The news that the PS3 version of Rage will require a whopping 8 GB installation came as a shock to many. People who’re still using old PS3 models would be battling for space if they so desire to install the game on their console. However Rage creative director Tim Willits explained why you need to do that.
Speaking to Digital Foundry, Willits said that the large installation size on the PS3 is to ensure texture loading of the game doesn’t take too much time and was possible due to the lax nature of Sony towards the studio:
“Sony was great. Kudos to Sony for letting us do that. They don’t allow every game to do that. So definitely, hats off,” he said. “What we were able to do is install all the textures to the highest level. What is nice about the PS3 platform is that it’s just one platform. Everyone has one Blu-ray drive, one hard drive, it’s all the same. Some of the other systems you have… should I install it on my 360? Should I not install it? So yes, it’s very nice.
Willits went on the address Xbox 360 gamers’ concerns and said that there’s a very good reason that the game is shipping on three discs. He also adviced that one need not install all three discs on your Xbox 360’s hard drive at once.
“[On 360], we recommend installing the game to the hard drive, but you don’t need to install all three discs. If you don’t have the space available on your hard drive, don’t stress. Install the first disc, the first chapter, the first half of the game, then when you’re done, uninstall and install disc two.”
“You don’t really need to install the multiplayer disc if you’re really tight on hard disk space,” he said.
Willits also confirmed that the tech used in RAGE can be easily scaled up which will enable the studio to keep using it for decades and for next-gen consoles.
Id’s shooter will be releasing in October this year and is poised to be a serious GOTY contender for 2011.
