PlayStation 3 Data Installs Not So "Mandatory" After All?

The debate over installing data to the PlayStation 3 continues to rage, as more games in 2008 have required that owners spend some time before playing to install a certain amount of information. This can range up to 5GB in some cases, and users are rapidly running out of hard drive space.

However, we have just learned that Killzone 2 will not have any required installs, mandatory or otherwise. This sheds some new light on the subject, as some have argued that top-notch games will require a data install of some kind. However, there are two strikes against this theory: first of all, we've played all kinds of mediocre and even crappy titles that required us to install data to our PS3s, and secondly, we all know Killzone 2 is going to rule the school. Hence, the answer clearly must lie in how developers prepare their projects for Sony's machine. Of course, we're not saying a team like Konami didn't know what they were doing with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - it may depend on the type of game, too - but it seems that if devs don't want mandatory installs, they may not need them. We've already told you that K2 is perhaps the best shooter ever constructed, and if that doesn't need anything in the way of data installation on the PS3, it's a good sign in our estimation.

Perhaps the days of going to make a sandwich while waiting for data to install will soon disappear; maybe this was just one of those things that go bye-bye after developers gain a better handle on the console's architecture. Or, maybe it's just about the game type; maybe MGS5, no matter how well Konami understands the PS3, will once again require data installs. Who knows?

Related Game(s): Killzone 2

11/25/2008 Ben Dutka

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Comments (35 posts)

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Qubex
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:04:02 AM
Reply

That is interesting ...a testament to their Killzone 2 streaming technology maybe?

Q!

"i aM hOme"

Last edited by Qubex on 11/25/2008 11:05:46 AM

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FLYING_APE
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:04:12 AM
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killzone will make noobs eat there words.

i hope they call it killzone not killzone 2.
everyone should just forget about the first which was crap imo

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NEWCL0UD
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:06:35 AM
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i alway knew it was developers being lazy all the games sonys 1st/2nd partys release dont need them (the ones i played didn't) i hope the stop using the i miss the days you pop in a game and play away and not wait 30min

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FLYING_APE
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:08:04 AM
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BEN have you played the game?
is it all black and grey or is there a mushroom level or barbie land?

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:13:00 AM

Arnold is playing it, so no...unfortunately, I haven't seen it yet.

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MetalHead09
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:48:02 AM
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did you send out that newsletter yet? i didnt mind the mandatory installs, i need to update my harddrive anyway. i shoulda went with the 80 gig.

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Daedusian
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 10:38:52 PM

Just buy a new HDD, it's much cheaper anyways. Think I saw a good 320gig for only 70 bucks on amazon, if that deal still holds true. Otherwise, I think it's only like $105 or something. Would buy it, but I'm so broke and my xmas list has already been made lol. =(

Last edited by Daedusian on 11/25/2008 10:39:43 PM

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Sir Shak
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 11:51:28 AM
Reply

hey ben are you guys gonna release some in game footage for us on december 4th ?
it would be great to see you guys playing some single player !

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Tim Speed24
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 12:17:58 PM
Reply

I got rid of MGS4 because a couple of things bothered me about the game. Those load screens between boards were RIDICULOUS....and I wanted to start smoking for some reason.

Not only did it have to load the level but if you went back to it again (out of order) it had to reload it, WTF?

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MetalHead09
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 12:33:42 PM

timster i hear yuh on the smoking bit lol i quit smoking over a year ago but that load screan made me waana sream lol but those loads in between the levels werent that bad. the game was rediculously awsome and you let a little thing like that bother you?

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 12:31:19 PM
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The newsletter with our K2 "special impressions" goes out on the 4th (or 5th, depending).

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Papa Burgundy
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 12:46:52 PM
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Looks like my 360 will b gatherin some dust in feb when killzone 2 comes out.

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pavlovic
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 1:06:49 PM
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I really hope that there will be an installation option in KZ2. I've updated to a 250GB HDD so I have plenty of space.

I noticed a so much faster loading times in SCIV after installing, that now I want all my games in my HDD

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Zorigo
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 1:14:17 PM
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great. i haven't had the chance to upgrade my HDD so less space used rocks for me.

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CH1N00K
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 1:18:10 PM
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Could this have something to do with the amount of disc space available? We have all heard that MGS4 used up all the space available on the Disc, so did they have to compress some information that was put onto your hard drive later in order to fit everything in? If that's the case, does that mean that Killzone will just run everything off of the disc and still have space left over? And does that mean that with the amazing graphics..could it be a shorter game?

I'm just guessing here, but someone (Arnold since you're playing the game :D) please tell me I'm wrong.

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Aftab
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 1:47:27 PM

Interesting analysis.

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djjake
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 3:14:55 PM

i was wondering what size this game was as well
wonder if its dual layered or not

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Troy Powers
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 1:33:32 PM
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Killzone 2...the best shooter ever constructed? Quite possibly! I'm so addicted to this game, and I wasn't even that big on CoD4...but this game is like crack...and it's just the friggin' beta! Honestly, the could release this game without a single player campaign, and I'd buy it. Probably won't play the campaign mode anyway.

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Aftab
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 1:45:46 PM

Hmm?

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WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 2:45:49 PM
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I'm no expert on architecture but I'll try to sum up my theory: previous devs probably didn't want to get bogged down in the process of using the cell processor to get the superb graphics they wanted (this is how the PS3 can surpass the "better" graphical abilities of the 360) so they just made the textures into installs (Bioshock anyone?) But if Killzone just utilizes the cell to kill pop-ins and amp up the graphical abilities then there's no need for an install.

Am I anywhere near the truth?

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MetalHead09
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 2:56:01 PM
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does anybody have any recomendations on what harddrive i should get for my ps3? i gotta ditch the 40gig soon.

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coverton341
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 3:13:29 PM

320GB 7200RPM 2.5" by Seagate. It's like 90-100 dollars at an online store

Last edited by coverton341 on 11/25/2008 3:15:37 PM

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MetalHead09
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 4:51:02 PM

thanks guys, ill have to look them up when i get some more money flowin. i just had a thought, when is flower supposed to be coming out? that games looks interesting.

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xnonsuchx
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 @ 2:47:57 PM

There are also now 500GB 2.5" SATA drives available. I got a 250GB for ~$75 several months ago and I only have 70GB free...guess I need to go through all the demos I've installed and remove some sometime! :-)

Some PS3 owners have also run a cable from the internal SATA connection to an external SATA drive to have even larger (and FASTER) hard drives.

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Wage SLAVES
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 @ 8:32:49 PM

Anything thats 5400 rpm...I had a lil trouble with a 7200 and it was a little more hot than usual...It is soo easy to do so don't sweat it... JUST BACK UP YOUR GAME SAVES!!!!

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BIG_E
Saturday, November 29, 2008 @ 4:06:23 PM

Get a 250gig hard drive from tiger direct.com or newegg.com dude even a350gig would work.The brand of hard drive wont matter.

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Ultimadream
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 3:07:03 PM
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I don't really care for Killzone, but i'm all for an end to huge 5GB PS3 game installs

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PS3addict
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 3:19:01 PM
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@ MetalHead08
I just put in a Samsung Spinpoint M6 drive into my PS3.
Went from 40 to 500gb (Yep 1/2 a terabyte!)
I sware my PS3 is faster, the install just screams compared to the older 40gb drive.

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xnonsuchx
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 @ 2:54:50 PM

I believe the standard drives Sony originally put in the PS3 (except maybe some 80GB ones) were all 5200rpm, 1-2MB cache ones whereas most of the 250-500GB 2.5" drives are now 7800rpm, 8MB cache models.

I wonder if Sony set any drive size limit in the firmware? I know some people are using at least 1TB external drives (both via SATA or USB), so I assume no brick wall is going to be hit soon.

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chicko1983
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 3:54:04 PM
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no mandatory installs but will this mean longer load times?
I personally prefer the install if it means less loading time. Its not like I regularly play all of my games at the same time, usually I will play one game for a couple of months and then move onto the next one. This means I do not nececcesarily need to keep the intall files on my 60gb HDD. I own about 8 games but have only used 20gb of space with most of it taken up by videos.

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LightShow
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 5:21:16 PM
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It seems like HDD installs may just be a band-aid; a remedy for not wanting to invest in making full (or creative) use of the technology the PS3 offers.

And it's worked up until now. if K2 can pull this one out, it'll prove that mandatory HDD installs go in the same category as glitchiness, jaggies, and poor collision detection; dead givaways for lack-of-polish.

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coverton341
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 6:01:19 PM

I would not call it a lack of polish if its sole purpose is to cut load times like what was previously stated. It is a known fact that data can be read from the HDD faster than the BD drive can transfer it to the processor. If the dev's use it strictly for faster loading I will gladly put game data on my HDD, but on the other hand if they are using it to circumvent the processor and use it as a "band-aid" then I agree it is a crap scapegoat technique. I think the one true testament to that would be if the install were an optional one. Optional=can be played without=not bypassing the power, just speeding load times. Just my 3 cents worth

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LightShow
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 10:05:14 PM

yes i can see your point.

I'm all for faster load times ^_^

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WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ 10:18:31 PM
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Some games do have it optional, in those cases it's safe to say it has to do with load times, but I suppose it remains to be seen how long K2 takes to load. I'm betting the farm that they wouldn't have nixed the install unless the load times were reasonable.

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seismictech
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 4:46:35 PM
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this doesn't sound good to me. i guess it could work, but i would imagine there would be a lot of load times because the laser would have to read right off the disc rather than getting memory from the harddrive to help slow down loading and hiccups.

the beta ran pretty much flawlessly in the beta and it was all stored in the HDD, so i wish that GG would at least give us the option to install, i'm so used to it now and it seems reliable.

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