14 DAY TRIAL // id Software, the developer of the upcoming Rage title, has confirmed that the game will ship on three DVDs for the Xbox 360, but has also detailed the special install process that's designed to help owners of the console avoid long load times.
Xbox 360 owners have worried a bit in regards to Rage, the new first person shooter with role playing and racing elements from id Software, as the game was expected to arrive on multiple discs like quite a few recent titles that appeared on the Microsoft console, including L.A. Noire or Dead Space 2.
Now, id Software's Tim Willits confirmed that Rage will, in fact, come on three Xbox 360 DVDs, but the studio has taken a few special measures to ensure it won't affect gameplay all that much and won't force players to do the 22GB installation.
"We recommend installing the game to the hard drive, but you don't need to install all three discs," explained Willits to Eurogamer. "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."
Players, according to Willits, won't have any reason to go back to a previous disc once they finished that content, so there's no need to run back and forth to the console to swap them out.
Willits does praise Sony for its PlayStation 3 strategy, as all consoles are shipped with a hard drive, making the job of a developer much easier, knowing all consoles have something on which to install files.
"Sony was great. Kudos to Sony for letting us do that," 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?"
Microsoft hopes to allow developers more space on the Xbox 360 game discs through a new type of format, which was tested out earlier this year.
Rage is out on October 4, in North America, and October 7, in Europe.