Killzone on PS4 has no loading screens, was 290GB until Guerrilla optimized for Blu-ray

Here’s a few interesting facts about Killzone: Shadow Fall to kick off this article: The finished game including individual assets for all the levels comes in at 290GB of data. The final version of the game being burned on to PS4 Blu-ray discs is 39.7GB. And the most surprising fact of all is that Killzone 3 on the PS3 is actually larger, with 41.5GB of disc space required.
The main reason for this massive amount of data is textures. The PS4 is a much more powerful machine than the PS3, and can therefore handle a much higher resolution of textures and needs more of them due to the size and openness of the levels. So why does Killzone 3 need more storage space?
Guerrilla Games has explained that storage space wasn’t really an issue for Killzone 3 because they had a 50GB Blu-ray to play with. It’s not that the textures and other assets were massive, it’s the fact that they were small enough to be included on the disc multiple times for each level in order to speed up loading and streaming when playing the game. The same was true of any video footage. Doing the same thing for Killzone: Shadow Fall ended up producing a 290GB disc image, which was clearly unacceptable.

The final 39.7GB image has been produced after Guerrilla spent a lot of time optimizing the game. Not by cutting down on file sizes and notching down the quality, but simply by being clever with texture reuse and the layout of the data on the disc. The end result is a next-gen game that easily fits on a Blu-ray. It also supports Sony’s PlayGo system, which allows you to start playing a PS4 game before it finishes downloading. For Shadow Fall, only 7.5GB of the game is required before play can begin.
Now for another fact to finish that is sure to be well met by gamers: Shadow Fall has no logos or splash screens when the game starts, and no loading screens beyond a 30 seconds period when play begins. That’s impressive, and I for one hope it becomes a common theme for next-gen games.