DVDs holding gaming back?

What does it mean when PS3 games start appearing on DVD?



by: Chris Stead 13/12/2007




We noticed something a little strange today – we received PS3 preview and review code (provided to journalists only) on DVD format… not Blu-ray. We won’t point fingers or name names, but further research through our piles of discs revealed that this was not an isolated incident and that this phenomenon is restricted to games that are, or had been, released on the Xbox 360 as well. That is, multi-format games’ not all of them, but some of them.


On face value that didn’t seem particularly weird – after all, most multi-format games are indistinguishable across the consoles - but we couldn’t shake the feeling of being sold short. Really, shouldn’t there be some type of PS3 specific optimisation that makes use of this all-powerful Blu-ray format? Given that developers have access to an extra, what, 20-odd gig with Blu-ray, shouldn’t games be stepping up?


Then it hit us: it’s not worth their while. If you build a multi-format game across Xbox 360 and PS3 right now, you have two options: design the game separately for each format or design one game, that maximises the capacity of the smaller format... i.e. DVD. Obviously the second option makes much better business sense, especially given that the PS3’s install base is only just starting to show life, ensuring that any extra costs incurred by redeveloping the game specifically for the system are unlikely to be recovered. So yes, we’ll get our game on a Blu-ray disc but don’t let the label fool you: in many multi-format games it’s still a DVD experience.


And then something else hit us, even harder. The progression of gaming, in general, has been bottlenecked by the bloody DVD!


This looks bad on Microsoft, despite the fact it is Sony’s Blu-ray not been properly utilised. In fact, it is becoming apparent that Microsoft really screwed Sony, and by extension us gamers, over in this generation. In their effort to be first into market they built a next-gen machine on old-gen technology, releasing the Xbox 360 with a standard DVD drive and not an HD-DVD drive.


But by being first, Microsoft gained the better market position, and now has an install base that demands that it is the lead format for developers – or in simpler terms, developers can make more money from a game through the Xbox 360, than the PS3. And the Xbox 360 is restricted to DVD. Worse still, Microsoft didn’t go with a hard-drive as standard, further restricting developer freedom.







At the moment, you could argue that it doesn’t really matter. Call of Duty 4 is just one example of how games can kick serious arse at a maximum of 9GB. But Microsoft’s lack of forethought, or worse still their knowing decision to just run with DVD at the cost of the industry’s long-term future, will bite them on the arse. The PS3 is starting to get games, good games, and it’s becoming more reasonably priced. The install base will grow and sometime, maybe in late 2008 or in 2009, we will reach a tipping point and the PS3 will become big enough to be chosen as the lead format. This will open the doors for developers to wash their hands of DVD limitations and develop primarily for both Blu-ray and a standard hard-drive. It’ll come like an avalanche – if the PS3 catches up on the Xbox 360, it will surge ahead.


What for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 then? Down-sized, compressed and ugly ports? Games on five discs? At the very least we’re talking a new HD-DVD and hard-drive as standard SKU, but most likely we’re talking a new console altogether. We get the impression developers want that freedom of a hard-drive and greater storage space – surely it is harder to have to squish everything in to 9GB. We’re already seeing Xbox 360 games like Blue Dragon appearing on more than one disc, like latter releases in the PS2 catalogue.


But for right now, these PS3 games on DVD are an embarrassment to the industry. Ok, so you’ve got a game that doesn’t need more than 9GB of space – congratulations. But you’re burning to, and consumers are paying for, Blu-ray discs. So fill the bloody thing! Whatever happened to those ‘you’ll get the game, and the movie, and all the bonus features, all on the same disc’ crap we were being sold a few years back? You’ve already made demos and trailers right? Stick ‘em on there too! Make us believe that there is somewhere in this generation for gaming to go.