll be more then willing to be that Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4 would be able to fit on a single dual layer DVD. Final Fantasy XII wasn't even on a Dual Layer DVD yet people think that XIII will need more then 8.5GB give me a break.

Only reason some developers fill up a Blu-Ray disc is because they leave everything uncompressed or fill the disc up with garbage to give the illusion of it needing that much space. 

I still can't figure this out:

Enchanted Arms and Armored Core 4 on the PS3 both come in at a little over 15GB each yet the Xbox360 versions are only about 6.4GB each the games look the same, sound the same and play the same. Enchanted Arms PS3 version does has a couple new missions, But thats nothing that should take up an extra  8.6GB. You really do have to question why are the PS3 versions taking up some much more room.

And then you have a game like Virtua Fighter 5 which was orignally a PS3 exclusive that only takes up 5GB of space.

And look at  The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, it was supost to have gotten all the upgrades to make it better then the Xbox360 and PC versions yet it only clocks in at 4.90GB

To date no one has shown us a valid reason why we need Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs for games. maybe we will see something in 3 or 4 years from now but the way I see it by the time we do need it we'll be moving on to the next generation of consoles.

This is just my two cents on the whole thing. 

 Great stuff, however I cant find how big gears of war is, but I'm quite sure it is almost a full DVD.

I agree that most games out there today, dont need more than 4-5 GB. That's kinda like, when the PS2 first came out. Most games didnt use more than 400-500megs. (note the Blue PS2 discs)
Now if you've seen the trailers to FFXIII... You wouldnt understand how it couldnt fit in anything under 10-20gb. I dont know how big the stuff coming out this year is, but I'm willing to bet that the average game size next year will be around 8-9gb. As rember. Oblivion is not that graphically intensive. It's basically the same thing, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over agian. Things like Final Fantasy, where you never see the same thing twice, will eat the storage. Also, stuff like GTA4, where each building actually has diffrent textures, and not just a re-hash of the same thing, will be massive on Disc space. It really wouldnt suprise me if GTA4 is on 2DVDs. (Think when you changed the city GTA3, the massive loading times, you would change disc for the 360 version)

I dont believe that the size of games will go up so fast but i do believe it will eventualy, i see each game of a certain type like the sports game as an upgrade from the previous one, so each year it will go up a bit more in space, but maybe bluray was something more meant for the next gen (as in ps4 wii2 or whatever will come out then), and as for graphics although its nice i dont see a huge difference between the different high definition qualitys, so i think 360 wont have people leaving because of graphics and i dont think the graphics quality has ever played a big role on the success of a console, not when the difference between each console is minimal. I believe bluray will be the futur of gaming but it might not be until next gen that it makes an impact.

Gears of War was 6.43GB

I think its highly unlikely that GTA4 will be bigger then 8.5GBs.

I have seen the Final Fantasy XIII trailers and I still think at most we'll see it able to fit on 2 Dual Layer DVDs (17GBs) and again whats wrong with swapping discs? we did it with so many other RPGs before, have we become so lazy that we can't get up off the couch for 30secs to swap out a disc? The only thing that could push it to need 25+GBs is if its full of a ton of FMVs. But I think Square is coming to an end with needing thous.

All of those features are fine, but not when it costs so much. $300 is the sweet spot for consumer electronics today. The PS3 isn't going to be $300 for a long time if ever.

Blu-ray will be one of the biggest factors in the next gen war. If  it starts to win, many people will see the PS3 as a cheap blu-ray player, which they will not be hesitant to buy as the war is being won.

 I think that the reason that blu-ray will be the most important factor, is that the size a game will increase more and more, because of all the extra animations and better quality audio, and 1080p videos will take up alot of space.

Games like GTA IV would not be as good if each region was on one DVD.  If someone had a 360 and a PS3, surely you would buy the one on a single disc? As far as I know, SA was close to the limit of what can be held on a DVD, and so could it really be expanded, and have much better graphics, on a single DVD. If it is to be held on one disc, the BD is the only answer.

A game like Final Fantasy XIII, where there will probably be more than 5 hours of 1080P video, you will need a blu-ray disc to hold that amount of video, as well as the game. Although FFXIII is not coming out on DVD, games like it will have similar problems to what it would have if it was on DVD.

1080P fmv content will take up a MASS amout of space for sure, but this is not necessarily a requirement, but something the PS3 can do better.

Animation and Physics WILL NOT take up very much more space, get real... it's ALL code it's all text based sorry.

 Audio again I don't think will take up that much more space, of course I know the Audio is MP3, not text based, I didn't say and would never say that.

If you want to back up all your arguments provide me with links with proper sources, but at least grab the section of text you are talking about rather than make me read the whole thing, that is completely useless IMO, grab the captioned segments that you think you are using.

A good point of references is Naughty Dog dude's blog and what he talks about with storage space on PS3.  Adventure games might take up a few discs i'm sure, RPG's probably a definite but changing discs in games is common... how many discs was FFIX again? 3 wasn't it? Blue Dragon? No big deal it's not that important.

The Wii's controller is the most important part of this generation. 

I agree the advantages provided by Blu-Ray will play an important role during the PS3's lifecycle. But I think the combination of the PS3's feature set is very important as well, such as the Cell processor. I mean Blu-Ray would IMO be far less useful in combination with for instance a Nintendo Wii or PS2 features set.

I think many people will not agree with you and me on the importance of Blu-Ray with regard to future gaming experiences and I think one reason for this being simply that other platforms currently don't offer equivalent technology, for instance I think if the XBox 360 did ship with a Blu-Ray or equivalent drive you will probably see many more XBox 360 fans agreeing with you on this subject.

This is hard to answer... I think it is important - and it is not.

Look back to the N64 days: N64 cartidges had about 64mb storage while a CD was at 650mb which is about 10 times the space.

 Still games like Zelda 64 were just as big as 32mb (!!) and they still looked gorgeus.

So Blu Ray is not necesary but it can make developement a lot easier if you´ve taken the hurdles of the PS3´s architecture.

(I guess this post was full of spelling mistakes... )