I have a 320 GB hard drive, so I wouldn't call it a problem. Although the DMC4 install was annoying- took 22 minutes and it wasn't really that much better than the 360 version. Every other install seems to be under 10 minutes, so as long as they somehow improve game performance and stay under 10 minutes, it's fine by me.
I may be mistaken but didn't the first Xbox have game installs?

My question is why are they all consistently 4 to 5 gigs? Is that the sweet spot? Could they some how do less? Quite honestly I think this will go away once developers start making games on the PS3 from scratch. You may think mgs4 was made from scratch for the PS3 but I believe it was more than likely a port of the PS2 version obviously taking advantage of the PS3 hardware.

About the only bad thing I see is that exclusive games should not be having these installs times. I am with the pop in and play console games croud. Hopefully this will be a non issue in due time like the fallout 3 guys said they will not have an install in their game. We will see.

thekitchensink said: Well, I know that I, for one, play a console for its' simplicity. This is one of the reasons I don't have a single multiplatform PS3 game (along with Rumble and preferring Live). If I want to play a console game, I should just be able to toss the disc in and play. Sure, go ahead and give me an optional install that improves performance, but if I want to wait to play a game, I'll get a gaming PC.

Erm Burnout Paradise has only an installation of 34MB and does that automatically, Lego Star Wars has "none" and Oblivion does have 5+GB of installation but also does that automatically, you don't have to run it yourself. Concerning the standard 4-5GB of installation I have no idea myself, probably to run the game faster I dunno... and therefore makes it a standard amount of installation space.Though its strange why one game only takes about 2 minutes to install over 4GB of game data while the other takes about 20 minutes with the same amount of game data *huh* So far I had DMC4 as the only game which swallowed the most time to install, which took about 25min.

rocketpig said: Sorry but installs are still annoying and yes, I will keep whining about it. The other day, I found I had less than 15 gigs left on my PS3 HDD and there was nothing there but installs and two demos. I ended up spending an hour updating firmware, deleting installs, removing files, etc. from my 360, Wii, PS3, and PSP. That's ridiculous. I shouldn't have to spend that kind of time keeping my consoles up to date.

Doesn't take that long if you update as they updates come out ^^

Omac said: I wouldn't have a problems with installations, if you have the space. I'm sure PS3 owners that have the 20gb HD are not very happy.

 They prolly just bought a 200 gig HD.  To me mandatory installs are an annoyance but something tolerable because i'll drop a 200 gig HD in that bad boy.

Otherwise it'd probably be a deal breaker as i play a LOT of games and switch them up often and i never know when i want to play a game.

DMeisterJ said: rocketpig said: Sorry but installs are still annoying and yes, I will keep whining about it. The other day, I found I had less than 15 gigs left on my PS3 HDD and there was nothing there but installs and two demos. I ended up spending an hour updating firmware, deleting installs, removing files, etc. from my 360, Wii, PS3, and PSP. That's ridiculous. I shouldn't have to spend that kind of time keeping my consoles up to date. Doesn't take that long if you update as they updates come out ^^

And how do you know?

It's an ease of use thing. It took me a half-hour to purchase one Wiiware game, with going into the shop channel, adding points, entering all my credit info from scratch, finding the game i want, downloading it, etc. And I haven't even run out of space yet. If I have to add to that time, time managing the memory by deleting things or moving things onto and off of SD cards, it's even worse. Why buy a Wiiware title with that kind of hassle then, when I can just pop in a disc and play immediately?

Granted that rant was about the Wii not the PS3 but it's a similar situation, especially with the large amount of free, big content available for download there.

Personally I think if people in general really found it to be a problem then they wouldn't be buying games with large installs. Instead, much like the Wii storage space problem, we have the vocal hardcore minority representing something like 1% of total owners.

This is a lose/lose situation for developers. No wonder Konami didn't want installments mention in MGS4 reviews.
-If the game was design to run totally on the Blu-Ray player then there will be those who cry about the long load times. (Blu-ray is a little slower yet more quiet than spinning a DVD at warp speed.)
-If the game was design to take advantage of the HDD with installments then some complain this uses up space on the HDD. Yet after the installment is over the game will load faster and quieter than spinning a disc at warp speed.

There is no way around the fact that it takes time to pull multi-GB of data off of a disc. There are more 1GB+ games now than ever.

.:Dark Prince:. said: CrazzyMan said: Console were made for -> plug and play. IF uncharted can have NO installs and NO downloadings, then WHY other games can`t? Games with installs should be boycot, unless these games are masterpiece like MGS4, FFXIII, GT5 or LBP, where installing is accepable thing. Though, on x360 you have to DEAL with NOISE of dvd-rom. And that SUX too. I'm ashamed to say it but i agree with you

 Don't be even broken watch is right twice a day Dark Prince. I agree with him as well. I often go back and play older games in my library and I shouldn't worrying about installs. If I wanted to deal with installs I would have taken all the money I spent on my Wii/360 and put it into my PC. 

ItsaMii said: Are install times on the PS3 such a big deal? 1) No. I do it all the time on my PS2. It takes up to 25 minutes to install a 4 gb game. Loading times in RE outbreak fall to 1-2 seconds instead of 7-10. I can walk away, watch TV, play the DS while it installs. I only lose 25 minutes if I chose to look at the TV while the game is installing. In some games, you save so much on loading times, that even losing 20 minutes would be a good deal. 2) Yes and it is insulting. Sony said we need Blu-Ray, it is the future. So why the there are install times? It would be cheaper to keep DVDs and use some of the of the Blu-Ray drive money on a big ass HDD. That way they could just put a shitload of compressed data on the DVD and make all installation mandatory. I know, what is the point of a PS3 if it just works as a PC? What is the point of discs with more space than a HDD if you still need a HDD to install some of its data?

In response to 1: Installs are GREAT as an OPTION.  I bet you wouldn't be too happy if that hard drive you bought for your PS2 was forcibly taken up by game installs.