Todd Howard on Blu-ray and data duplication

GameSetWatch reports that hidden away in an EGM story about Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, a quote by Todd Howard on the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion raises eyebrows. Howard said: “Drive speed matters more to me [than capacity], and Blu-ray is slower.” Furthermore, EGM noted that “…the PS3 Oblivion team compensated for the slower drive by duplicating data across the Blu-ray disc, making it faster to find and load.”

Replicating data in order to compensate for slow “seek time” does seem to negate the advantage of having higher capacity. Ouchies. Anyway, people have noted that replication of data to lower seek times have been done before, particularly in the PSP and with the UMD format. However they still add that it does negate, somewhat, the storage advantage.

Oblivion for the PS3 has been pushed to March 2007. It was supposed to be released around early November or so, just in time for the PS3 launch date. From the looks of things, Bethesda will still have their product released near launch… European launch.

GameSetWatch reports that hidden away in an EGM story about Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, a quote by Todd Howard on the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion raises eyebrows. Howard said: “Drive speed matters more to me [than capacity], and Blu-ray is slower.” Furthermore, EGM noted that “…the PS3 Oblivion team compensated for the slower drive by duplicating data across the Blu-ray disc, making it faster to find and load.”

Replicating data in order to compensate for slow “seek time” does seem to negate the advantage of having higher capacity. Ouchies. Anyway, people have noted that replication of data to lower seek times have been done before, particularly in the PSP and with the UMD format. However they still add that it does negate, somewhat, the storage advantage.

Oblivion for the PS3 has been pushed to March 2007. It was supposed to be released around early November or so, just in time for the PS3 launch date. From the looks of things, Bethesda will still have their product released near launch… European launch.