Kojima: Blu-ray isn't big enough for MGS4

Kojima says that there isn't enough room on a Blu-ray disc to contain all the awesomeness of the game.

Kojima Productions, developer of Metal Gear Solid 4, has revealed that Blu-ray discs aren't offering enough space for its games.

Speaking in a Kojima podcast, Ryan Payton, one of the key producers at Kojima, said that there wasn't enough room on the game discs for Japanese and English versions to carry the languages from other versions.

Interest piqued, Famitsu followed up on the comments and asked head-honcho Hideo Kojima about space concerns. Hideo gave the following reply:

"For us, we're not still not satisfied with the quality we can do. You know, there's not capacity space...There's not enough space at all. (laughs) ...There's not enough space. We always talked about where to cut and what to compress."

Blu-ray discs currently offer around 50GB of space for the PlayStation 3, but apparently that just isn't enough for some developers.

Is Kojima just being greedy about it all, or is the 50GB cap a legitimate concern for developers? What do you think the final game will play like when it's out? Let us know in the forums.
Quote CrixD 3rd March 2008, 10:27
:O holy **** o_o!
Quote BioSniper 3rd March 2008, 10:30
lazy/poor/lack of compression is not an excuse for filling a disc.
Quote oddball walking 3rd March 2008, 10:37
How about splitting it up onto 2 discs. It would cost more but should be worth it for more content.
Quote naokaji 3rd March 2008, 10:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by BioSniper
lazy/poor/lack of compression is not an excuse for filling a disc.

QFT

besides, Orange Box is like what? 25 GB? thats 5 games, so even if MGS4 is as big as 5 games it would only fill half of that 50Gb avalaible on blueray.
Quote cjoyce1980 3rd March 2008, 10:45
assuming that this game is still coming to the 360, and the PC. users will require 6 DVD's!!!! just imagine the install.

99% of developers are still having difficulty finding enough content to fill a dvd, so i agree with BioSniper, but me also thinks that all the cut scenes must be pre-render HD video.

I mean, the 3D world plus all the voice acting can't be that big........ 15-20GB tops, unless this game is meant to be more of a movie than an actual game
Quote Paradigm Shifter 3rd March 2008, 10:46
Hm... if they can't fit the game on a single 50GB Blu-ray disc... how many DVDs is it going to come on for the 360?
Quote Delphium 3rd March 2008, 10:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by BioSniper
lazy/poor/lack of compression is not an excuse for filling a disc.
QFT

Seeing that I have seen some gfx demos with audio, that are less than half a meg and look near realistic!
I think they can improve on the compression of textures by a fair ammount without effecting the image quality toomuch, not as is the PS3 would not be cabable of uncompessing these on the fly.
Quote cjoyce1980 3rd March 2008, 10:52
Quote:
Originally Posted by naokaji
QFT

besides, Orange Box is like what? 25 GB? thats 5 games, so even if MGS4 is as big as 5 games it would only fill half of that 50Gb avalaible on blueray.

the orange box was only 7GB on the 360, so there is no way in hell that it was 25GB on the PS3 unless it was uncompressed and if that was so the loading times were awful compared to the 360, and also it was the pc install that was around the 27GB mark.
Quote adamc 3rd March 2008, 11:26
makes me worry about the amount of crappy voice acting i'm going to have to listen to...
Quote Jokkocze 3rd March 2008, 11:33
What are they doing with it anyway? Putting it all uncompressed on the disc? Stupidity!
Quote neonplanet40 3rd March 2008, 11:43
I dont beleive it to be honest. He must have been pissed when he said that. To say a game thats due out on the 360 as well (dual layer dvd at most) that it cant fit on a 50Gb disk is taking the piss.
Quote Veles 3rd March 2008, 11:47
Quote:
Originally Posted by BioSniper
lazy/poor/lack of compression is not an excuse for filling a disc.

QFT +whatever we're on

I remember the PR bullshit before the PS3 was released about how they were filling the disks already, which was only because they weren't compressing the data so much and had to repeat data on some games like oblivion.
Quote Goty 3rd March 2008, 12:03
Well, considering the fact that IF MGS4 gets released for the 360 it will be at least a year after the PS3 launch, that would give MS a chance to backpedal on ANOTHER statement of theirs and release MGS4 on the Blu-Ray drive that was never supposed to happend for the system.

=P
Quote Jamie 3rd March 2008, 12:08
Several hours of pre rendered cut scenes perhaps?
Quote CardJoe 3rd March 2008, 12:10
Personally I see this as yet more of a sign that Kojima and co are just ego-f**ing each other with this game. There's no plausible reason for it to be so huge, so delayed, etc. They've just got carried away with themselves and had their egos too inflated with their own pretensiousness and reviewer-fed grandeur. That's what the news of the game has lead me to believe over the last few months anyway - but I guess we'll see when its released. Who know, I could be wrong and the game might be awesome.

Bear in mind it would have to have even more cutscenes that DMC4 for it to even get close to filling the disc too...that amount of movie isn't a good thing for what should be a game and not a film.
Quote Orlix 3rd March 2008, 12:15
maybe the PC version comes in a 100GB hard drive instead of DVDs :)
Quote Flibblebot 3rd March 2008, 12:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamie
Several hours of pre rendered cut scenes perhaps?
Oh. My. God. We're going back to the early 90s and the days of FMV. MGS4 is just a remake of The Seventh Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by CardJoe
Personally I see this as yet more of a sign that Kojima and co are just ego-f**ing each other with this game. There's no plausible reason for it to be so huge, so delayed, etc. They've just got carried away with themselves and had their egos too inflated with their own pretentiousness and reviewer-fed grandeur. That's what the news of the game has lead me to believe over the last few months anyway - but I guess we'll see when its released. Who know, I could be wrong and the game might be awesome.

Bear in mind it would have to have even more cutscenes that DMC4 for it to even get close to filling the disc too...that amount of movie isn't a good thing for what should be a game and not a film.
It doesn't bode well. Whichever way you look at it, it's looking like the game's going to suffer from over-hyping from both Kojima & MGS fanboys. This can only lead to disappointment all round :(
Quote Major 3rd March 2008, 12:46
Quote:
Originally Posted by CardJoe
I could be wrong and the game might be awesome.

Might? No need for "might", it will be awesome, no doubt about it. Have you even played the last 3-4 games in the series?...
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 3rd March 2008, 12:48
Bwuaaaahaaaaaahahahaha learn to fkng program. Ever seen 64k demos? afcourse not. PS3 cant do sht except layering huge uncompressed prety pictures (called sprites) and let these huge pictures move around the screen happy happy joy joy! So much fun. with the PS3 stickfigures engine.
Quote Ashy 3rd March 2008, 12:57
For those complaining about the cut scenes, I thought i'd highlight a main factor your missing.
"Tactical Episode Action". Seen on the front cover. of all MGS games. So these cut scenes are
needed because they need to fit this game into the storey line of all other MGS, such as MGS1,2 and 3.
as well as keeping its own storeyline...

For those complaining about the size. I'm not a fan of XBOX as it is, and If the MGS4 wasnt a PS3 Exclusive,
I'd be disappointed that the PS3 Version has to have its graphics downgraded by compressions, due to the
XBOX's lack of handing this.
Quote Veles 3rd March 2008, 13:02
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
Might? No need for "might", it will be awesome, no doubt about it. Have you even played the last 3-4 games in the series?...

Well, it's more of will it be awesome enough to meet the inflated expectations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CardJoe
They've just got carried away with themselves and had their egos too inflated with their own pretensiousness and reviewer-fed grandeur.

This is the problem when developers start to become celebrities, some handle it well, like Will Wright, from what I've seen he's very down to earth, but then others turn out like CliffyB. I don't really know what Kojima is like though, not really followed the hype for the game so haven't come into contact with his ego much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashy
For those complaining about the cut scenes, I thought i'd highlight a main factor your missing.
"Tactical Episode Action". Seen on the front cover. of all MGS games. So these cut scenes are
needed because they need to fit this game into the storey line of all other MGS, such as MGS1,2 and 3.
as well as keeping its own storeyline...

Well firstly, it's espionage not episode, but more importantly, they don't need FMVs, MGS has worked fine without them in the past by using the engine to do cut scenes. Cut scenes using the engine instead (and from what I've seen it's very pretty anyway so there's not a huge advantage to having FMV) take up a lot less room, I know I'd rather have a better game than cut scenes that are slightly prettier.
Quote cjoyce1980 3rd March 2008, 13:13
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashy
For those complaining about the cut scenes, I thought i'd highlight a main factor your missing.
"Tactical Episode Action". Seen on the front cover. of all MGS games. So these cut scenes are
needed because they need to fit this game into the storey line of all other MGS, such as MGS1,2 and 3.
as well as keeping its own storeyline...

For those complaining about the size. I'm not a fan of XBOX as it is, and If the MGS4 wasnt a PS3 Exclusive,
I'd be disappointed that the PS3 Version has to have its graphics downgraded by compressions, due to the
XBOX's lack of handing this.

when did compressed mean lack of/ or poorer quality, It means smaller in size.

If you compare the 360 & PS3 version of the orange box, they nearly look the same (the 360 has the better frame rate) the 360 verison was only 7GB compressed and the PS3 version was nearly 25GB uncompressed.

I hate fanboys talking crap they no nothing about, its like saying if you compress/decompress anything you destory the quality of that media, and before you bitch back I have both of these machines.
Quote CardJoe 3rd March 2008, 13:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
Might? No need for "might", it will be awesome, no doubt about it. Have you even played the last 3-4 games in the series?...

Fanboy much :p

I played the first two games and thought they were good - not as good as everyone said and not as good as some other games of the time - but still damn good. As I say though, I'm holding off on setting a fixed opinion until I see the full MGS4 - maybe we should both do that?

I also think Flibblebot is right about the devs as celebrities. Wil Wright has handled it very well. Peter Molyneux too (he was just always like that) and Sid Mier. Miyamoto has too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashy
For those complaining about the cut scenes, I thought i'd highlight a main factor your missing.
"Tactical Episode Action". Seen on the front cover. of all MGS games. So these cut scenes are
needed because they need to fit this game into the storey line of all other MGS, such as MGS1,2 and 3.
as well as keeping its own storeyline...

For those complaining about the size. I'm not a fan of XBOX as it is, and If the MGS4 wasnt a PS3 Exclusive,
I'd be disappointed that the PS3 Version has to have its graphics downgraded by compressions, due to the
XBOX's lack of handing this.

I'm not taking advice from someone who can't quote the word espionage correctly or spell the word Story at all.
Quote naokaji 3rd March 2008, 13:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjoyce1980
the orange box was only 7GB on the 360, so there is no way in hell that it was 25GB on the PS3 unless it was uncompressed and if that was so the loading times were awful compared to the 360, and also it was the pc install that was around the 27GB mark.

and what do you think was i'm talking about? for sure not a console version... you confirmed what i said with your 27GB remark.

The point was simply to show that no game out there will exceed the size limits of a blue ray disk in 2008 / 2009... the orange box is 5 games.. not 1... and only takes half of the space avalaible on a blue ray disk... so MGS4 would have to be the size of 10 Games to even fill it, but not even then would it exceed the size avalaible.
Quote Major 3rd March 2008, 13:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by CardJoe
Fanboy much :p

I played the first two games and thought they were good - not as good as everyone said and not as good as some other games of the time - but still damn good. As I say though, I'm holding off on setting a fixed opinion until I see the full MGS4 - maybe we should both do that?

Wouldn't say I was a fanboy, but I think Snake Eater is one of the best games I have ever played. (Although nothing will beat Goldeneye + Mario 64) ;)

I can't see it being worse than Snake Eater, but yeah I agree, lets wait for the final product. :)
Quote chicorasia 3rd March 2008, 14:02
talk about bloatware!
Quote shigllgetcha 3rd March 2008, 14:30
i dont believe for a minute this is true, 50GB has to be more than enuf, me believes its show boating and generating more hype, which obviously is working as here we all are arguing about it.
i have heard that some developers arent botherin compressing games as they have so much room available, V V lazy, processer speeds are so much quicker than read speeds on any format so compression isnt only a space issue its also a load issue.
dnt think HF2 is a great example, its alot shinnier than the first but the levels are all v blocky and the number of poly's has to be pretty low and even transparent effects are pretty basic and simple. dnt think the textures are that complex at all and wud b simple to compress anyway
Quote The_Pope 3rd March 2008, 14:34
It's not really a case of "enough vs not enough" - just ship the English version with English-only and Japanese on the Japanese version.

Why would either territory want the language from the other region?? Who cares that they both don't fit??
Quote Narishma 3rd March 2008, 14:52
Because some people like to have both versions on the same disc. That way if you don't like the English voices you can switch to the original Japanese and use subtitles.

Also many people here are talking about FMVs but it's just speculation. Since they didn't use them in the previous games I don't see why they would need them now.
Quote shigllgetcha 3rd March 2008, 15:01
those people u are talking about shud get a life lol
Quote Joeymac 3rd March 2008, 15:04
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Pope
It's not really a case of "enough vs not enough" - just ship the English version with English-only and Japanese on the Japanese version.

Why would either territory want the language from the other region?? Who cares that they both don't fit??

It's not for the customers benefit... it's to save money. If they author a new Blu-Ray master plate for every territory then it's much more expensive.
Shoving it all on one to make a single version for the world is all they can do to save money.
Quote DXR_13KE 3rd March 2008, 15:38
the amount of BS is of the scales....
Quote glaeken 3rd March 2008, 15:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by Delphium

Seeing that I have seen some gfx demos with audio, that are less than half a meg and look near realistic!
I think they can improve on the compression of textures by a fair ammount without effecting the image quality toomuch, not as is the PS3 would not be cabable of uncompessing these on the fly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by [USRF]Obiwan
Bwuaaaahaaaaaahahahaha learn to fkng program. Ever seen 64k demos?

The 64k demos are usually using procedural textures, most likely the same for the demos under a meg too. There aren't any "hard" textures in these demos, they're created on the fly when the program runs. Can't really compare it to AAA games that have hundreds of textures of different resolutions and models.


But I do agree, if they are having storage problems with a 50gb disk, then they are definitely doing something wrong.
Quote johnmustrule 3rd March 2008, 15:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjoyce1980
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashy
For those complaining about the cut scenes, I thought i'd highlight a main factor your missing.
"Tactical Episode Action". Seen on the front cover. of all MGS games. So these cut scenes are
needed because they need to fit this game into the storey line of all other MGS, such as MGS1,2 and 3.
as well as keeping its own storeyline...

For those complaining about the size. I'm not a fan of XBOX as it is, and If the MGS4 wasnt a PS3 Exclusive,
I'd be disappointed that the PS3 Version has to have its graphics downgraded by compressions, due to the
XBOX's lack of handing this.

when did compressed mean lack of/ or poorer quality, It means smaller in size.

If you compare the 360 & PS3 version of the orange box, they nearly look the same (the 360 has the better frame rate) the 360 verison was only 7GB compressed and the PS3 version was nearly 25GB uncompressed.

I hate fanboys talking crap they no nothing about, its like saying if you compress/decompress anything you destory the quality of that media, and before you bitch back I have both of these machines.

Commpression by its very nature reduces quality, how much depends on the type and amount of compression done. Audio compression is the worst of all next to video and still's, I have all thresystems and I use them in a home heater filled with quality equipment which has each been preffesionaly tuned to output natural AV. Thus far the PS3 has stolen my heart, with 7.1 uncompressed audio and 1080p video in quite a few games it's my favorite system, also if you've ever done a compressed/ uncompressed comparison on good equipment then you'd know there's no match.
Quote Flibblebot 3rd March 2008, 15:48
Quote:
Originally Posted by shigllgetcha
those people u are talking about shud get a life lol
Gee, thanks for the reasoned argument there sparky!

Even if they're doing multiple language versions on one disc, that's still no acceptable reason that it should take up more than 50Gb of space. It just smacks of lazy programming to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnmustrule
Commpression by its very nature reduces quality, how much depends on the type and amount of compression done. Audio compression is the worst of all next to video and still's, I have all thresystems and I use them in a home heater filled with quality equipment which has each been preffesionaly tuned to output natural AV. Thus far the PS3 has stolen my heart, with 7.1 uncompressed audio and 1080p video in quite a few games it's my favorite system, also if you've ever done a compressed/ uncompressed comparison on good equipment then you'd know there's no match.
Not true. There are two types of compression: lossy and lossless. DVD & MP3 both use lossy compression, so there is an inherent reduction in quality of the reconstituted audio or video.

Games tend to use both types: lossy for those assets where detail isn't an issue (textures viewed from a distance, for example) and lossless for those assets where detail is an issue (textures viewed up close)

If all compression was lossy, zip files wouldn't work!
Quote Veles 3rd March 2008, 15:53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Narishma
Because some people like to have both versions on the same disc. That way if you don't like the English voices you can switch to the original Japanese and use subtitles.

How could you not like David Hayter? The English voice acting for MGS IMO is awesome, although I'm not against allowing people to hear the original Japanese voices. I attempted to play Eternal Sonata with the English voices, as soon as I heard the main girl's voice I was very glad I could switch to Japanese.
Quote shigllgetcha 3rd March 2008, 15:57
wasnt goin for a resoned arguement, did the LOL not give that away.

but cant see why this game shud exceed the 50GB blu raw capacity when so many games on 360 do fine with 30gb with no word of capacity problems
Quote Narishma 3rd March 2008, 16:19
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
How could you not like David Hayter? The English voice acting for MGS IMO is awesome, although I'm not against allowing people to hear the original Japanese voices. I attempted to play Eternal Sonata with the English voices, as soon as I heard the main girl's voice I was very glad I could switch to Japanese.

I was talking generally and I agree that the English voices in MGS are above average.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shilgllgetcha
but cant see why this game shud exceed the 50GB blu raw capacity when so many games on 360 do fine with 30gb with no word of capacity problems

Where did you get that 30gb from? Xbox 360 games come on standard DVDs so that's 8.5gb at most. Unless you count games that come in multiple DVDs.
Quote shigllgetcha 3rd March 2008, 16:45
sorry im thinking of dual layer HD DVD has 30gb
Quote Nikumba 3rd March 2008, 17:04
Perhaps the PS3 cant do on the fly decompression of textures?

Kimbie
Quote Faulk_Wulf 3rd March 2008, 17:23
All the poor/non-compression aside--

What about the question of splitting it on two discs?

The final fantasy series, the original MGS, DMC-3, there are countless games on multiple discs.
So what's the big deal?

I get that its the death for a PC version but I don't think MGS has ever been on the PS3 in the first place.
And I thought that MG3 was PS3 exclusive-- but Microsoft would be stupid to not develop a blue-ray drive for Xbox.

Anyrate--

back to my point:

Why aren't multiple discs an option?
Quote Cthippo 3rd March 2008, 18:49
My BS detector is twitching here.

First off, the BR standard has been out quite a while now. They knew the limitations of the media and so if they did indeed have to toss a bunch of content to make it fit then they are really poor at managing resources. Also, it doesn't seem like the different voice audio files should take up any significant amount of room.

That, plus the fact that no other platform has BR capability means that if they really do need all that room they are cutting their market by at least half by being on the platform with the smallest installed base.
Quote talladega 3rd March 2008, 19:21
There is no pre rendered cut scenes or aynthing like that. All cut scenes are done with the game engine. So there is no video cut scenes taking up space.

The reason it is taking up so much space is because he doesnt want to compress anything. Why compress it when you can get away by not compressing it?

Im sure all the audio is uncompressed.

I think the reason they wanted both languages on each disc is so that they wouldnt have to manufacture different discs for the different regions. If both languages were on the disc then only one type of disc would be made. Thats what I think.

Why do you guys complain that they are wanting this game to be very high quality?

Maybe because this now basically confirms that the game for sure wont be done on 360?
Quote Cthippo 3rd March 2008, 20:08
Quote:
Originally Posted by talladega


Why do you guys complain that they are wanting this game to be very high quality?

Maybe because this now basically confirms that the game for sure wont be done on 360?

One, non-compressed does not mean higher quality, just more bloat

And two, that also means it will not come to the PC either, since how many people do you know who have BR-ROM drives in their PCs?

Or, this could all just be marketing BS, in which case if there is any justice in the world they will flop horribly
Quote BlueTrin 3rd March 2008, 20:11
I can't even imagine how long it will be to load 1 level ...
Quote bubsterboo 3rd March 2008, 20:15
24bit PCM COUGH.. COUGH...

Can someone explain to me why anyone who isn't completely crazy and isn't just trying to consume space would use PCM vs a lossless compression?
Quote sandys 3rd March 2008, 23:23
Its probably full of vioce audio, the european version will probably have stuff like all the other Euro languages bound to take up space, similar thing happened with God of War on PS2 they had to drop HiDef modes in the Euro version as they couldn't fit it on the disk due to all the languages that had to be supported, sounds hard to fill 50Gb but if a short PS2 game like Gow2 can fill a DVD with low res textures and audio/video etc then hey up the quality for PS3 and the size will be a lot more.
Quote Tyinsar 4th March 2008, 00:37
Quote:
Originally Posted by BioSniper
lazy/poor/lack of compression is not an excuse for filling a disc.
Quoted For Truth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Orlix
maybe the PC version comes in a 100GB hard drive instead of DVDs :)
:) that would be great (but would make the game too expensive)
Quote johnmustrule 4th March 2008, 02:13
Mabey the load times are allready really long, compression would only add to that if it had to decode anything, idk. Have they officially said what's taking up so much space, or that it's all uncompressed? All I know is one thing, snake dosn't like compression, he likes killing.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 4th March 2008, 03:47
BS blu-ray is plenty of room not to mention it can support up to 10 layers., I mean really sony made a 200gb disk to show off to the public so surely this is some lame excuse and not an actual problem.
Quote dslickness 4th March 2008, 04:05
Once again they use the capacity as a way of marketing Blueray. Who cares if it can't fit in a single disc, just have it compressed a bit. Or have 2 disc. Hell, people didn't complain when the lame FF series were 3-4 discs long.

I say it once again, the better format lost yet again.
Quote Rebourne 4th March 2008, 05:09
It would be really easy to fill if you had the audio at 24/192. I guess I would compress things as little as possible too. If it doesn't hurt preformance any why not?
Quote Amon 4th March 2008, 07:06
The game must be 30GB of CG cinematics and 10GB of uncompressed, six-channel music.
Quote malccy 4th March 2008, 10:34
50% cut scenes, 30% stupid voice acting and 20% game imo.
Quote Jipa 4th March 2008, 10:53
Jipa thinks: Bullshit.

There's no way in hell a game would suddenly REALLY require 50+ GB. No way. During the last 10 years the size has grown from 700 MB CD to max 8 GB Dual-layer disk and no suddenly this? Yeah right. Make code that sucks less and try to get the game published already.
Quote Veles 4th March 2008, 14:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandys
Its probably full of vioce audio, the european version will probably have stuff like all the other Euro languages bound to take up space, similar thing happened with God of War on PS2 they had to drop HiDef modes in the Euro version as they couldn't fit it on the disk due to all the languages that had to be supported, sounds hard to fill 50Gb but if a short PS2 game like Gow2 can fill a DVD with low res textures and audio/video etc then hey up the quality for PS3 and the size will be a lot more.

With a game like metal gear though I would have thought that there would be much more environment/effects sounds than talking (although thinking about it they do natter on over that voice com thing).

As for not wanting compression, what's wrong with compression? You can get information of the disk much faster as the drive has to read less information off, and because of the high power of the PS3 it can decompress it very quickly. There isn't really any loss in quality either, it's just being lazy.
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