Rage Will Look Worse on 360 Due to Compression; Doom 4 and Rage Not Likely for Digital Distribution

Update: In an interview with Shacknews, id's John Carmack reiterated that the Xbox 360 version of Rage will look worse than the PlayStation 3 version.

Carmack said that the uncompressed build of Rage encompasses a terrabyte of data, and that id will need to use a "different type of compression" to fit the game on two dual-layer Xbox 360 DVDs.

When asked whether the difference will be significant, Carmack noted that "hero shots" should look similar, but that Xbox 360 players might find a rock that is more blurry when exploring the periphery of Rage's world.

Original story: id's post-apocalyptic open-world shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) will look worse on Xbox 360 due to the compression needed to fit the game's assets on two DVDs, programmer John Carmack revealed at tonight's QuakeCon keynote.

According to Carmack, the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version would be so high that it simply isn't a feasible solution, with the programmer hoping for Microsoft to make a concession. He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware, while adding that the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray format is Sony's one leg up on the competition.

Carmack also noted his belief that neither Doom 4 or Rage will be digitally distributed online, as id isn't looking into that sort of distribution for its major titles at this point.

During last year's QuakeCon talk, Carmack stated that the PlayStation 3 edition of Rage would ship on a single Blu-ray disc, with the PC and Mac versions likely to arrive in both Blu-ray and DVD form.