Blu-Ray Too Measly For Solid Snake

After neatly trouncing Toshiba's lame-duck HD DVD format, one would imagine Sony's Blu-Ray would be cock of the walk, but design maverick Hideo Kojima is already lamenting its limitations, as he cuts away at his forthcoming opus in order to fit it on a disc.

In a recent interview with Japanese gaming mag Famitsu, Kojima held forth on the format:

Kojima: For us, we're not still not satisfied with the quality we can do. You know, there's not capacity space.

Interviewer: Wait, wait a sec. Saying there's not enough capacity, are you talking about Blu-ray?

Kojima: That's correct. There's not enough space at all. (laughs) ...There's not enough space. We always talked about where to cut and what to compress.

There is no concrete word on whether or not gameplay elements have been cut from the game due to space restrictions. The only definite cut due to Blu-Ray's 50 GB threshold is the lack of a Japanese language track in the European/North American build of the game.

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I will be honest, this to me sounds a but off. If you can barely fit your game onto 50 gigs, perhaps you need to try using compression. I would be shocked if this game ends up being longer than 20 hours, which probably means we will sit through hours of cut scenes that confound and amuse.

I'm not buying it. If Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, with easily 75 - 100 hours of gameplay, can fit on an HD-DVD disc, then I'm pretty sure that Hideo can squeeze Metal Gear onto the Blu-Ray.

I hear all your skepticism, and Hideo is well known for his PR deceptions. But, he's also known for trying to fit the Lakers, the polar ice-caps and the kitchen sink into his games. I don't doubt the scope of his vision, nor his ability to put boatloads of data on a disc.

Wow. 50 gigs. I've never played MGS (I dont use playstation), but now I want to. Dear gods, this man really is going for something big here, isnt he?

I seriously doubt his claim as well. In case we don't quite understand how big this is...Konami might as well release mgs 4 on its own hard drive.

Hengst2404:
we will sit through hours of cut scenes that confound and amuse.

In a Metal Gear game?! No wai!!!

"I am shocked. Shocked! To discover that there are confounding and amusing cutscenes going on in this game!"

Well, one problem with the Blu-Ray drives in the PS3 is poor performance - it's been mentioned that in several PS3 games the developers have resorted to duplicating data on several areas of the disc in order to speed up access time, just to make their game engines function.

I find it hard to believe that they're actually managing to fill up 50gb of space with unique content though, unless they're using a lot of pre-rendered HD video and have a significant audio track(s).

So, games suddenly went from fitting on a DVD to not fitting on an entire Blu-Ray disc? I'm sure that, perhaps, MGS4 needs to be trimmed down, and he needs to make some concessions, but that doesn't mean 50 GBs is a reasonable size for a game, currently.

I can certainly see games on the 360 soon needing multiple discs, but to already be talking multiple Blu-Ray discs? That's crazy. If he wants to include another 10 GBs of voice overs, he simply should include a second disc in a special edition of the game, and have the disc install to the HD. It would take some time, but it seems like it's right up the hard-core fans alley anyway, so they wouldn't mind. And the rest of us can just buy the single disc edition.

Not sure what to make of it, but it sure sounds like there's a lot planned for this game. Hopes are high, for sure.

The graphics probably take up a lot as it looks like top notch stuff. They should just sell it as two dics, and make it more expensive, to keep thee whole game.

I think its likely more a matter of not needing to really do things like compression when you have that storage at hand. While I know he is known for trying to cram everything he can into a game, 50 gbs worth of game would be truly revolutionary, especially given how much game is offered in games like Oblivion.

Obviously I was joking regarding the confounding cut scenes, I usually enjoy them, even if they take way from the actual gameplay.

m_jim:
I'm not buying it. If Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, with easily 75 - 100 hours of gameplay, can fit on an HD-DVD disc, then I'm pretty sure that Hideo can squeeze Metal Gear onto the Blu-Ray.

Oblivion fit on DVD. Regular, good ol', DVD.

Per MGS4 and bumping the 50GB limit, my brain can only fathom the possibility that Hideo and his crew are not using disc space efficiently (either because of a refusal to use more compression, or because of duplicating data for other reasons). The idea that the disc space is being used efficiently, and there is still 50+ GBs of content, just boggles my mind. It is simply incomprehensible to me. Anything is possible, but some things are just hard to imagine.

Come on. Crysis took up only 12 gigs. And you can't put MGS4 onto 50 gigs? What is the gaming world coming to?

While slightly suprising it did mention that they had to talk about what to cut and what to compress.
Well cut the Japanese voice track ~ no brainer and compress what ever else you need to.
The 360 pretty much needs to have everything compressed due to the lack of space on a DVD and the PC has done it for years, part of the reason for the old install thingy that PC gamers put themselves through.
Compressing data is hardly a big deal, Kojima is just trying to give the game his own unique brand of hype.

Hengst2404:
Obviously I was joking regarding the confounding cut scenes, I usually enjoy them, even if they take way from the actual gameplay.

I know. Me too. I was just razzing you. :)

By "After neatly trouncing Toshiba's lame-duck HD DVD format" do you mean

paying Toshiba off with a cheap deal on the PS3 Cell processor factory? looks like a deal to share the PS3 profits to me or is that overly cynical

Somehow i am seriously worried about the mental condition of Hideo Kojima.

First the two rather...bizarre story trailers, and now BS-statements like this.

Maybe MGS3 should've REALLY been the last MGS Game, at least for the sake of Kojimas Creative Sanity

What's wrong with releasing the game on 2 Blu-Ray discs? Or is that just silly talk? ;-)

what he was aiming for with blu ray was as little compression as possible so that the quality is not effected, all he's saying is that he was dissapointed with the amount of compression they ended up needing, don't take it out of conext and start getting annoyed when the game isnt 5 years long like you falsely expected.

Echolocating:
What's wrong with releasing the game on 2 Blu-Ray discs? Or is that just silly talk? ;-)

Yeah, heaven forbid if the PS3 has to use multiple discs for its games, especially with the amount of fanboys ive seen who like to make fun of the 360 because Blue Dragon and Lost Oddyssy had to be put onto multiple discs because of them still being on a DVD-format.

Still, I doubt anyone could have really filled a BlueRay disc so soon. Even the final fantasy games on the PS2 managed to have everything on a single disc, and oblivion with all the stuff that has available from the get-go.
Lord knows what theyre doing if they really have reached the 50GB limit...

Let's just see a two disc version. One for the cutscenes in which Kojima makes his fantasy film of characters doing badass things that you can't do in-game, and the second disc which you can actually play without being reminded by cutscenes that all that gun-juggling-close-in-fighting is reduced to a single grab-throw manuever.

I suppose they could work that in with quick-time events, a la Resident Evil 4's knife fight with Krauser. (But that made up for itself later in the real boss fight! It was easier for me when I ditched the guns and only used the knife!)

james.lloyd:
By "After neatly trouncing Toshiba's lame-duck HD DVD format" do you mean

paying Toshiba off with a cheap deal on the PS3 Cell processor factory? looks like a deal to share the PS3 profits to me or is that overly cynical

I'd say, if that is so, it still constitutes a "neat trounce."

Maybe he added one to many mags into the game.

I've just had a ridiculous mental image of smaller version of Hideo running around the Konami offices in absolute distress because he couldn't put in the Japanese subbed, English dubbed, Korean commentary on ultra-fantastico-hard-mode-which-no-one-ever-plays-because-we-can't-stand-another-run-through-of-the-game because the disc space 'ran out'.

Oh, what? The discussion? Er... yeah. I like Metal Gear Solid.

Honestly!

Guys I'm not sure if you know that but the longest cutscene in MSG series took fifteen FUCKING minutes (Just bought GWR Gamer's Edition).Expect a decent but very over-hyped game with 3 out of 12 hours spent watching cut-scenes.

I'm pretty sure Sony payed them to say it so Capcom can now start bullshitting on why "It's technically impossible to port MSG4 to 360".

Dear Capcom: I suggest you check if you've accidentally merged MSG4 and Hentai folders together.Also remove all those cutscenes in which some random dude show off his skills by spinning his gun for five minutes( I've only seen a video of it once but fanboys should know what I'm talking about).Perhaps then your 9-hour-long game will fit in Blu-Ray.Period

That's because of the 23 hours of pseudo interactive cutscenes.

I will translate this from Bullshit to English:

Kojima: I'm fucking HIDEO KOJIMA! I shouldn't have to use compression like everyone else does! Also, 360 sucks!

Today compression techniques leave little to no difference with the original material. The 100 Gb BR disc is coming!

Arbre:
Today compression techniques leave little to no difference with the original material. The 100 Gb BR disc is coming!

But Kojima thinks he's TOO GOOD for compression, apparently.