Well im not sure if you all heard but the xbox360 is getting a new disc format that is reportedly increasing the amount of data able to be stored by 1gb as well as adding a few anti piracy features. I wonder if Skyrim will utilize this disc format in order to squeeze all the content onto a disc for the xbox since the PS3 and PC's really dont have anything to worry about.

Source

Where have you heard this from?

Here I guess...

http://www.1up.com/news/xbox-36-new-disc-format-increases-storage

http://www.oxm.co.uk/26924/xbox-360-disc-new-format/


ah Torrgus beat me to it

Yeah probably. I hadn't actually realised that they /reserved/ space for other things, so had been making my estimations on what might be the new disc space. The upshot of all this is that the 360 now no longer has less storage space than the PS2 did, which I suppose must count for something.

I'm pretty sure it was all going to fit anyways.

well they might not have to compress the data as much anymore if they use the new discs so therefore faster load times

Yeah, me too.

Or if they use like four discs, they can make it look really nice, and have a bajillion voice actors (okay, maybe more then four discs >_>...) [like, 6, but I would still buy it even, if it was 100 dollars for the regular, and 300 for the CE...)

You can't chop a game like Skyrim up and put it on more than a single disc. It just wouldn't work.

Yeah, I guess you couldnt.... Though maybe... nevermind

Unless you store it into your HD.

Which you're not allowed to do on the only platform where it matters, because MS once sold a model of the 360 without a HDD.

I don't think Skyrim is even big enough to need two discs, let alone three or four. Yes, you could store it to your HD, but it all seems very impractical. The game fits on one disc, keep it on one.

Ummm...what? Are you saying you're not allowed to download games to your 360 hard drive? If so, then you are completely wrong.

You're not allowed to require it. You can have it optionally, but you can not require it. A game like skyrim cannot be chopped up into little chunks, thus a non-install disk swap can't work. They're limited to a single disk.

Whoa, someone gets it.

OB goty, had two discs, you only need one disc for play but the rest is stored on your hardrive. those 360 hardrives (excluding the arcade of course) have more than enough space for bgs to make SK a bit bigger, after all it is supposed to be one of the top gear games that people will be playing for years to come so why not.

I believe the big xbox live update (that gave the avatars) required a hard drive, so anyone who bought the the xbox 360 core had to buy a hard drive. Also the game can be chopped up, it's just data.

Yeah, I had a copy of OB GOTY, now I just have the entire game (downloads and all) stored my my HD, but I *think* what we're talking about here is the core game being broken up into smaller pieces, and I just don't see that happening. Maybe two discs will be necessary when all the dlc comes out, but surely not for the core game alone.

Gotcha, that makes more sense. ^_^



However, there's this^^^

Edit: Also, ME2 is 2 discs. No required install, but all 360 games nowadays require some HDD space. ME2 had it's content pretty evenly divided between 2 discs. For Skyrim it wouldn't be unreasonable for Bethesda to make it require a higher space allotment than standard games. I mean, you can't play Skyrim without having to save to the HDD anyway, so I don't understand why they couldn't do a mandatory install if it meant making a better game. Microsoft probably still wouldn't allow it though, because they're ridiculous.

A dashboard update is a completely different barrel of fish to a game. MS' own guidelines do not allow forced installation.

And no, you can't split skyrim up into multiple discs. Consider how ridiculous it would have been in, say, Oblivion, to go up to dive rock and then have to swap discs every 5 seconds to load the distant land

ME2 is a hub-based game with entirely separated levels, totally different. And the 360 /does/ have internal memory, quite a significant amount in the newer models, but nowhere near enough to install entire games to.

You're right about Microsoft being stupid about that. It's irrelevant for now. ME2 was an example to make the point about too much content for one disc. But how exactly does the 360 not have enough space for entire games? I have 7 on mine, taking up a small fraction of my 250GB. The new standard 250GB HDD is pretty well equipped for almost every gamer's needs for saving anything.

Also, OT: I expect Bethesda to try to get Skyrim on the new disc format, and if they can't, then it's no big deal. But they might be able to consider some new content they weren't originally putting in. Until about September, when Skyrim "goes gold", they can choose whatever format they want.

He was talking about internal memory, not hard drive space.