Why 2-3 Discs in XBOX Games?

[LOL]

I bought 2 games this week, Battlefield 3 and LA Noire. Now I open the game cases and find 2 discs in Battlefield 3 and 3 discs in LA Noire. What is the purpose of 2-3 discs in XBOX games?

 

[Dan]

Because the one disk can't fit the whole game on it. So ye need moar!

 

[Ventus]

The reason why there are multiple discs is because of the format Xbox games take: DVD format. At max, iirc, you can have around 4.7GB on a single-layer DVD disc. Compared to PS3 games which use Blu-Ray format and have 25GB for max capacity.

 

[Castle]

Yup, less data capacity on standard DVD disks. Larger games need more disks. The game will stop and prompt you to swap the disk when the time comes. If the designers distributed the data conveniently across all the disks you won't have to be getting up to swap out the disks too often.

I like to think of it as exercise.

 

[Clank]

The reason why there are multiple discs is because of the format Xbox games take: DVD format. At max, iirc, you can have around 4.7GB on a single-layer DVD disc. Compared to PS3 games which use Blu-Ray format and have 25GB for max capacity.

However the Xbox and the PS3 can both read dual layer disks, thus actually having up to 7.8GB(Xbox 360) and 50GB(PS3) optical disk space.

 

[Viral Maze]

What Clank said.
Games does not fit on 1 DVD disk, thus the extra disks. It's not much of a hassle, changing disks, really.

 

[Chiraku]

They still have to swap out disks like that?! I gotta get out more.

 

[Ventus]

They still have to swap out disks like that?! I gotta get out more.

Only some games have to swap out discs. The biggest problem, though, is that you still have to swap discs even if you install the games to your hard drive. I know, it's for authenticity purposes, but STILL.