id Says No Content Has Been Removed From Rage Because of Xbox 360

Earlier today we filed a report from the Austin Game Developers Conference in which id Software lead designer Tim Willits stated the storage capacity of DVDs on the Xbox 360 had forced id to alter content from its upcoming shooter Rage. During his discussion on storytelling and technology he mentioned that he “wouldn’t say the overall story was changed in any way in order to fit on the Xbox 360 version, but how the player experiences Rage’s story has been altered.” It wasn’t just disappointing to hear the game would be changed because of such an obstacle, but that it was also going to affect the PS3 and PC versions of the game. It didn’t take more than a quick glance at comments on the original story to see that gamers were none too pleased with the news.

However, following all the online reaction to the story Tim released a statement to Shacknews in which he clarified his statements, saying, “There was NO CONTENT removed from RAGE because of the 360–NONE AT ALL,” before adding, “We feel the 360 is a great platform and will provide a fantastic Rage experience.”

You could argue that first point isn’t entirely true, as id has said on more than one occasion that the Xbox 360 version won’t look as good as the PC/PS3 iteration due to DVD size constraints, but what did he mean by “Rage’s story has been altered” because of the Xbox 360 in his discussion earlier today, then?

“During my talk today I mentioned that we originally wanted to have around 5 or 6 smaller wasteland environments but later decided instead to have 2 larger wastelands,” he explained. “Mostly because we were going to be shipping on two DVDs for the 360 and felt that it would play better with one large wasteland on each disc so there would be no loading between wastelands.”

So while it’s reassuring to hear that no content has actually been removed from the game due size constraints (after all, degrading the graphical quality on the Xbox 360 is enough of a knock on DVDs), it’s interesting that a multiplatform game’s story and pacing is being dictated by one console’s technical specifications. We’ll be following up with id and Willits and try to bring you further details on this story as we can.