Will Blu-ray make PS3 games higher?

In a current interview with GamesIndustry.biz , president of Sony's international studios Phil Harrison discovered that ps 3 launch games are already near filling 25GB Blu-ray discs.

Harrison has defended the inclusion of Blu-ray in the ps 3. it's a decision that has not best contributed to the PS3's excessive release price ($six hundred), but has behind schedule the Sony console's ecu release into 2007 because of a lack of blue laser diodes for the drives. Blu-ray is critical to Sony's subsequent-technology strategy, but Harrison claims that it's now not just for excessive-definition film playback.

"DVD is not sufficient", he says. "We want Blu-ray to deliver the sort of facts that PS3 video games use."

Does disc size really rely?

What kind of 'statistics' is Harrison talking approximately? think 7.1 surround, high-resolution textures and more detailed man or woman models - with a 25GB Blu-ray disc, ps three builders have access to over three times the garage ability of the DVD-nine disc used by Microsoft's Xbox 360.

yet the primary batch of playstation  three release titles, along with Resistance: Fall of guy (pictured) and Ridge Racer 7 do not appear to illustrate a dramatic jump in quality over this year's main Xbox 360 titles.

"Sony has introduced that Resistance already requires more than 22GB of garage," says Margaret Robertson, editor of aspect magazine. "but the pre-release version Sony changed into capable to expose at the Tokyo game show failed to offer a clean visible advantage over the Xbox 360's Gears Of conflict."

there may be a risk here that the more garage capability offered with the aid of Blu-ray will be stuffed up with 1080p textures that few people can certainly show on their TVs; or video games might be padded with non-interactive video sequences that look pretty but upload nothing to the gameplay. If builders can not efficaciously use the single-layer 25GB Blu-ray discs, what will they do with the dual-layer 50GB ones in order to be to be had subsequent yr?

quantity or pleasant?

"Filling 25GB isn't always that spectacular," provides Robertson, "specially if it consists of all the worldwide voicing and nothing is compressed. The large question is how a whole lot quality you in reality lose to in shape the identical recreation on DVD. As matters stand in the interim, it doesn't appear to be a wonderful deal. what's much less clean is how an awful lot quantity you could lose - so even though Resistance would not outshine Gears Of conflict visually, we do not know but if it's going to be a far larger game, with extra various environments.

"three years down the road, while everything genuinely is being made in 1080p, then studios might be relying on Blu-ray. however thus far no developer we have spoken to has singled out disc area as a selected gain of PS3".

trying to the destiny, optical storage may also properly end up beside the point as the home leisure industry flirts with the idea of virtual delivery.

As broadband speeds have stepped forward, businesses like Apple have moved from track to video downloads. The landmark deal to down load episodes of misplaced was just a precursor to the modern availability of full-period films just like the Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean on iTunes.

recreation downloads

The gaming enterprise is arguably beforehand of the curve right here - Valve's Steam carrier is already presenting the type of click-and-buy virtual downloads that should make high avenue shops frightened.

"it is no longer tough to assume that as soon as the broadband infrastructure helps fast complete game downloads, Microsoft could be right there and prepared to supply," says Steve Brown, editor of the UK's legit Xbox 360 mag . it will make Sony's 'i've got a bigger disc than you' swagger even extra beside the point."

"the entirety we have seen of Xbox 360's 2d age of next-generation games (Gears of battle, Halo 3, Bioshock, Splinter mobile and greater) indicates that visually, and in terms of content material, there isn't always a single PS3 launch recreation that can same Xbox 360's exclusives in pleasant. Blu-ray isn't always about higher games. it is approximately selling an unproven film layout that Sony has invested in up to the hilt."