Epic Vice President applauds Blu-ray

Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games, has gone on record to suggest that Blu-ray offers an extra level of breathing space over DVD when developing games.

He was speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival about Unreal Tournament 3, developed by Epic.

The often outspoken Rein seemed to seemed to welcome the extra storage space Blu-ray offers. A single layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25GB, whilst a dual layer can pack in a massive 50GB. Dual layer DVDs, used by the Xbox 360, have a limit of 8.5GB.

Rein warned: "We may have fewer maps on the 360 version…Blu-ray has definitely given us a lot of legroom."

"If you think down the road, well maybe the next UT beyond this one, on Blu-ray disc, we might fill the whole damn disc with all the cool stuff the mod makers make."

Ever since the PS3's inception there have been endless debates on whether or not Blu-ray extra capacity is really required for games. Perhaps such a statement from a high profile developer is evidence enough to suggest that Sony made the right decision to include Blu-ray with PS3.

Unreal Tournament 3 is scheduled for release on PS3 and PC later this year with an Xbox 360 version due out in early 2008.