@welshbloke, I think John Carmack (sorry if i have spelled it wrong) said earlier that the distribution charges increases many fold if we go from 2 to 3 disc... thats why they have kept the number of disc to 2... which is the maximum they can have without incurring extra charges.. I think this 2 disc limit is imposed by MS... i will try to look for the article.
Apparently this article was badly reported and may not be entirely accurate. Taken that aside, as they have already split the game to 2 discs why not 3 or 4 let the 360 owners worry about disc swapping and provide the game as you intended to the other formats.
The data issue is a problem though. Either because of multiple discs, file swapping or extended game load times. So I do not think this is cut and dry.
In my opinion you give somebody a 25gb disc they fill it and not necessarily with good things also you take away the limitations which leads to no attempt to optimise. Not really a bad thing just human nature and not all developers will be so cavalier.
The single biggest problem the 360 has in my opinion is the Hard disk. They are simply in the original format (althought getting bigger) to small and what is worse to expensive to upgrade or replace. If the 360 had access to larger of the shelf drives this would in my opinion alleviate a lot of the perceived advantage of the Blu Ray disc.
Earlier suggestions of compression compromises are now followed up with news that whole levels are being cut to accommodate the Xbox 360.
Quote: According to Willits, the game was supposed to feature several wastelands for the player to explore. Because of the limitations of the Xbox 360's media, they had to cut down the wastelands to only two, which are themselves split into multiple instances. These changes have been made across all versions of Rage, not just the 360 port.
@apujanata, Digital distribution allows for more impulse buys for gamers. Many of the gamers that I play with in online games supported through Steam will often purchase titles via Steam on impulse more so than if they had to go and drive to a store and buy it.
In addition, no worries about how many times you can install the game because you download it anywhere and install it (as in the case of Steam). One of the other large advantage of digital distribution is that you do not have to put the disc into the drive to play as with most retail versions of PC games - not a large thing, but just something annoying leapfrogged by digital distribution.
There is also the pre-purchase factor where you can actually download a game before its release date and then once its release date comes, the game is playable - no dealing with pre-orders, shipping, or etc. You never have to worry about whether a store has a title you plan on purchasing if you utilize digital distribution either.
In addition, as digital distro platforms expand, they add more exclusive services such as auto-download and installing game patches/updates whereas many PC games you have to manually go into the game or to the game's website and download a patch/update. There is also upcoming new features through services such as Steam where settings and saved games can be stored on a server where they can be accessed from anywhere you play the game.
I have also noticed that there tends to be price discounts on digitally distributed titles more often than with their retail counterparts because of lower costs of not needing to ship the boxes and more.
Currently, this growing preference of digital distribution is mostly confined to PC gamers due to the lack of digital distro on the consoles.
My original point was why cut out another possible way of selling copies of their titles? Putting Rage and Doom 4 on a digital distribution service would be easy and would just create another place where gamers can pick-up the games. It has never made good business sense to restrict where a consumer can buy something. (I found this case to be especially odd due to id Software's existing partnership with Steam.)
Is the price for digital distribution lower than retail ? What is the advantage and disadvantage of digital distribution vs retail for brand new whole game (NOT DLC / add-on / new chapter / new campaign) like Rage or Doom 4 ?
The only advantage that I am aware of is faster speed (to play game, if you have very good internet connection), saving money on gas (if you have unlimited subscription), and the disadvantage of possible crack by hacker (CC info), no printed manual, no nice shiny physical Disc (backup to DVD always result in ugly standard DVD).
@apujanata, That's not my point. My point was that there is a large number of PC gamers that are more likely to pick up the titles if they are offered via digital distribution also.
@lstormy10, Not everyone are willing or have the right internet connection bandwidth to download 10 - 18 GB (assuming 2 DVD of either DVD5 or DVD9) of data, when then can just pick up the CD and have a nice, printed out manual.
@apujanata, I find it rather stupid not to offer Doom 4 or Rage via digital distribution when they come to the PC.
Digital distribution is constantly growing in power on the PC compared to retail and honestly, the games would probably acquire more sales if sold both at retail and via digital distribution.
Not to mention the fact that id Software already offers titles from their back catalog via Steam (arguably the strongest digital distribution platform for games on the PC right now).
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I think John Carmack (sorry if i have spelled it wrong) said earlier that the distribution charges increases many fold if we go from 2 to 3 disc... thats why they have kept the number of disc to 2... which is the maximum they can have without incurring extra charges..
I think this 2 disc limit is imposed by MS... i will try to look for the article.