It's true, Red Dead Redemption 2 has two discs (but you only need one to play the full game)

Retail images confirm Red Dead Redemption 2 comes with a separate data disc and play disc.

[PhantomS42]

That sounds insane in this day and age. Wonder if this is going to be the first of many until next generation hits or if this is the only one we see. Guessing we'll see more before next gen.

[sprinterboy]

No we won't see anymore this gen, maybe cyber punk, that's all. What's insane about 1 game being 2 discs?

[TheColbertinator]

@sprinterboy

Remember the PS1 days of 4 separate discs?

[MrBobSugar]

Hell, I remember playing FF games that had 5 or six disks.

[smashley]

Because there havent been any games since ps1 that have come on 2 discs.

[nowitzki2004]

@smashley

So my guess is you started gaming this gen? There was some last gen lol

[mogwaii]

The fact that it's the first one and near the end of this gens life.
It hasn't happened before so it shows just how dense this game is.

[wtf0]

@MrBobSugar wtf are you talking about there were no ff games than spanned more than 4 discs..

@smashley Xbox 360 had several rpgs that spanned multiple discs. ( Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon just off the top of my head )

[darthv72]

panzer dragoon saga on 4 discs.. such memories.

[Skull521]

Well that explains the disc shortage, gotta use 2 discs for every one copy of the game. Another victory for digital.

[one2thr]

How is that a victory for digital, when there are data caps?

Also installing directly from a physical medium is going to be a lot quicker than online installation.

And on top of that, there isn't a market for used digital titles, well at least not to my knowledge.

Or did I fail at sarcasm?

In that case remember /s

[rainslacker]

I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more. last gen was already pushing the standard BR limit. UC3 was something like 39GB...of 46.6GB available. UC4 was 48GB on the install, although not sure how big on disc. Gears of War 4 is 54GB. And games keep getting bigger. Wasn't Forza Horizon 4 something like a 90GB or something for download?

Anyhow, there is a lot of compression for the disc version, compared to the digital versions...for some unknown reason....but there is a limit on how far you can compress data, and the media content is what takes up most of the space, and is the least compressible.

I am kind of curious if some games this gen were released on 100GB discs, and R* just decided to not do that for some reason.

[Imortus_san]

Gears of War 4 is 100GB with the Updates and XoneX enhanced patch, GTA 5 is 100GB, Halo 5 100 GB, soo many games that are gigantic.

They can't release 100GB discs since the PS4 can't read them, maybe next gen when PS5 is also 4K Blu Ray drive and is ready to read 200Gb discs.

[ChrisW]

The only reason why those games are so big is because of redundant texturing -- something that consoles are notorious for.

[rainslacker]

@Chris

I can see a reason for doing redundant texturing on the disc, if the game read from the disc. But they don't, and there is no benefit to doing that for a game that runs off a hard drive.

@impetus

All bluray diodes can theoretically read all of the theoretical or available on the format. May need a firmware release to work though.

That being said, it still doesn't remove my surprise that we haven't seen more games the don't fit on a single disc this gen, as we were pushing the limit.last gen, and games are obviously bigger this gen

Also, isn't the recent forza horizon still 90gb day one? Not including any patches for.day one?

[Imortus_san]

Insane are games that you buy fisical but they dont work because you have to download 20~60gb data so they can work (COD and many more) because when the servers go down those games became usesless since they will never work again without the extra download.

[darthv72]

That is what I fear will happen. I believe the BO4 disc only contains part of the game data and you have to dl the bulk of the rest. something like 5gb on disc and 50gb download because the full game install is 54-55gb in size.

It could be the publishers way to drive people to buying the digital version by limiting the amount of data on the physical disc. if more people switch to digital, they wont have to pay for physical copies to be made. no packaging or production costs.

[Shuckylad]

Back in my old Amiga days I remember monkey island 2 and Indiana Jones Atlantis being on like 12 discs!! I swapped discs as much as I clicked the mouse.

[nirwanda]

Still it was much better than rewinding side two of a tape deck on a spectrum, then loading each level for about 15mins then pausing the tape hopefully in time,if it didn't crash anyway.

[PhantomS42]

Yeah, I grew up on multiple discs too and it wasn't too long ago that all the disagreeing hypocrites were throwing a fit because late gen games last gen had multiple discs on 360 at least. We're past that so yes it is shocking to see a game with multiple discs and I'm sure there are more to come.

[doughnutsfan]

ppl saying this hasn't happened since ps1, Xbox 360 would like a word (remember lost odyssey?)

[Dizzy11523]

lol that's pathetic.

[RememberThe357]

Pathetic? That's the word that came to mind? Are you saying they should have worked harder to make the game smaller?

[playnice]

Maybe he is saying people should download instead? No idea. As per me I am glad not to have to download any of the game over my shitty internet and I will gladly free up 100 GB for a game of this caliber! :)

[Sieden]

Huh?

[Spurg]

How??? You rather download it.
I'm quite relieved it's 2 discs as I don't have to download it as soon as I insert the disk.

[Baza]

Rockstar made 100GB game and Blu-ray technology can’t keep up. A BR daul layer disc only holds 50GB. Most games fit on a daul layer disc. RDR2 is double the size. And that’s pathetic...

[KwietStorm_BLM]

You sound just as silly as the first guy

[TheUndertaker85]

There are discs with larger capacities such as those found in 4K Blu-Ray discs. Their caps are dependent on the drive.

All PS4 models and launch model Xbox Ones have drives that support below 100GB. Xbox One S and One X can support larger discs.

[rainslacker]

Quite a few games have released this gen which are over the actual 46GB capacity of a dual layer BR drive. Some quite a bit more. Gears of War was quite large, and I don't think they could manage to compress all that down to half the size on disc. Quantum Break broke 100GB, and all those movies were only compressed to standard codec limits.

Surely, someone out there will know if there are any current gen game Disc rip images out there which break the size available on a dual layer BR drive. I would guess that Uncharted:The Nathan Drake collection would be a strong candidate, since the total of the original games would be quite high....much less the improved version having to be bigger.

That being said, BR tech is forward compatible. Since it's release last gen, the spec allowed for a theoretical availability of 200GB. It wasn't until more recently that 100GB discs became available for production though, but it is available, so its keeping up well enough.

[michaelknight35]

No its not

[Artemidorus]

Stick to yearly overated pc mods at full retail.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

Quit gaming

[Dizzy11523]

And there will still be a HUGE DAY 1 PATCH.
PATHETIC.

[King_Noctis]

You are free to not buy this game you know. Actually, I would be more than happy if you never go near this game at all.

[King_Noctis]

Yeah why shouldn’t they just cut out contents to fit one disk? (Ask no one ever).

[franwex]

Next gen will probably use the newer higher capacity Blu-ray drives, so this is probably something that we are only going to see towards the end of this gen.
I was wondering which was gonna be the 1st game to require 2 discs this gen. Now we know.

[playnice]

I don't think there was a single PS3 game that required one last gen although the X360 had plenty? Either super happy I won't have to download 50 GB of data!

[mkis007]

360 was dvd only.

[franwex]

They can also use tricks to keep it all on 1 disc. Halo 5s multiplayer was not included on disc, one had to install an update, but since multiplayer is online anyway-it is assumed that people who play online have reliable internet.

[jerethdagryphon]

0 ps3 games has 2 discs unless you count bonus stuff like soundtracks and such

[playnice]

@mkis007 360 did have an HD-DVD optionnal player for movies... but that's not worth mentionning lmao :P

[playnice]

@franwex I do miss one Xbox 360 feature and that is the ability to play most games without any lengthy installation required! I remember even digital games were download and play rather than download, install and then play :)

[rainslacker]

The only one I recall coming close was UC3. It was 39GB.

Anyhow, for most games, they were mostly multi-plat, and most were built to fit on DVD's, since that's what MS had. It's often speculated that FFXIII was scaled back because it went multi-plat, and it would make sense given how barren the game became almost instantly, where you'd expect to see more content.

I don't think there were any 3rd party exclusive titles that were on a scale as large as UC3, and UC3 was Sony's largest game of last gen.

[darthv72]

KZ trilogy is on 2 discs with KZ1 & 2 on the first and KZ3 on the 2nd.

If they can fit the Nathan Drake collection on one disc then they could have fit the KZ trilogy on one as well. but then again, PS3 discs were designed to play direct (with some partial install) while PS4 is install only (so there is likely compression).

[Jrios355]

I believe the only games on PS3 that required 2 discs were collections like the Killzone Trilogy, and the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection. But again, those were collections and not games by themselves.

[RNTody]

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots required multiple discs on PS3 with installations between Acts. But that's because Hideo Kojima went overboard and used uncompressed sound in addition to the game having ridiculous graphics. Legend, he is.

[sprinterboy]

I think cyber punk maybe 2 discs aswel but I can't think of any other future games. Death stranding maybe?

[nucky64]

maybe rage2?

[DarXyde]

I'm doubting that for Death Stranding.

It would be pretty neat if The Last of Us Part II was, but I don't expect this at all.

[iplay1up2]

They are currently working on new tech for that. Because 8K TVs are coming and storage on a bluray disks wont cut it.

Personally, I like Nintendos idea. SD cards are coming down in price, and they are much faster than Disks.

[badz149]

100GB bluray is still so much cheaper than a SD card will ever be

[snake-OO]

no game actually reads off the disc, they are all read of HDD

[Sirk7x]

There is no mass market for 8K TVs anytime soon lol. Predictions are that by 2020 about half of people in the US will have 4K displays, compared to the 80 percent that already own smart phones. By the time 8K TVs are the norm companies won't be producing physical media anymore at all lol. Many publishers aren't even bringing their movies to 4K blu rays because people aren't buying them. And why would they when streaming has all but taken over? It'll be the same for gaming one day as well. Google is running the Project Stream beta right now, and I can stream AC: Odyssey at 1080p 60FPS on my five year old laptop with no noticeable input lag. It's crazy.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Physical disk it is. I'd like to get to play the game before New Years

[UnHoly_One]

???

I'm not sure how this info confirms your choice to go physical.

You're going to have to sit through the install for all of that.

My digital order is already installed and will be playable the instant it goes live.

[akurtz]

It’s great that the pre download is a week before so! But I like my physical copies. Ultimate edition here

[franwex]

You have to take the good with the bad. I like digital also, but i also see the downsides. Just as you can start playing on the instant it goes live, they can prevent you from playing it in the future too.
I like to know that I own the 1st multi disc game of the gen. After all you only install the game once anyway.

[sprinterboy]

Digital also, after the pre load I'm going to click the rdr2 icon Friday morning b4 I goto work to do any other updates and I'll be set for when I finish work @4, off till Monday night then

[nucky64]

not for me- i live out of town and internet isn't that fast - i'd be waiting days to play if i went digital (and i'm counting the preload week) - using the data disc to install doesn't take that long.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

I currently live in the countryside with a 5MB download speed. God help me. If I ever delete the game (storage management - games come and go) and then wanted to reinstall it on a whim, well, that would be madness on my part. For a game as big as this which is bound to get huge updates as well, the physical disk will make life a bit easier for me.

I've actually shifted to buying most games digitally now but this game, well .... it suffers from data obesity.

[JackBNimble]

Franwex
I keep hearing things like " they will take your digital copy away".
Why would they do that? I have been buying digital ever since you could buy digital, and I have never had a single game taken away buy any publisher or dev.
In fact even the games that the license expired I can still redownload.

So what games on console have ever been blocked by a publisher on console, other than obviously online only?

[franwex]

@jackbnimble
I don’t own any games that have been blocked either. But I do own games that once I delete I can no longer get on my Wii. So if it dies I lost some virtual console games, by I can still play the disc Wii games-even if my original system dies.
Again I’m not agains digital, otherwise I wouldn’t have downloaded the games. But I see the risks too.
I believe there has been instances reported where one couldn’t play games that were downloaded. But I don’t think it was for consoles.

[iplay1up2]

I know, I was reading comments, and people were acting like the physical disk would allow immediate play.

[JackBNimble]

Franwex
I don't know any about the Wii, but everything I have ever bought threw psn has always been there no matter if the license has expired or not.

[Sirk7x]

I think he's implying he might get low download speeds.

[sampsonon]

I'm glad i switched to digital games.

[Araragifeels]

RDR2 digitally is 149 GB while physically is just 99GB with 2 disc. Plus once Red Dead Online is released is probably even more so digitally is always good unless you buy more TB.

[DarkZane]

The game is only 99 GB digitally. The extra 50GB needed is only to unpack files. You get those 50 GB back once the game is installed. Game once installed is the exact same size physical and digital.

I got it digitally because it took me less time to download it and install it than it would have taken to actually install it from disc.

[sampsonon]

so? even if it's 200G i will have about 250G left to play most MP games. I won't be playing any other single player games once RDR2 comes out. I always hear this argument and i never understood it.

I play one game at a time when it's a game like Spider- Man , God Of War, and Red Dead 2.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

500GB SSD internal, 4TB external. Storage hasn't been a concern for a long time. Digital is so convenient.

[robbie165x]

I have 20 PS4 physical games, another 3 or 4 full games on PS+ plus a ton of indie titles. I can't install more than 4 or 5 of them without deleting most of my indies. That doesn't include the 50+gb you need to leave empty to be able to install new games. Not to mention some games like GTA5 take up more than 50gb. 400gb after OS does not cut it. Bought a 4Tb external for $90.

[sampsonon]

@KwietStorm: games i have on my ps4 right now. Spider-Man, MLB The Show 18, Fornite, God Of War 3, The Golf Club, Destiny 2, For Honor, NHL 18, and Gran Turismo Sport.

500 gigs are enough for me because i can only play so many games at one time. If i delete a game to download RDR2 it's fine because i will be focusing on RDR2 and the game i delete will save to the cloud.

so i never understood why people make it such a big deal

[stefd75]

the problem is paying the prices Sony set for digital, I managed to get order the physical copy for £35 for PS4, but then I am not a big fan of digital, apart from PC as they are not set at silly prices.

[sampsonon]

a game is a game to me whether it be a hard copy or digital. so it doesn't matter to me if the price is the same. yes, a hard copy can be sold second hand but to me it's not really that big a deal. only games i try to buy hard copies for are sports games because there is a new iteration every year.

[gangsta_red]

Will be getting this by digital anyways.

[sampsonon]

I really fail to see why people would down vote a preference. strange, it's almost as if they're jelly because they know digital games are easier to buy, have faster downloads, and you keep your library of games anywhere you go.

[gangsta_red]

There's this sad type of thought from some that if you buy digital you're contributing to these companies greed and giving up the loss of ownership.

Yeah, who knows where those ideas are coming from given that digital has been option for how many years now?

[KwietStorm_BLM]

The digital world is coming to occupy our homes and take our leftovers from the fridge. Anything slightly in favor of digital gaming gets down voted. I don't remember the last time I even saw a physical PC game. Been almost fully digital on PS4 too. Have yet to have my games and my 401k taken from me. Strange.

[gangsta_red]

@solidgamer

If there's any other reason than that, then people are truly pathetic, I assure you.

[Sirk7x]

Every other form of similar media has already shited into digital territory. Games are going to go the same way of music, TV shows and movies. Yeah, you can still buy an album on vinyl, or a DVD, but there's no arguing that Spotify and Netflix/Hulu aren't more preferable choices for millions of people. Amazon and Google WANT to take over the gaming market, and they have computing power to do it. They have servers that could potentially offer gaming experiences no one has ever seen before. Give it another console generation, and you'll be seeing massive server side and shared P2P AI and physics calculations that could never be possible on a single piece of unconnected home hardware. Imagine an Elder Scrolls or GTA, except every NPC and enemy in the world is all fully rendered all at once with their own AI, as entire game worlds literally adapt and react to your choices. That's what we're moving towards.

[robbie165x]

The only reason I still buy physical is because I already have a collection. I regret not going fully digital this gen because I have to keep swapping discs and putting them back in the case. Some games come with sleeves which are annoying too. I went all digital with switch and love it. After buying a 4Tb external (which you couldn't do for the first couple years without a case mod, laptop sized or ripping one from an external which isn't guaranteed to work), again, regret my games not being like my Steam library which still has my oldschool Counter-Strike and Half Life games and mods.

[gangsta_red]

Same, the only physical I get now is through gamefly. Honestly there's just no other reason to buy physical games.

The game is released digitally at midnight, you can instantly purchase it from the comfort of your couch. The convenience far out weighs buying a physical copy from retail.

[Jinger]

2 discs? How about no discs.

[XtreemGamer]

Jinger trolling? How about no trolling.

[Skankinruby]

How about them anti-digital comments now? Store supply issues already now multiple discs, but that trade-in value bro....

[spicelicka]

LOL wow a WHOLE NOTHER disc? I don't know how difficult it is for you to change discs but it's literally a non-issue.

There is no such thing as "anti-digital" as all people who buy physical have a choice to buy anything digital. The issue is "digital-only" which is shoving one preference down other people's throats.

[rainslacker]

Multiple discs never bothered me...even when I had to change them during the game.

And store supply issues I don't blame on physical purchases, I blame it on R* for likely purposefully limiting the supply chain, likely to push the digital sales more so they can make more money. In this case, I'll appropriate my displeasure for the retail shortage to the proper people, instead of misappropriating it to something completely unrelated. Or in this case, blame digital for the retail shortage due to publisher greed.

Also, people who prefer physical, really don't have a problem with digital. Just people who keep coming around saying how physical is dying, and we should just get with the times. For the most part, I really don't see physical proponents saying that digital shouldn't exist, although I see a lot of digital proponents say that physical needs to die, and others should just accept it.

[theshredded]

I remember MGS3 having multiple disks good ole day

[Gardenia]

Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX had both 4 discs, back when Playstation had the black discs. Damn I'm getting old

[rainslacker]

Remember the big deal that was made over FFX being the first single dual layer disc .....at least for consoles.

I don't actually know if it was the first dual layer disc, just that a big deal was made about it.

[Cajun Chicken]

Crazy. There I was thinking the disc sawpping days were over after Mass Effect. Seriously makes you wonder the capacity of GTA 6.

[akurtz]

It’s a one time swap

[robbie165x]

Was Mass Effect 2 discs on PS3? Many games on 360 were multidisk cuz they were still using dvd.

[LeXxXiNgToN]

I don't even want to think of the file sizes of games next gen. UHD-Bluray should be fine, but these small laptop hard-drives are not gonna cut it anymore.

[sprinterboy]

The author states at the bottom of the article you might want to invest in a external hard drive? I have the golf club, rocket league, mad max, bloodborne, everybody's golf, heavy rain and hzd installed on my 500gb launch ps4 and I still have 190gb left.

[jerethdagryphon]

I have. Blood bowl ksp star trek online dark souls 2 I 🤔 think odessey valkeryia chronicles 4 that's all I can recall off the top of my head

[KwietStorm_BLM]

You have that much left because that's not a lot of games. And 190gb isn't a lot of space either.

[sprinterboy]

I keep games I actually play regular on my console

[Elda]

Not buying this on release day but when I do it'll be a physical copy.

[TheOtherMoon]

Oh no! It's two discs! I guess I'll just have play the game anyway? I mean is this really news worthy? I just threw 9tds with Baker Mayfield in Madden, and we are reading this story instead...smh....

[franwex]

It’s the first multi disc Blu-ray game; so it is a bit news worthy. It’s like a benchmark of some sort. It may be the only one, or the 1st of several.

[MatrixxGT]

I hope it continues. Screw having to download 50, 60, 70+GB game patches and updates. Let me install from disc and start happily playing my game and have maybe a 1-3GB update DL in the background.

[DanielEndurance]

This just proves flying cars are a long ways off...

[chiefJohn117]

I think im gonna go physical for rdr.

[jerethdagryphon]

Why the 8 gig difference. Is it really open gl vs direct x packages

[rainslacker]

Possibly a X1X patch with higher quality textures. Both versions should be supported off a single disc.

DX does tend to have larger build sizes on console, because more is built into the build code itself. Gotta exclude the content assets, as those would be fairly consistent between the two, barring quality change differences.
Anyhow, that overhead is usually only about 5-10% of the game code. The game code is probably only around 10-15GB for a game this size, so that would only account for 1-1.5GB of the difference.

So, on a side note, before anyone gets all uppity about me stating a fact about build sizes for DX, know this is perfectly normal for the way the two API's are set up. Operationally speaking, there is no huge difference outside of certain functions which are better or worse from one API to another. Each has their pros and cons.

On PC, DX tends to be smaller, because that stuff is built into the OS SDK, and it works on a different level than it does on consoles.

[jerethdagryphon]

Makes sense

[Barneyco]

Does anyone else think that nextgen games will be $70 or even $80.

[EpicFruityPie]

here in nz a standard edition game is about 120 dollars

[rainslacker]

$70 is a good possibility. MT and DLC practices will still probably be in full force too.

[MatrixxGT]

I’d pay 10 more bucks not to have to DL a 50 GB day one update. Keep digital at 60 and I’ll pay more for physical if it prevents me from waiting forever to DL updates or another portion of the game I.e.blops4.

[rainslacker]

Every negative we have now, digital or physical, is not going to vanish with a $10 increase in price. Retailers will have to pay more to get the game, and likely, their profit margin will go down from around 25% to around 22-23%.

We'll still have season passes, day one DLC, MT, removed content to sell, endless grind to promote purchases, locked content, so on and so forth. Raising the price of games won't remove people willing to spend more, and publishers will be more than happy to take their money and continue to push as much as they can to squeeze gamers more and more.

[inxine]

not a big deal. one of them discs is for installation purposes only, so chill ppl

[warriorcase]

This. people are retarded and cannot read properly these days though and/or believe that having an install disc to speed up the install is bad because, as said, retardation. In install disc is a terrific option for larger titles that should see greater adoption.

[inxine]

agreed

[InKnight7s]

Are these brats even series? One of best games in worlds as MGS,FFVII and FFIX are multi-disc games.

[Matrix6]

I got digital and also getting physical Ultimate Edition. I'm good with that. Thank you for the Votes ;)

[BadElf]

Nooo, no. you'll have to create your own PS4 and/or Xbox, and make sure it has 2 disc drives.

Of course you'll just need one disc?? wtf

[Paelmoon]

I havent used a disc for anything since the mid 2000’s.

[Kumakai]

it will be no discs for me because F discs, i bought it digital.

[King_Noctis]

I’m going all digital on this one.

[Anomander]

discs... What are those things?

[Rahim92]

How does this work? Does the data disc contain one half of the game and other half on the game disc?

[Puty]

It's true, this man has no dick.

[BlaqMagiq1]

Lmao are pro-digital people acting like this is an issue? All you have to do is put in the second disc and it installs the rest of the data. This is literally a non-issue. Will still buy physical.

[dumahim]

WHAT? You mean I don't have to have both discs in at the same time? What an age we live in.

[jinjojuice]

GTA 5 Xbox 360 came on 2 disc expect you had to install the 2nd play disc to usb flash drive to improve texture loading if I remember correctly.

[hiawa23]

Digital for the win. 88GBs...

[quenomamen]

And this is why Digitall only Cloud based gaming is still A Loooooong ways away.

[Vithar]

wow can only imagine buying digital lol 100 GB+?

[Sonicjp]

I can't believe were 5 years into the xbox one and ps5 being out, but it seems we've reached the max on disks. I am looking forward to this game and I'm glad they gave us 2 disks. That download would of killed my internet so I'm glad it can install quickly from the disk.

This will change how companies handle future releases.

[trouble_bubble]

Watch someone keep the game but sell the install data disc. Wouldn’t buy this one used!