PS5 games use BD-66 and BD-100 but Xbox Series X games are still limited to BD-50

[BijouMan]

Out of curiosity, I was looking around eBay for pictures of the discs for NBA 2K22. I noticed that even though the PlayStation 5 disc has three layers, the Xbox Series X one only has two. Most PlayStation 5 Format Discs have been dual-layer BD-66 discs, but NBA 2K22 is a BD-100. The Xbox Series X can indeed read BD-66 and BD-100 (it plays UHD Blu-ray movies), so why does Microsoft insist on limiting game discs to BD-50s, even those that can only be used on the Xbox Series X?

[Naiera]

Bigger discs are more expensive. Regular Blu-ray is (or at least was for well over a decade) a lot more expensive than DVD to print.

[BijouMan]

Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X could have fit on one BD-100. Instead they went with 2 BD-50s.

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X could have fit on one BD-100. Instead they went with 2 BD-50s.

How does using multiple discs for a game work? Do they put half the stages on one disc and half on the other?

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

How does using multiple discs for a game work? Do they put half the stages on one disc and half on the other?

Disc 1 contains the first half of the game and Disc 2 contains the second half. When you insert Disc 1, the machine will transfer the contents of that disc and then it will prompt you to insert Disc 2. Once the contents of Disc 2 are transferred, you simply insert Disc 1 to activate the game.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

Disc 1 contains the first half of the game and Disc 2 contains the second half. When you insert Disc 1, the machine will transfer the contents of that disc and then it will prompt you to insert Disc 2. Once the contents of Disc 2 are transferred, you simply insert Disc 1 to activate the game.

that sounds annoying.

You would hope that they would be able to start playing before both disks are DL to the hard drive.

[hansolo]

And yet there are PS5 games like this: The World's Emptiest BD-66 disc. Crazy!

I think I noticed similar anomaly on GitS anime 4K disc. It had less than <66 GB of content and yet it was pressed on triple layer BD100 disc.

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by hansolo

And yet there are PS5 games like this: The World's Emptiest BD-66 disc. Crazy!

I think I noticed similar anomaly on GitS anime 4K disc. It had less than <66 GB of content and yet it was pressed on triple layer BD100 disc.

Here are the discs that PlayStation software has been able to be distributed on:

PlayStation: CD
PlayStation 2: CD, DVD-5, DVD-9
PlayStation 3: BD-25, BD-50
PlayStation 4: BD-25, BD-50
PlayStation 5: BD-66, BD-100

Here are the discs that Xbox software has been able to be distributed on:

Xbox: DVD-9
Xbox 360: DVD-9
Xbox One: BD-25, BD-50
Xbox Series X: BD-25, BD-50

[Atomic Salad]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

why does Microsoft insist on limiting game discs to BD-50s

The base Xbox One only has a standard BD drive, not UHD

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by hansolo

And yet there are PS5 games like this: The World's Emptiest BD-66 disc. Crazy!

I think I noticed similar anomaly on GitS anime 4K disc. It had less than <66 GB of content and yet it was pressed on triple layer BD100 disc.

What about the bonus situation? Lionsgate usually include the extras on the UHD disc so that may have pushed it over the 66GB mark.

[BrownianMotion]

This doesn't mean as much as you think it does, OP. Game assets are heavily compressed, and then decompressed during installation (large portions of the game will remain compressed even after installation, and then decompressed on the fly.) In fact, that was one of the big selling points of the new consoles - their dedicated hardware decompression blocks that will allow assets to be heavily compressed and then decompressed in real time at blazing fast speeds.

Also, gaming in general is moving away from physical media, even more so than movies.

[Sky_Captain]

The discs are effectively download keys.

What is or isn't on the disc between formats, is irrelevant.

Even more so, when some updates require the entire game to be reinstalled digitally.

[LexInHD]

Xbox Games = Technicolor

Playstation Games = Sony DADC

The economics of both consoles are different, as are the replicators themselves, so both consoles use different capacities for their respective titles. Sony effectively does it all "in-house" and has the capacity to replicate massive numbers of any disc capacity, so they get higher capacity discs easily, whereas Technicolor has the contract from Microsoft and has it locked in for specific cost/profit reasons and sticks to high-yield BD-50 discs that can be replicated on any of their BD replicators.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

The discs are effectively download keys.

What is or isn't on the disc between formats, is irrelevant.

Even more so, when some updates require the entire game to be reinstalled digitally.

Most PS4 and PS5 games don't require any downloads. I've played hundreds of games on PS4 and dozens on PS5 without downloading a single patch.

[Warm Gun]

Stopped mattering when games started requiring full installations. It's a hassle with one disc or two.

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

Even more so, when some updates require the entire game to be reinstalled digitally.

Never had to do that with any of my PS4 games. I would have noticed.

[Sky_Captain]

Good for you.

I've a PS5 and a Series X, so clearly I'm talking bollocks....

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Stopped mattering when games started requiring full installations. It's a hassle with one disc or two.



Never had to do that with any of my PS4 games. I would have noticed.

With the sophistication of the newest generation of games comes an increase in the demand for fast access. Direct access from the disc, even at the speed the PS5's disc drive runs at, is no longer fast enough. It was fast enough in the seventh generation, but not the eighth and certainly not the ninth.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

With the sophistication of the newest generation of games comes an increase in the demand for fast access. Direct access from the disc, even at the speed the PS5's disc drive runs at, is no longer fast enough. It was fast enough in the seventh generation, but not the eighth and certainly not the ninth.

I know that. Still makes the number of discs irrelevant in everyday use.

[BrownianMotion]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

With the sophistication of the newest generation of games comes an increase in the demand for fast access. Direct access from the disc, even at the speed the PS5's disc drive runs at, is no longer fast enough. It was fast enough in the seventh generation, but not the eighth and certainly not the ninth.

This isn't true. Storage access and file I/O is no longer a bottleneck on the consoles (or on PC, once games start using DirectStorage.) These new SSDs and storage APIs are capable of read speeds of several GB/s, which is more than enough. Indeed, these speeds would allow the transfer of assets of such a high level of quality that the GPUs inside of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S wouldn't even be able to render them at a playable frame rate. You're already seeing the amount of compromises that have to be made on console any time ray tracing is implemented in a game, and next-gen engines like Unreal Engine 5 will be targeting 30fps on the consoles. This is due to the outdated GPU/CPU, not the storage.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by BrownianMotion

This isn't true. Storage access and file I/O is no longer a bottleneck on the consoles (or on PC, once games start using DirectStorage.) These new SSDs and storage APIs are capable of read speeds of several GB/s, which is more than enough. Indeed, these speeds would allow the transfer of assets of such a high level of quality that the GPUs inside of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S wouldn't even be able to render them at a playable frame rate. You're already seeing the amount of compromises that have to be made on console any time ray tracing is implemented in a game, and next-gen engines like Unreal Engine 5 will be targeting 30fps on the consoles. This is due to the outdated GPU/CPU, not the storage.

If games were run directly off the Blu-ray disc instead of being installed to the SSD then the Blu-ray drive would certainly be the bottleneck, not the GPU or CPU. I believe that's the point that BijouMan was making.