Capcom laments DVD capacity - Lost Planet 2 compromised

[Reasonable]

WilliamWatts said:

Reasonable said:

Oh c'mon, stop reaching.  Seriously.  If they're complaining about disk capacity it's not having enough space on BR, that's for sure.  It's entirely unplausible that they're having more trouble with BR capacity to store stuff more than once vs a single DVD.

OT - smells like an excuse for DLC for me, personally.  Why not release if free if its covered by the game's production costs?

If they did cut stuff due to DVD, it is annoying it won't be on the PS3 cut as I'm sure they feel both versions have to be identical, but then for most multiplatform titles the DVD is still used as the default size to aim for with final content levels - a few RPG titles aside.

I don't get why they don't just use more disks, though, with an option to install on the 360 if you want to remove any disk swapping.

Again, sounds to me like they're taking the suspicously easy money route to DLC vs other methods of solving this very solvable issue - if it's even accurate.

Microsoft charges extra royalties for extra discs, see Rage for example and John Carmacks statements relating. They could if they got their panties into a twist refuse to certify the Lost Planet 2 game for the Xbox 360 which would probably mean Capcom loses at least 60% of their sales.

I know extra disks costs more, my point was more that the DVD size for 360 is known well up-front, and waiting until well into development (as their quote implies) to make this decision isn't the best approach.  They should have either budgeted assets to remain on 1 DVD, accepted 2 DVDs and worked out their targets accordingly or worked with MS on other incentives.

If the 1 DVD is really becoming limiting, and given the 360 needs those titles to be on the platform more than ever, I actually don't know why the studios don't simply put pressure on MS around their charging scheme for multiple disks.  In truth the power is with the developers here not MS, MS doesn't have enough first party support nor enough install base globally to lay down the law right now.  I'm pretty sure they'd relax such charges if needed to keep the games on the 360.  The developers can also play the card that MS doesn't want the 360 to start appearing as limiting for games - which with Rage, FFXIII and now this is a very real danger.

TBH though my main point remains the same - if you know your goals beforehand it's not great design to break them so badly as implied.  This smacks of someone making a 3.5 hour film when the studio commissoned a 2 hour film.  You either fight the battle right up front and insist the film is going to be 3.5 hours and get it sorted out, or you rework the design to hit the target.

The other option that has just occured to me, but I believe it would break another MS mandate, is to have a mandatory install.  That way the entire game could be compressed on the disk then uncompressed when installed to the 360 HDD.