Epic keen on Blu-ray

PS3 News | Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 likely to have less features.

Since the launch of this generation of consoles, pundits and armchair analysts have argued that Sony's decision to include Blu-ray in the PlayStation 3 will either be their doom or crowning achievement. It was an extremely high cost decision for Sony, on one hand offering the potential to create a de-facto next-gen HD storage medium standard, on the other hand offering game developers significantly more storage room. Whether or not developers actually needed this storage room was open to debate - should Sony have made the wrong call, the cost of PlayStation 3 would have been significantly higher than it would have others, hindering adoption rates for no good reason.

As time as passed however, increasing numbers of developers are coming out of the woodwork to support Sony's claim that next-gen games require significantly more storage room. Some passing comments made by the Project Gotham Racing 3 development team made it quite clear that DVD storage limitations forced various design decisions, including limiting day / night racing options. These statements were quickly clarified by Bizarre Creations, but not before Sony had crowed their success and vindication.

The latest salvo in the debate has been potentially unintentionally fired by Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. GamesIndustry.biz reports that while speaking about the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3, Rein dropped a bomb by saying, "we may have fewer maps on the 360 version…Blu-ray has definitely given us a lot of legroom."

Driving that stake a little deeper in to 360 gamers' hearts, he added, "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."

Ouch. Will this make a difference in practice, or will Microsoft expand the usage of Live and make significantly larger hard-drives available? Time will tell.

Related Content

Midway concerned about PS3
03 Aug, 2007 Take-up rates may be worrying.

nVidia chief sticks up for PS3
26 Jul, 2006 Inclusion of Blu-ray is a "master stroke".

Sony CEO admits to admiration for Xbox 360
08 Jun, 2006 And launches another defence of PS3 price.

Page12 Next

41 Comments

ittekimasu

4 years ago

well its a pretty logical view anyway, with the amount people use on storage its only normal to expect that games in the future are going to require more memory due to the more advance graphics that will be avaliable then.

also, news that PC-PS3 owners will be able to battle it out.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/big-guns/unreal-engine-adds-gamespy-tech-for-ps3+pc-crossplay-289930.php

LeonJ

4 years ago

Yeah but maps will most likely be available via download anyway. No biggy. Why do I get the feeling Epic is trying to smooth over the Sony fans with UT3? It's almost like a "we're sorry, we want to give you gears of war, but can't. blu-ray is really cool"

Karai Pantsu

4 years ago

Was that a hint that they might release a 'GOTY' version (or similar) of UT3 for the PS3 with a collection of good mods and map-packs like they have done with past PC versions? That would be excellent!

ugh the boot

4 years ago

I'd rather have all that stuff on the disc my game came on instead of wasting valuable hdd space....especially seeing as I only have a piddly 17gig to play around with.

Also it sounds to me like Epic might actually be wising up if anything. Making UT3 exclusive for the time being and actually giving people a heads up that future games will be superior on Ps3.

LeonJ

4 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

Also it sounds to me like Epic might actually be wising up if anything. Making UT3 exclusive for the time being and actually giving people a heads up that future games will be superior on Ps3.

That's crap. Superior my ass. There is nothing to suggest the PS3 will be surperior in anyway var blu-ray disc. You could say the same thing about Madden or the comments from Ubisoft for pro comments for the 360. When UT3 comes out, I dare say the 360 and PS3 verison will be graphically on par with each other bar a few maps you'll have to download.

Games and their developers make systems, not a magical potential of a console.

Fact - Blu-ray hindered the PS3 from getting released.
Fact - M$ disregarded the HD disc format in order to get the system out (yes yes with hardware problems).
Fact - M$ is enjoying the fruit of it's decision this holiday coming. Do you think we will care about 30 gig verus 9 when we are playing Bioshock, Halo3, Mass Effect etc?
Fact - This holiday may crush Sony's ambition for taking this gen's crown.

Jim Dash

4 years ago

Obviously why Microsoft added a 120HDD with the Elite, to try and combat this issue.

Its clear to me Sony's decision to incorporate Blu Ray was a smart one. Over the next couple of years we'll start to see evidence of this being put to excellent use - I just don't kn ow when

After these holidays Microsoft doesn't have much of a line up. Not that Sony's is extremely exciting, but the 360 didn't have much a year into its lifecycle.

I'm expecting the PS3 to surpass sooner or later, because right now its got nothing. Can't see Sony's ambition being crushed, though, they're not even on their second generations of games yet.

ittekimasu

4 years ago

The fact that M$ aren't profiting, and are getting backlash due to their faulty hardware is taking their toll, also slipping in HDMI when apparently component does the trick makes me wonder if they are taking a page from sony's book and include components that should've been in it from the start.

That, and UT3 on 360 won't support user made mods, it won't have the ability to play with PC users, and it won't (atm) support keyboard+mouse.

While there are definitely games to look forward for the 360, PS3 isn't idling around twiddling their thumbs.

Infested Jibbs

4 years ago

LeonJ wrote

Fact - Blu-ray hindered the PS3 from getting released.
Fact - M$ disregarded the HD disc format in order to get the system out (yes yes with hardware problems).
Fact - M$ is enjoying the fruit of it's decision this holiday coming. Do you think we will care about 30 gig verus 9 when we are playing Bioshock, Halo3, Mass Effect etc?
Fact - This holiday may crush Sony's ambition for taking this gen's crown.

FACT-You can't be made to sign a workplace agreement if you are under 18.

ugh the boot

4 years ago

LeonJ wrote

Fact - The 360 is an unreliable piece of sh!t.

Fact - I'll be buying all multiplatform games on Ps3.

Also i've already said EA and Ubisoft are crap...so there's no way i'm listening to anything their devs have to say. It's like listening to Fergie educate me on good song lyrics!

LeonJ

4 years ago

Homer: [sarcastic] All right, Lisa, you got your way. Your Mom's going to a psychiatrist. She's going to tell Marge to leave me. It'll break up the family and you'll have to live with your grandmother and pick beans.
Lisa: Dad, I like picking beans with Gramma.
Homer: Well, keep it up, then.
Lisa: [sarcastic] OK, I will.
Homer: Good. You do that.
Lisa: Fine.
Homer: You'll be picking many a bean.
Lisa: Hope I do.

Sin Ogaris

4 years ago

I trust Epic about as far as I can throw them given the Silicon Knights fiasco. Plus let's face it, Epic aren't exactly phenomenal game designers, they make pretty pictures and that's about it (my Rein's own admission) I'd be much more inclined to accept this if it were posed by Irrational, or Remedy. Which they haven't, so as yet Epic can go back in their hole and die for all I care, Rein's opinions mean squat.

furiouscrak

4 years ago

ittekimasu said that PS3-PC online games are possible... Why not include 360? I mean, what is stopping Dev's from having online play among all 3? If you use a match making system (ala Halo 2), then it'd surely be possible (and maybe even beneficial) to have the PS3-360-PC intermingle.

And we'll get the added bonus of watching all the Microsoft haters and Sony bashers twitch uncontrollably...

ugh the boot

4 years ago

LeonJ wrote

Have you seen Idiocracy? That's where we're all heading if this stuff is still considered funny imo.

ittekimasu

4 years ago

^while i'm not too sure on procedures, it might have something todo with getting licences with M$, after reading how much trouble it comes with trying to get mod's for the M$ version, it probably would make it imcompatible since for M$ and PC to play together, the PC user would have to have the same basic version that M$ would be getting.

so in a nutshell, its all the red tape they have to go through.

furiouscrak

4 years ago

ittekimasu wrote

Ah, didn't even think of that.

LeonJ

4 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

LeonJ wrote

Have you seen Idiocracy? That's where we're all heading if this stuff is still considered funny imo.

Righto then Captain Serious.

Skiller

4 years ago

ittekimasu wrote

I think you'll find the bigger issue is XBox Live, M$ as good as force you to use XBL for 360 multiplayer which means that it can't happen till M$ allow PS3 games to have live support (ie. NEVER), and PC users would need Windows Live which as I remember is only available on Vista ATM (and no gamer should get Vista yet).
It would also mean that the PC version would need to be approved by M$ for release and each patch which will cost Epic $$$ and time and delay things for the consumers, it would probably also mess up mod support as it would probably require user mods to also go through M$ QA so UT3 is still certified.

Jellyfish

4 years ago

Skiller wrote

ittekimasu wrote

You don't need Vista to run Games for Windows (You actually don't even need Windows for it either, I got it running on OS X).

The only problem I can really see is mods, and Microsoft's QA on trying to remove as much lag as possible from online games. Which is obviously something you can't do when you're triple platforming a game.

Skiller

4 years ago

nikack wrote

You don't need Vista to run Games for Windows (You actually don't even need Windows for it either, I got it running on OS X).

True, but Isn't the windows live service (required for multiplayer between PC & 360) a vista only thing at the moment. Games for windows isn't the same thing.

LeonJ

4 years ago

Epic responds to Limited Xbox 360 UT 3 Claims

Epic's Mark Rein has commented on reports that the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will be severly limited when it comes to available maps due in part to the superior capacity of the Blu-ray format. Rein took the time to say he's a bit disappointed by the media's reactions to some comments he made earlier and reassured Xbox 360 owners that there are always strategies such as downloadable content should the 360 version be short of a 'map or two'.

ittekimasu

4 years ago

well if they are maps that the ps3 is going to have, this should be a free download for fairness

tootie_kicks

4 years ago

ittekimasu wrote

well if they are maps that the ps3 is going to have, this should be a free download for fairness

knowing Microsoft, I wouldn't count on it.

Infested Jibbs

4 years ago

^i dunno, alot of map packs over xbox live are free, or have become free after a buffer period of a month or two.It's pretty fair like that.

Annihilation

4 years ago

UT has nothing to do with Microsoft in terms of development so it wont cost them anything to make it free.

it WILL cost them something if they decide to charge people...

... sifnt buy it on PC