LittleBigPlanet takes a big amount of space: up to 40GB on Blu-ray

by Andrew Yoon { Sep 10th 2008 at 9:45AM }

Although Sony never introduced it as such, many assumed the Network-friendly LittleBigPlanet would be a downloadable game. That notion is impossible, it appears, as a new interview with GI.biz reveals otherwise. Media Molecule's Alex Evans says that "a dual layer is 40GB, but we're filling up the Blu-ray. One of the things on there is we're having a lot of tutorial content - basically there are two paths through the game, the player's route and the creator's route."

The tutorial content will be extensive in LittleBigPlanet. "We're filling the Blu-ray up with is tutorials, and a lot of video stuff showing exactly how it's done, it's narrated by Stephen Fry and so on. It's really useful that thanks to Blu-ray we haven't needed to worry about file size, it's never crossed my mind." However, this doesn't mean the game will be bloated when sharing levels and creations on the web: "The game itself and the levels you produce are relatively compact."

Tags: alex-evans, blu-ray, littlebigplanet, media-molecule

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

acidwolvers @ Sep 10th 2008 9:53AM

Wow..what does that mean for people who still own a 20, 40, and even possibly 60gb PS3's?

Or do they mean take up space on the disc itself?

Kxpuc @ Sep 10th 2008 9:56AM

space on the disk

Morpheus @ Sep 10th 2008 9:58AM

did you read the article? On the disc itself yes. Good that they got stephen fry to narrate like the HP games, makes a good fit.

Suki Vee @ Sep 10th 2008 12:56PM

He just ran out of space in his brain. Move on guys.

TinyTim121 @ Sep 10th 2008 9:53AM

I nearly had a heart attack after reading the headline

40GB install came to my head lol

But after reading it...yay for Blu-Ray!!

mahunoy @ Sep 10th 2008 10:00AM

hahaa same here... i have a launch PS3 with 160GB HDD, and i have less than 60GB space available. but yeah after reading it... BD FTW!

Andrew Yoon @ Sep 10th 2008 10:17AM

To prevent any real heart attacks, I slightly edited the headline. Enjoy good coronary health!

Love,
Andrew

TinyTim121 @ Sep 10th 2008 5:32PM

Cheers, Doc

tlarkin79 @ Sep 10th 2008 12:16PM

So basically they have 30GB+ of BluRay cutscenes on the disc? If those were compressed or rendered in-game there wouldn't be an issue with space I would think.

In my opinion, this game doesn't NEED 40GB but it can use it all to make Blu-Ray seem like more of a requirement and take a shot at the Wii and 360 at the same time.

scratch @ Sep 10th 2008 4:04PM

tlarkin - they are filling the disk with tutorials, not cut-scenes. The tutorials are in-game. at PAX they showed off some of these tutorials - you are actually playing (in a restricted way) while the tutorial plays. There are tons of tutorials because they want to help people learn how to do all the creative stuff, in addition to playing with what they have made. That's what he is talking about here.

David @ Sep 10th 2008 7:25PM

scratch- he says: "We're filling the Blu-ray up with is tutorials, and a lot of video stuff showing exactly how it's done.." A LOT OF VIDEO...You can bet A LOT of that space used is because of video. Also what' s the deal with him saying that thanks to blu-ray he hasn't thought about space at all but he still says they' re filling up the disc? Isn't that contradictory?

Also...he says a dual-layer blu-ray is 40gb when it's actually 50gb...confused maybe?

Anyway...why can't the game come out now???? I want to play it ASAP!! a month is too much to waaaaiiit I want it nooooow!

David @ Sep 10th 2008 7:36PM

David @ Sep 10th 2008 7:41PM

crappy comment system...sorry

MakaiOokami @ Sep 11th 2008 10:05AM

It's called High Definition.

Remember a 2-3 hour movie will easily take up a crap load of data. A 23 minute HD anime episode takes roughly 300MB

Let's say that there is 2 hours of videos... You'd multiply the roughly 20 minutes by 5, and the MB roughly by 5 for a rough estimate. That'd be 1.5GB per hour, and 3 GB for 2 hours. Roughly. That's 1/3 of the DVD's storage space.

Don't forget the fact that the 360 can't even handle HD so it has to be upscaled.

If developers want their game to be truly HD let them. Quit trying to dog on their choices.

TinyTim121 @ Sep 10th 2008 9:54AM

Disk Space...when i read the headline i thought install as well.

DeathroW @ Sep 10th 2008 9:57AM

No it just means you can't read. Seriously.

Brettjr @ Sep 10th 2008 9:59AM

They didn't word it right, they meant use up 40gb disc space ie a Blu Ray, NOT harddrive space which I thought they meant when I read the headline but realized wasn't the case when I read the article.

JakeDunn @ Sep 10th 2008 9:59AM

Yay for blu-ray indeed

Makes you wonder how big the install will be, if Bioshock needs 5-6 gigs how much will this game need?

Averna @ Sep 10th 2008 11:05AM

Im guessing minimal, just beacuse this was designed for the ps3 from the ground up (think Uncharted).

I would guess there would be some kind of install to better support shared levels and junk, but I dont think it will even go over 1GB *crosses fingers*

zechgroove @ Sep 10th 2008 10:01AM

haha I had the same thought, 40gb install?! NO WAI!!

Nathanical @ Sep 10th 2008 10:02AM

lol i thought the same with the headline! didnt bother me toooo much as ive got a 250gb hdd, but i spose its a wakeup call to all those who havnt upgraded yet. *mentally transmits* 'you will upgrade your hard drives, you will upgrade your hard drives'

Metal_Gear @ Sep 10th 2008 10:02AM

Read the title, then after I recovered from my heart attack and read the article... yay for Blu-Ray!

And

j.howlett @ Sep 10th 2008 10:13AM

another bluray filling title. can't wait and i'll be taking both paths through the game

HeavyRaines17 @ Sep 10th 2008 10:36AM

I think there is tremendous opportunity to have this as a PSN title at some point anyway. Give the bare-bones of the playable game but then have a YouTube Channel set-up just for the tutorials that is accessible from the game itself. LittleBigPlanet is already poised to break so much ground with it's user-generated content, why not add this notch to their belt as well?

Jerses @ Sep 10th 2008 10:57AM

Agree with you, they should make a psn download. I dont think the game is more than 1gb without the tutorials and videos.

Popfrogs @ Sep 10th 2008 2:58PM

@Jerses: you'd be surprised, there are probably a gig of game assets (stickers, materials, etc.) alone.

The Kiss @ Sep 10th 2008 10:37AM

And they though casual gamer games were not that grand... this game does indeed deserve the name it has.

One more thing... DVD9's got nothin' on the awesome power of Blu... Blu-Ray that is. I guess this means thta Xbox 360 fans will need disc swapping more often if the g-devs decide to go uber wiht content creation for their games.