I make a bold prediction expect GTA V to appear in 2012 or 2013 as multiplatform on the new HD consoles: PS4, XBox whatever and Wii HD. There would also be a PC GTA V launched as standard.

Username2324:
Not all forms of compression are lossy. :p For instance, the demo scene (as mentioned earlier) has produced some amazing compression ratios. For instance, try kkrieger:

http://produkkt.abraxas-medien.de/kkrieger

It's a whole 1st person shooter in 96k. Data, engine, everything. Sure, if you read through the information about how it was implemented, you'll see that it's not the same method used by most modern games. But still, the results are extremely impressive.

What I think you should take away from this is that extremely high compression ratios are certainly possible without loss, whether it's algorithmic compression, hand encoded images (as in many demos) or procedurally generated data. It just takes some creativity and developer time. :p

The thing you're all forgetting is that compression isn't "free". It still requires resources to uncompress the data.

Also, when it comes to "just add another disc": adding a second disc, doesn't double your storage space. In order to run the game, the engine and textures have to have copies on every separate disc. Let's say you have a 20GB game on a Blu-Ray Disc with no problem. Let's say 5 GB of that is shared data like the engine, sound and texture files used by every area in the game. Too fit it on dual-layer DVD, you would have: Disc 1 (5GB Base + 4Gig other) (9 Gigs so far), Disc 2 (5GB Base + 4Gig other) (13 Gigs so far), Disc 3 (17 Gigs so far), and finally Disc 4 (20 Gigs with a gig to spare). Take a dual-layer Blu-Ray game, and suddenly you've got a half a dozen or more DVDs.

If games get to the point where the basic shared data is close to or passing 9GB; then it won't matter how many DVD's you add, the game won't fit. I doubt this happens in this generation, but it's possible it could near the end.

Thats unlikely.  Most of the engines that will be used this generation have already been selected already.  What this means is they are being refined, made more efficient, and compressed.  Early next generation when we are picking new engines to use on stronger hardware, then it is possible that the engines will be larger.

But whilst textures may get more detailed as we get more out of hardware, engines get smaller.  On a side note, everyone play that 96kb Kreiger file. That game is amazing and fun. 

Some points on a view of the opinions here...

a) Developers are mainly going to prefer an HDD. PS3 and 360 are essentially bringing consoles to same level of graphics/content as has existed on PCs for years - and they know it makes their life easier.

b) game length has nothing to do with game size. You could have a 22GB 1 hour game if it contained enough assets (no re-used textures, amazingly hi-res textures, etc). Likewise you could have a never ending game for a few KB (Tetris anyone?) so please stop with the Unharted, Heavenly Sword stuff - size is down to content, not number of levels or duration of game.

c) compression sure helps but it also has downsides - resources used to decompress for one. It's a developer choice as well. If a developers wants to use uncompressed sound or whatever so that for the lucky few the experience is amazing then that affects size a great deal

d) Mulitple disks would also pose problems for a 'streaming' game such as GTA IV I would have thought - after all the whole idea is you drive around with nary a loading screen, not park your car and change disks! Personally I prefer games to try and stick to one disk if they can.


I think the points made are valid and provide a nice summary of the two consoles right now:

a) 360 very easy to develop for and powerful graphics but no HDD and need for multiple disks if you go above a certain size

b) PS3 harder to develop for and powerful graphics with HDD and larger capacity for storage on disk

 Games won't be using the same engines the entire generation. And even if it is an optimized, more effecient version of an engine already used, that just means it will be capable of using larger, more detailed textures as you said. The amount optimization of engine code changes the actual storage size of the engine (for better or worse), would be neglible. The textures and sound are what consume most of the shared data space, not the engine.

If we were on Slashdot I would mod you insightful.

i wonder how big is the size of gtaiv(maybe 20gb)they comprisse it a lot for the 360,so i can conclud that the ps3 have no compression for its bluray so ps3 better than 360

GTAV PS3 exclusive confirmed.