MikeB said:
I think you are forgetting two important factors. 1) You are talking about a linear game, for this 1 dual layer Blu-Ray disc potentially equals about 8-10 dual layer DVDs. An exact figure depends on the game design in question, data duplication will be done. Audio and graphics on the first and follow up discs need to be duplicated on discs when re-used. For example a streamed texture may be used in the first part of the game (disc 1), but also in further parts of the game and for comfort such data is then duplicated for follow up parts of the game to prevent disc swapping. If talking about a non-linear game, where you are able to or even required to revisit previously cleared areas this complicates things a lot and far more disc swapping may be the result. 2) Due to additional costs (read recent ID Software comments for example) and game design requirements for developers/publishers, they will usually make sacrifices (for example GTA IV would have come with more content if they could fully rely on bigger storage media, also lowered quality audio and graphics and/or less data varierty / more re-usage of data). |
I remember Lands of Lore III, quite big game world, hub based, non linear with necessity to revisit some places, so a lot of disc swap was required, it was quite annoying (*)
(*) more than the fact that the game was released too hastily (most bugs were eventually corrected by patches, only two noticeable ones remained, not preventing game completion, and obviously remained the non uniform care in graphics, with good lighting, but very bad flat backgrounds in a lot of places)
