GTA V File Size May Require More Than Two Discs on Xbox 360 (Analysis)

Techtorial: After GTA V's second trailer and Game Informer's confirmation about its massive map size, several discussion were raised by players asking if the game would require more than 2 discs for Xbox 360. Here's an analysis.

[claud3]

possible and i hope not though

[jon1234]

I hope it does, that way gta v won't be held back by rockstar thinking about the 360 players, that way we all win :)

[DoomeDx]

Exacly what i was thinking.

If they stick to 1 DVD because of the xbox360, you know that are holding things back.

[Bathyj]

Jon's right.
Claud's wrong.

[AAACE5]

Or they could take advantago of bluray and fit it onto 360 any way they can.

All developers have the option to make a game look better on a console if they decide to. They just decide not to because they dont feel its worth it.

[Dovahkiin]

What about Jean Claud? is he right or wrong?

[KangarooSam]

@Dovahkiin

Van Damme it, that was funny.

[ProjectVulcan]

Buys 32GB flash drive for less than 15 quid.

Installs 3 discs on it with room left to spare on xbox 360.

Yawns, finds next article on N4G.

[GraveLord]

Possible? More like common sense. The game is being developed with PS3 as the lead platform in order to avoid the DVD restrictions. I'm sure disc size is the last thing on their mind at the moment.

[knowyourstuff]

That's what she said ^

lol but anyway, the number of discs shouldn't matter, as most people are likely installing the game. Microsoft disabled people from using their own memory so I don't know how much Msoft flash drives and hard drives run for these days, but I'm sure you if look around on ebay or something you should find something decently priced.

[Blaze929]

may require? Rockstar are genius engineers but not miracle workers. Of course it'll come multi-disc on the 360

[OneAboveAll]

meh, i install all my 360 games anyways. Not a big deal.

[StrongMan]

If GTA5 is bigger than Vice City, San Andrea, and GTA4 combined like reported then there is no way GTA5 will squeeze onto just two DVDs, especially with graphics that good. I'm guessing 3 DVDs at least.

[Pushagree]

Just like LA Noire.

[MasterCornholio]

As long as you dont need to change them every time you go to a new area i really dont see what the big deal is.

Motorola razr i

[BitbyDeath]

I can't see this game working if the map was spread on multiple discs. Likely the game will require a mandatory install.

[shivvy24]

4

[MasterD919]

Wow...imagine how many the complete edition would have with all of the DLC.

[Series_IIa]

If there is an install which there probably will be, it shouldn't be an issue... Blu-Ray is read speed is slow so it will also need an mandatory install, so anyone bringing up the Blu-Ray argument can be quiet.

It's win win all around, lowers the burden on the lens, faster seek speeds on the hard drive, just sucks having to wait for things to install. But still nil desperandum!

[a_bro]

remember when R* said that they've bared fit GTAIV on one DVD9? heck it was a problem for Team Bondi with LA Noire. I'd say do not compress and force users to buy a HDD. i want this game to be the best GTA.

at the end of the day, we need HDDs to be mandatory next-gen.

As what Series_lla said.

[shivvy24]

BLURAY

[Sp1d3ynut]

MANDATORY INSTALL

[kma2k]

good point, but what also doesnt get mentioned very often is ps3 has quite a few games that have mandatory installs. IMHO i think ps3 & 360 should borrow ideas from eachother, make some things mandatory installs for both systems & have the option to install all discs.

I have gamefly & i get a new game every couple days the first thing i do when i get a game in the mail is install it to the hdd its just habit. Im amazed some people still dont know about that feature though.

[xPhearR3dx]

L.A. Noire was only on so many disc because of the technology used for the facial capture. They could easily make the game on 2 disc and make the second one an install only one just like Halo 4 did. Also, compression plays a big role. Skyrim's world is MASSIVE. One disc, 3.4GB install. 3GB. That's it. The size of the map doesn't always mean more discs.

[stage88]

I'd rather that they didn't have to compress it to crap.

[kingPoS]

The more you compress things the more likely chances are for errors to occur.

Case and point Skyrim.
How many patches did Bethesda issue, cause I forgot.

[BlackPrince 42]

Wait, how will that work?

I guess each disc would have the same, or similar, world map but different missions?

[betan21]

LOOL

[OC_MurphysLaw]

If it is 3 discs hopefully they will have the option to install the discs and let you play off of disc 1 only similar to what MS did with Halo 4 and Forza 4.

[Convas]

Came here to post this, you did it for me.

1+ Bubble/Agree

[kma2k]

Exactly, i have both systems but i never skip over getting something for my 360 because it has more than 1 disc, just install the disc & your fine!

[seanpitt23]

I should think so with that size of a map

[tweet75]

this is why i never got an xbox. If a game cant get on one disc its not worth playing. I dont understand why xbox 360 wasnt made to run with higher capacity discs. There is not one game on ps3 or wii that requires more than one disc to play. I hope the next generation xbox doesnt require large games to be on multiple discs.

[BitbyDeath]

MS wanted blu-ray to fail.
They were pushing HD-DVD and online gaming.

[NukaCola]

I never got why MS didn't use HD DVDs as their main form of gaming storage.

[sofocado]

@NukeCola

The reason why MS did not use HD-DVD is because HD-DVD was not ready when Xbox 360 was. In fact not even Blueray was ready at that time. That is why the PS3 came late to this gen of consoles too. Since HD-DVD came late to the market and could not make it into the Xbox 360 maybe is the reason why it also failed.

[NeverEnding1989]

How sad for you.

I read a few comments up that LA Noire took up 3 discs. I had to google it to find out if this guy was right, because I beat LA Noire twice and I don't remember any disc swapping.

It's a non issue for gamers.

[neoMAXMLC]

"I read a few comments up that LA Noire took up 3 discs. I had to google it to find out if this guy was right, because I beat LA Noire twice and I don't remember any disc swapping. "

Uhhh.... I don't even know what to say to that...

[NeverEnding1989]

You don't need to say anything. Disc swapping is a non issue. I sure didn't notice it

[BitbyDeath]

It's a non-issue when you don't know any better.
Like in the days of CDs where you'd get up and change music CDs at parties. Who does that now though?

Every console has it's flaws and DVD is probably Xboxs biggest.

PS3s biggest flaw is it's RAM, or to be more specific its multi-tasking abilities (or lack thereof)

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@tweet75 while I do get what you are saying your comment about the Wii not having a game that requires more than one disc seems a bit misguided. The Wii uses DVD format discs, same as the Xbox 360 it just doesn't have a license for movie playback. The main reason the Wii hasn't needed multi discs is the system isn't and HD system so its game file sizes are much smaller.

[brianunfried]

I'm glad Rockstar is willing to spend extra money for multiple discs instead of sacrificing quality or content.

The 360's DVD drive is a bottle neck that ruins many third party games on all platforms. Its the lowest common denominator all version must conform to, what doesn't fit on a DVD will be sold to you later as DLC.

[iamgoatman]

"The 360's DVD drive is a bottle neck that ruins many third party games on all platforms."

Examples? Considering the vast majority of multiplatform games were superior on the 360 at the start of this gen, and they've only been equal for the past couple of years with the odd exception that noticeably favoured the PS3 (e.g. FF13), how has it "ruined many third party games" exactly? That's complete nonsense.

"what doesn't fit on a DVD will be sold to you later as DLC"

Again, nonsense. Do you REALLY think all the day 1 DLC that's out there is a result of DVD limitation? Because if you do you're incredibly blind and naive.

[unchartedxplorer]

Not really surprised. GTA 4 barely fit on one the xbox 360 disc and that game looked like mud. Now we are talking about a game that is a lot more detailed than IV and roughly 3-4 times bigger than IV. Not to mention the extra dialogue because of the three characters.

[Nelson M]

Meanwhile on the PS3
We will still have room for DLC
Which would consist of the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy to explore and still have room for the rest of the Universe as Future DLC !!!

[TXIDarkAvenger]

Don't care.

Perhaps they can do something similar to what Halo 4 did. Halo 4 had two disks, it asks to insert the 2nd disk and download the content from it. Then you never have to put in that 2nd disk ever again.

[onandonandon]

I remember Dan Houser saying in an interview when GTA4 was been made that the 360 was causing limitations in it's development

[ProjectVulcan]

You would also have absolutely no point as PS3 was the reason GTA4 was actually delayed.

With GTA5 they would just give 360 a mandatory install like a bunch of other 360 games these days including halo 4 for MP.

Its hardly a big deal. I don't understand why anyone even cares about how many discs 360 games come on these days. Especially since you have been able to install to external drives for years now.

How much is a 32Gb flash drive? 10-15 quid?

Meeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh

[onandonandon]

google it, im not some fanboy making it up!!!! I'd give u the link but i don't want to!!!

[WeskerChildReborned]

It's possible cause their is a rumor going around that GTA V could possibly take up a whole Blu Ray disc.

[Qrphe]

Honestly, I'd hope so.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

I'm expecting 2 discs.

However, despite the alleged size of the GTA V map, it is still smaller than Just Cause 2, which fit one just one disc. And the graphics of GTA V, while very good, are very close to the previous game.

Now speaking of graphics, when I first saw the original GTA V trailer I thought "that's either Wii u or someone has finally tapped the true power of the ps3." We'll it looks like I was right, the version shown in both trailers is the PS3 version. I'm expecting a scenario like LA Noire, which did look much better on PS3. Unfortunately that version also had a lot of bugs, so lets hope Rockstar gets their act together. (And I know they cut Team Bondi loose after that fiasco, and of course, GTA V is being developed by another group, but its still under the same watchful eye if Rockstar management.)

[WeskerChildReborned]

How do you know it's smaller than Just Cause when you don't even know how big it is exactly?

[iamgoatman]

Lets be realistic here, it's not going to be as big as Just Cause 2's map. Remember, the only reason JC2 had such a large map was because it was mostly empty and not much happened outside of a few sparsely populated areas. The environments in GTA games are typically quite detailed, particularly the city areas so it's pretty unrealistic to think we'll see GTA5 with a JC2 size map from a development time and budget standpoint alone.

[josephayal]

I dont see any reason why GTA5 should require multiple disks

[DigitalAnalog]

A lot of the recent AAA titles as well as the past 2 R* releases on the 360 required multi-disks. Back then, the idea was unthinkable but we're beginning to see how "limited" the disc space is becoming more of an issue ESPECIALLY in non open-world games like Halo and MP3.

[Plagasx]

Now I'm truly scared for the PC version...Max Payne 3 was 30gb....

Imagine GTA V O_O

[DigitalAnalog]

Probably less. Don't forget, MP3 had A LOT OF pre-rendered footage bink video files to mask the loading. Since GTA is known for it's real-time cutscenes which basically removes player input saving memory resources. This is also why FFXIII-2 resorted to such methods instead of the CG that was prevalent in it's predecessor.

[isarai]

While this may be bad news for some, i actually hope it does, cause that means barely if anything was compromised in the process.

[The_Tr0ll17]

LMAO!

[Rauland]

what a crap analysis

[black911]

It better be or else the game was limited once again by the 360.

[CrazyRap]

YOU DON'T SAY

[IronFistChinMi]

The only way it can use 2 discs, is if the missions are split between them, 1st half of the story on 1 and the 2nd part for disc 2. The fact that you can switch between the characters at anytime, despite them being in different locales, means it is impossible to split the map.

I wouldn't have a problem with that, if Rockstar needed to make that concession.

[MuhammadJA]

360 is so outdated. Thank god for Blu-Ray and DD.

[medman]

I don't mind swapping discs, but as an owner of a PS3 and a 360, if the PS3 version is the one that performs better due to the PS3 being the lead platform then GTA V will be the first multiplatform game I buy for my PS3 instead of my 360.

[PersonMan]

Whoa! When did LA Noire feature multiplayer? I always thought it was a single player only game. Am I wrong?

[Deku-Johnny]

This is why it should be ported to Wii U, it could play on one disc with no installs.

[jelydonut]

Want 1 disc? Just have the 360 version use the same 4-5 buildings on the maps and if there is space left.. a 6th car..

Problem solved!