Info regarding UT3 on PS3 and 360 from Mark Rein

[rp2000]

Some newish information based on quotes from Mark Rein.

I think this was posted on some sites :

During a session at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, has expressed his appreciation for the extra storage space on Blu-ray discs over the standard DVD format.

Speaking on the forthcoming Unreal Tournament 3 title, which will be released on the PlayStation 3 before the Xbox 360, he warned that "we may have fewer maps on the 360 version…Blu-Ray has definitely given us a lot of legroom."

He went on to add: "If you think down the road, well maybe the next UT beyond this one, on Blu-ray disc, we might fill the whole damn disc with all the cool stuff the mod makers make."

He then replied on the forums:

I continue to be disappointed that folks on the internet treat any positive thing we say about one platform as some sort of critique of another platform. We're a multi-platform company folks please come to grips with that. We like the PC. We like the 360. We like the PS3. We like the Macintosh. We like Linux. We will deliver UT3 for all of these platforms and it will rock on every one.

The simple facts state that the optical disc on the PS3 holds more data than the optical disc on the 360. If we exceed size of the 360s optical disc then we'll have to find alternative ways to get the content to 360 users such as making it downloadable. Adding a second DVD to a game like UT3 would be a challenge because when playing online you might not know exactly what map you're going to be playing next and we have to be able to accommodate users of the core system. So does that mean the disc on the 360 might have a map or two less? Possibly although it is too early to tell for sure. People love Unreal Tournament because we always ship it with tons of great content but that also makes it a bit of a disc hog - in a good way

Obviously, and as is true with most major games on 360 and PS3, you're going to be putting your hard drive to good use if you want to experience the full richness of content that UT3 will have to offer over the lifetime of the game. the fact that you can do this is a good thing.

I don't know the exact numbers but I suspect the version of Gears of War that most of our customers play today on their 360s, when you combine the downloadable content with the content on the disc, is larger than what we could fit on the 360's optical disc alone. So clearly there are perfectly good strategies to cope with this situation. We're all very used to downloading extra content for console games and with UT3 there will be lots of it for all supported platforms. In fact the cool thing about our engine is that when you make content for one platform it can run on all of them. If history is any indication, the vast majority of UT3 content won't even come from Epic - it will come from some very brilliant end users with lots of cool and innovative ideas.

When it comes to user created mods on the 360 - we will work with Microsoft to find a way to support them. We just don't have all the answers today and it isn't our chief priority at this very moment because we already have our hands completely full shipping UT3 on PC and PS3 as well as shipping Gears of War on PC. When we get those out of the way, and get a little time to spend with our friends and families, then we'll get back on this issue and figure it out.

Apart from the obvious info regarding the 360 version, it also confirms what I suggested in another thread that if Gears of War had shipped with the DLC included (as was the plan I believe before time constraints) it would not have fit on the DVD.

Anyone know how many maps the last Unreal Tournament game had? Sounds like we are gonna get a lot of maps!


rp2000

 

[rp2000]

It'll be enough for DLC for a while, you'll just get people moaning about wanting to fit about 5 demos at the same time alongside the content, which is just stupid.

I don't think it is enough space to be honest.

I would be curious to know how big the following would be:

Gears of War DLC + R6 DLC + GRAW 1 DLC + Graw 2 DLC + Oblivion DLC + Lost Planet DLC.

Add 3 1GB demos and I reckon you are close to filling your drive. I have just picked popular games that have 1 or more bits of DLC and it is conceivable quite a few people have a some of the above games.

If I can be bothered later on may logon to the 360 and add up the sizes. Microsoft need to give us the 7GB of space that is reserved on the 20GB HDD back!


rp2000

 

[rp2000]

13GB of space in very little IMO

I have my PS3 drive already filled with a 35GB of data like Photos, MP3's, videos, demo's and games.


Isn't it true that a devoloper has to insure that a game runs the same on a Core system and on a Premium system by Microsoft?

I think they can break this as long as it is stated on the back (I think for instance Football Manger states on the back you need a HDD or something).

Also I saw some news site with some Microsoft slides that showed that now publishers can state a maximum amount of HDD space that their game will use and this new info will be published on the back of the game box.

A good idea, if all the models had mandatory HDD (like xbox 1 or PS3). But doing this now after they have sold xxx amount of Cores seems like a bit of a skank for Core owners. But I remember reading somewhere that they sell 4:1 ratio of Premiums to Core, so maybe not a problem.


rp2000

 

[rp2000]

Why is the XBox's DLC provision any different from the PS3's?

As yet, I don't think there has been much DLC on PSN yet. The only significant thing I remember is the Resistance updates, but they are downloaded through the game, and not through the store.


rp2000

 

[rp2000]

I don't think it's stupid to want to download and keep some demos. I have almost every PS3 Demo, Trailer and PSN Game installed on my PS3 with plenty of HDD space left over.


I don't know - I heard there's a game coming out soon (can't remember the name though - was mentioned on 1upyours last week) which will require the HDD to play and will advertise the fact on the box - this has started another theory as to why GTAIV was delayed as once it's been done by one or two others then they can do it with GTA as well.

You mean this?

Microsoft announced this week that it would soon allow developers of massive multiplayer online (MMO) games to require hard drive space when playing games on Xbox 360 despite the console maker's previous denial of such claims.

"Feel free to require 30GB for your game - [but] that's just going to make your potential audience a lot smaller," a Microsoft representative told a group of developers while speaking at GameFest.

Effective immediately, Microsoft will not restrict the amount of hard drive space MMO game developers can use. It is unclear if non-MMO games will be allowed to require hard drives when playing future games on 360.

An estimated 20 percent of 360 owners don't own a hard drive, which is optional for those only wanting to purchase the Core model.

Developers will be able to create a single "Master Storage File" on user machines so long as the server-based games explicitly state the amount of hard drive space required on the front of the game's box.

Microsoft also said the that it will not increase the allowable size of Xbox Live Arcade games which currently stand at 150 mb.

Just last week, Microsoft denied reports in an email to GamePro that Xbox 360 Core owners would be unable to play certain games labeled with the "hard drive required" sticker.

"Every game will work with every Xbox 360 system," a Microsoft spokesman told us. That no longer appears to be the case, at least with MMO games.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135969-pg,1/article.html


rp2000

 

[rp2000]

Yeh, just like with Shadowrun

I think it only worked for Shadowrun because it was published by MS with cross platform in mind, but the PC version uses Games for Windows and Live (equivalent to xbox live) so they can work together. I think UT3 isn't a Microsoft Live Games for Windows, so it can't be done (or if it can, not as easily).



rp2000