Just wondering about the file size on VR games....

[Tattoo_Dude]

I have noticed that the file size of all these games is small, like, extremely small in comparison to modern games. Example, Lone Echo, our newest and touted VR game has a file size of just over 2 GB. This is the same size as Amnesia (and LE is actually a little smaller) which came out 7 years ago and was a small, indie endeavor. I know the games are short(er), but it seems like, and kind of feels like we are getting the short end here when it comes to gaming. Now I'm not saying we are getting ripped off (hey, I don't have to pay for it) but where are the 30, 40, or even 60 GB games that we see in modern gaming? Where are the VR games that provide 10, 20 or 100 of hours of story and entertainment for $50 or $60? I'm just wondering why we are getting 2 and 4 GB games. We can afford the computers to run this thing, we surely can afford the storage for longer and larger games. Or (more likely) am I missing something here?

[MikeF]

filesize doesnt denote quality nor is it indicative of playtime
ex: robo recall is over 9gb, only a few hours of playtime if you're not going for 100% on every mission. Altspace is 375mb, endless gameplay.

Filesize boils down to amount of assets, nature of assets and optimization, nothing to do with gameplay 

[Tattoo_Dude]

I recognize that MikeF, but is there a single VR game over 10 GB? Whereas nearly every modern high end game is 40 to 60 GB. That is a large discrepancy and every story driven VR game is 4 to 6 hours long. Also, Altspace is hardly high end or graphically cutting edge.

[cybereality]

There are a bunch of VR games over 10GB. For example, Wilson's Heart is 22GB. Arizona Sunshine is 17GB. The Climb and Star Trek are around 12GB. 

[Tattoo_Dude]

 cybereality said:

There are a bunch of VR games over 10GB. For example, Wilson's Heart is 22GB. Arizona Sunshine is 17GB. The Climb and Star Trek are around 12GB. 

OK cyber, I guess there are some (although none come close to the 40 to 60 GB of Dishonored II or Witcher III) but that was not exclusively my point. It seems that VR games are just smaller when it would seem to me that to make VR title of equal stature to its regular PC counterpart, it should be larger. Instead we are getting shorter, smaller, and less game in general. My question is more about the triple A titles. As an example, Wilson's Heart is 22 GB and takes about 5 hours to beat for $40. The new Hitman title is 40 GB, has a huge amount of content and is $60. Or even going back a little ways in time to a game that is more similar to Wilson's Heart; Heavy Rain is available for download on PS Store. It is 30 GB and $30 and offers twice the content of Wilson's Heart. 
I don't know, maybe I am the only one. I just wonder when we will see VR games that are on par with the high end PC games. Right now I seem to be paying just under $10 an hour for VR games and seeing the file size on Lone Echo (in all fairness, I have not played it yet) I fear the same type of game; $40 for a 4 to 6 hour game.

[Tattoo_Dude]

Just checked the file size on lone echo and it says 18 GB. Not sure where I saw the low GB count this morning, but my overall point still stands.

[cybereality]

I'm not sure the file size really means anything. I mean is a 500 page book automatically twice as good as a 250 page book? Is a 4 hour movie necessarily better than a 2 hour movie? 

[Tattoo_Dude]

cybereality said:

I'm not sure the file size really means anything. I mean is a 500 page book automatically twice as good as a 250 page book? Is a 4 hour movie necessarily better than a 2 hour movie? 

I guess I just put this idea across badly as my point does not seem to be getting across. The point is, the size of the games is much smaller for the money in comparison to regular PC games. And now it has been confirmed with Lone Echo; a $40 game for approximately 4 hours of gameplay. Maybe if it was 40 GB, it would be twice as long and I wouldn't be paying $10 an hour for a VR game. Size does not mean better but there is no game in VR that compares in the quality OR quantity of games like Hitman, Deus Ex, Witcher III, Dishonored, Skyrim and on and on. $10 an hour for gameplay is very high in my opinion and I see others saying the same thing in other threads.

[shiari]

It takes YEARS (not to mention many, many millions) to develop a triple-A game. VR developers (which includes a lot of indie devs) do not have these years, the platform being targeted would be long outdated by the time they're ready to release. Sure, some companies like Valve might currently be developing large releases (likely for a future headset) but you won't see these games any time soon. In any case, you don't tend to get massive downloads without years worth of asset development, so that's probably why games for VR don't tend to be very  large.

That said, I do agree the length and/or replayability of many games leans too far on the short side, and it's tricky to find games that seem to offer good value for money. The lack of good search and filtering features on the store doesn't help there either.

Also keep in mind there are a lot of experimental kind of releases, to figure out things like what works well and what does not. A developer trying to figure out what works is not going to cram 40 hours of gameplay in a release, but yeah I'd rather see say 10 hour than 2 hour experiences myself.

Obviously, if you think you're not getting value for money then don't spend that money, wait for it to be on offer before buying.

[Syrellaris]

I'm not sure why you think Filesize == money spend / Playtime. I've seen games that are less then 2gb and had several hundred hours of gametime and i've seen games that were 30+gb and only lasted 4h or less(CoD for example, excluding multiplayer).

Obviously, more time spend means better value for your money, however i don't see how filesize fits in there.

Games, VR included, take time to develop and well VR platform is rather new atm so large companies are not jumping on it right away, they take there time observing and seeing how the market evolves. That's why indie games for VR are important atm. When the platform becomes more stable, more mainstream then you will see that big companies will start to follow by creating actual VR games from scratch.

Right now, we'll just have to make due with games adapted for VR, like Fallout VR and Skyrim VR from bethesday later this year.