God of War III needs no HDD install

By Robert Purchese Published 23 February, 2010

PS3 game occupies over 35GB.

Sony Santa Monica has revealed that God of War III will not require installation before play.

Head of development, Christer Ericson, dropped the bomb on Twitter.

"God of War III does not do an HD install," he said. "The 5MB listed on box-back is for save game only."

"There is no HD install option for [God of War III]," he later added.

Earlier today we learned that the third God of War game takes up at least 35GB of Blu-ray disc space. And the European version will be even bigger and in the "low 40s", according to Sony Santa Monica team member Tim Moss (via VG247).

God of War III will be released on 19th March. Check out our God of War III competition to stand a chance at winning the Ultimate Edition of the game (plus tons of posters and t-shirts).

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • aidey6 #1 2 years ago

    Uncompressed sound 7.1 I reckon, otherwise it would fit onto a DVD9. It doesn't mean I am not looking forward to playing this of course!!!

  • IronGiant #2 2 years ago

    Lots of streaming off the disc?

    Anyway who cares, when's the review going up?

  • andywilkie35 #3 2 years ago

    Currently trying to smash my way through the God of War Collection before Heavy Rain, before this! Gonna be great

  • KayJay #4 2 years ago

    Following on from KingAntoine's comment. How long before we get a NXE style install option on the PS3. I too would prefer a few minutes of loading time at the start to help all the points already mentioned.

  • FreakyZoid #5 2 years ago

    That's a pretty bloody huge save game for a linear beat em up.

    edit: Seriously, how many play statistics are they keeping track of for it to take 5Mb to save? GTA IV is about 700K and that stores loads of info.
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/10 @ 17:23

  • BartonFink #6 2 years ago

    Oooo streaming directly from the PS3s blu-ray drive. Ouch

  • Stomp224 #7 2 years ago

    @ SHARXTREME

    Localised audio files?

  • ryohazuki1983 #8 2 years ago

    EU = 5 languages, might be why?

  • simplerotation #9 2 years ago

    @SHARXTREME A European disc is likely to be EFIGS + maybe Dutch (& rarely Russian/Polish). Whereas a NA disc is likely to be English/French(canadian).
    All the extra VO for European may be what is contributing to the increased size.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #10 2 years ago

    Bigger because Euro version has voice over in 13 languages 9 more than American version

  • NorUraeus #11 2 years ago

    @simplerotation : I would assume that these days the North American version would also include Spanish

  • patchbox360 #12 2 years ago

    "The 5MB [sic] listed on box-back is for save game only."

    now where can one obtain such a box?

  • miiiguel #13 2 years ago

    now where can one obtain such a box?

    Killzone 2.

  • MiniAmin #14 2 years ago

    It must be a miracle, a whole 16 odd comments and somebody's yet to say "this couldn't be done on 360, 360 sucks!" etc

    Rabid fanboys with your negs! It was intended as a light-hearted joke
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/10 @ 21:07

  • Spekingur #15 2 years ago

    It couldn't! It's already confusing as it is with God of War and Gears of War where people use GoW for either of them...

    I'm just hoping it won't be crap. I'd hate for a reviewer to be nostalgic about the earlier iterations and thus give God of War 3 a high score 'because it is God of War' - hopefully this isn't going to happen because the game will be good enough to justify the score.

  • Doctor_What #16 2 years ago

    Well... It might not be good. GoW2 wasn't as good as GoW1, but I think that was mainly down to the story and over-use of mini-bosses. Hoepfully that lesson has been learnt, but it's still a worry.

  • Yaz #17 2 years ago

    @trebell who wrote "As for the 576p.. that'll be nothing to do with capacity"

    Correct. It's also interesting that the so-called confirmation of the 360 version of FFXIII being 576p seems to come mostly from screenshots of the cinematics, which we already know will be DVD quality rather than Blu-ray quality. And even if we had ingame screenshots at 576p, it's not necessarily the res of the actual game.

    Besides, isn't 576p one of the standard resolutions for DVD? Coincidence? I doubt it. :-)

    My guess, upon release it will be confirmed that the ingame graphics are more or less the same and with a resolution of 720p (sorry Sharkx ;-)), but with the cinematics on the 360 version being 576p. We'll see.

    And wrote "It's nice to enjoy both consoles and be able to enjoy the best of both but also have a fair view of them too."

    Agreed 100%.
    Edited by 3 at 23/02/10 @ 18:06

  • Beano #18 2 years ago

    "It's also interesting that the so-called confirmation of the 360 version being 576p actually comes from screenshots of the cinematics, which we already know will be DVD quality rather than Blu-ray quality. "

    I thought the FFXIII 360 videos runs in 720p using Bink Video... not standard PAL DVD resolution (576p) ?
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/10 @ 18:03

  • Yaz #19 2 years ago

    @Beano who wrote "I thought the FFXIII 360 videos runs in 720p using Bink Video... not standard PAL DVD resolution (576p) ?"

    Thanks, you could be right Beano, I did read the Bink video format was being used for the 360 version, but I hadn't read what the resolution was (has it been specified somewhere?). But if you are correct, then it immediately questions the 576p claims, since those screenshots of the cinematics would be of a lower resolution compared to the actual game.

  • Beano #20 2 years ago

    The way I understood it (I'm not sure though!) : 720p resolution for prerendered scenes (bink video) and 576p (upscaled to 720p) for realtime cinematics.

    But let's see when the game arrives and it can be analyzed propperly by DF.. and not just based on screenshots :)
    Edited by 2 at 23/02/10 @ 18:32

  • sfp_noodle #21 2 years ago

    i dnt care hw much disc space it takes up, ive played the demo and its awesome! i wanna know how the full game is! official playstation magazine gave it a 9 but tht was more than obvious. i wanna know if they can turn 10 minutes of awesomeness into 8 hours or so

  • Darren #22 2 years ago

    I'm not surprised the full game is 35 GB as the demo was almost 3 GB and amounted to just 20 minutes of gameplay. Despite being almost a year old though, the demo was brilliant so I have high hopes for this new game being every bit as enjoyable as the previous two PS2 classics. I've had the game pre-ordered since October of last year.

    Can. Not. Wait.

  • Darren #23 2 years ago

    Note to PS3 Developers
    ===============

    There's nothing wrong with PS3 games having *optional* HDD installs to speed up loading times like the Xbox 360, just don't make them *mandatory*... OK? ;)

  • Beano #24 2 years ago

    ^ I'll second that!

  • Distributor #25 2 years ago

    Cant wait for the load times.

  • bing #26 2 years ago

    'It does look like FFXIII is going to be the 16th game on Eurogamer face-offs to be better on the PS3 though.'

    Eh? Ha ha you've not actually been counting them have you?

  • wellzy4eva #27 2 years ago

    Is stating '40 gig of hard drive space? easy! there's no other good games on the PS3' good enough for you MiniAmin?

  • ParanoidZombie #28 2 years ago

    SIZE DOES MATTER

  • Sulphur #29 2 years ago

    Those really are some shocking numbers. The PC's ass getting creamed by the 360? WHO'DA THUNKIT

    OR - it could just be that there's a fuckton of console titles that weren't simultaneously released on the PC.

  • Badassbab #30 2 years ago

    Does this mean long load times ala KZ2 which also had no HDD install? I'd rather an option please.

  • Badassbab #31 2 years ago

    Sharkextreme-

    IGN's H2H are piss poor. Eurogamer does it soooo much better. IGN just look at a game and go 'I like that one!" Digital Foundry uses state of the art tech though unfortunately they barely mention sound differences.

  • Spekingur #32 2 years ago

    A Mac is a PC. Are you trying to say that MS are somehow controlling Apple?

    Can I also point out that IGN hasn't done as many comparisons as DF/EG has?
    Edited by 2 at 24/02/10 @ 01:50

  • DrugBert #33 2 years ago

    How is saying that you're not doing something "dropping the bomb"? And why should anyone _expect_ to have to install a game? Being allowed to install it might be a nice touch though.

  • tonixuk #34 2 years ago

    Back on topic, I for one am grateful for games with no mandatory install for 2 reasons. 1. I only have a 40gb PS3 and 2. I cannot think of anything worse than peeling of the cellophane wrapper, with the smell of new gamebox in the air, gently prising the unmarked disk from the box, inserting that same disk with shaking hands into the drive, picking up the controller and with a deep breath................
    Finding out I've got between 20 and 40 mins to wait to play the f$*ck*** thing!!!

  • muscleblade #35 2 years ago

    "what is your opinion why there is 10:1 difference in "better" multiplat games for 360 only on EG? "

    I think its because EG is very objective when it comes to comparisons, while IGN has a bias towrads the PS3 for some strange reason. If you read their reviews of Ghostbusters for both platforms that came out at same time in the US they gave both versions the same score and said there wasnt any major differences. Later even the developers admitted the difference was major.

  • SYS64738 #36 2 years ago

    The tagline reminds me of the 16bit announcements of yesteryear - 16MBit cartridge woooow!!
    :)

  • muscleblade #37 2 years ago

    I predict an average of 85-88% for this game. It wont be the graphical showcase many believe it will be. More of the same in HD thats all. Thats good enough for most people anyway. Will sell lots more than Heavy Rain which is a shame imo.

  • Yaz #38 2 years ago

    @trebell who wrote "Off topic, but as it got dragged into this thread, has anyone seen this comment?..."

    Thanks for that trebell.

  • ElectricDemon #39 2 years ago

    So, um, where's this competition mentioned in the article?
    /can find no link

  • karooo #40 2 years ago

    "Yeah, yeah, everything fits on DVD9(: Even FFXIII 576p version fits on DVD9. 3 of them."

    hehe good one, these 360 guys live on hope, bu bu but 360 an do this as well, do that as well, 360 is 4 years old suckers, when it will do it?

    @muscleblade you are mistaken it looks much better than UC2, this game is gonna be out of this world.
    Edited by 1 at 24/02/10 @ 16:04

  • karooo #41 2 years ago

    I can't believe we are talking about IGN here. that site is clueless.

    @trebell chill dude I love the 360.
    Edited by 1 at 24/02/10 @ 16:56

  • Yaz #42 2 years ago

    Sure SHARX, just as much as you didn't need it. ;-)

  • Yaz #43 2 years ago

    ^^^ It's hasn't been officially proven to be 576p SHARX (screenshots are not enough), so as far as I'm aware, it's 720p. If it happens to be 576p, then so be it, you could then crow to your heart's content.

    As for install and other details about FFXIII on the 360, again we have to wait and see, so it's a little early to act smug about unconfirmed details don't you think. :-) From what I've read, the 18.5GB install is for those who WANT to install the game onto the HDD, it's not a *requirement* for the game. But hey, why let a little thing like facts get in the way of a good ol' bash. ;-)

    6.8GB per DVD, yes I know. Moving on.
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 10:45

  • man.the.king #44 2 years ago

    If anyone is still reading this section, apparently the GOW III demo is out on Euro PSN now, if you are interested: http://blo g.eu.playstation.com/2010/02/25/god-of-war-iii-demo-now-down loadable-from-playstation-store/

  • Yaz #45 2 years ago

    ^^^ Thanks mtk :)