The fanboy shit storm this week is originating from id software’s lead designer Tim Willits confessing at a discussion at Austin Game Developers Conference that several entire wastelands had to be cut in order to fit it all on a DVD. This affects not just the Xbox 360 port, but all versions of the game.
We all knew this was going to be a problem for Microsoft and the 360 sometime in the future, and first hearing it from id software, who always is on the cutting edge if technology, is by no means a surprise.
Will Microsoft’s alleged full commitment to digital distribution come with the next Xbox? Will this force Microsoft to cram out the next Xbox sooner than later? Or will broadband connections not quite meet the power that is necessary even by 2010?
It will only get worse from here, but so far id is the only company making a public statement about the storage limitations on the 360 affecting the game design and content. When more developers join the pack, Microsoft and the Xbox 360 will have a tougher hill to climb in 2009 and most certainly 2010.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
You need to keep up dude. 1up already updated their story. Willits elaborated stating that there would be no lost content. Just instead of doing 5 or 6 smaller wasteland environments, there would be two huge wastelands. One for each disc.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169963
September 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I know, I posted this when long after 1Up’s story was updated. I never said anything else than there being two wastelands instead of 5-6. Please read more carefully.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
@Anderson: You have to keep in mind that Willits more or less changed what he said. He said something he shouldn’t have and is now afraid that the entire internet is going to go crazy with rumors that id chopped up RAGE, which it looks like they actually did. Saying that they went from 5 or 6 “smaller” wastelands to 2 “huge” ones and that means there isn’t content loss is total BS. It’s totally obvious to me that they had to cut the game back.
Also when it comes to game related articles on corporate sites, updating articles at another company’s request is fairly common. These things are far more political than readers realize. I’ve had stories of mine changed in the past when I was writing for bigger sites. If 360 storage limitations is news to anyone, they haven’t been paying attention. This has been a problem with the system for a long while now.