Throughout the progression of digital related media, programmers and consumers have had the ideal passion of reaching “limits”. That in mind, the Blu-ray Disc Association have announced a new “BDXL” format, providing a write-once option on both 100GB and 128GB discs with rewritable 100GB discs.

But, before you get too excited, it’s a completely new software specification; you’ll need an updated player — with a more powerful laser — in-order to access these discs. In other words, due to added disc layers, it could cause a serious problem for existing media players.

The Association also pointed at consumer versions release “in regions where BD recorders have achieved broad consumer acceptance.” However, that’s not all. They’ve also announced an IH-BD format, providing the flexibility to include both relevant personal data and critical data on the same physical disc. “IH-BD” is basically a 50GB disc split into two 25GB segments.

“Because both BDXL and IH-BD are specially designed formats with specific market segments in mind, newly-designed hardware is required to play back or record BDXL or IH-BD media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technology, future BDXL and IH-BD devices can be designed to support existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs.”

It’s likely the most anticipated game of this year, but how much space does it take up on a Blu-Ray disc? Apparently, alot! Tim Moss, Director of Technology at Sony Santa Monica, revealed the monstrous amount of space that God of War III will take up on a Blu-Ray disc.

In a tweet placed this morning, Moss states “#GOW3 35GB of goodness. Thank heavens for Dual Layer Blu-Rays”. That in mind, it’s great to see a developer using the disc space being used so wisely, seeing that a discs total capacity is about 50 gigabits of space. Everytime we hear news about God of War III, it seems to get better and better.

[TheLostGamer]

Recently revealed that its 360′s development began in April, its developer, Square Enix, have stated that the 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII has “no chance” of compromising with the PlayStation 3 version of the title.

When speaking to VideoGamer, XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase had this to say about the compromises between the two versions of Final Fantasy XIII.

“The team is targeting to create an equal experience on both the 360 and the PS3, so there are no limitations. For example, right now we’re working on the PS3 version first, and once we’ve completed that we’ll really know how much game there will be to fit onto the Xbox 360 discs,” said Kitase.

“So we don’t know how many discs it’ll be housed on for 360, but there won’t be a chance that we’ll compromise anything because, oh it didn’t fit in the 360 discs so we’ll have to take it out of the PS3 version, or vice versa.”

Sony’s planning an “electrifying announcement” for April 27th and we all wonder what they are planning to announce. However, it seems that a very in-dept source, when it comes to things like this, thinks that it has came up with the answer.

According to GameZine.co.uk, an Uncharted 2: Among Thieves demo/beta will be included on the inFamous retail disc, which would underline the “electrifying” statement.

But, from the business stand point, this could be attempt from Sony to increase inFamous’ sale, which we have seen with the Final Fantasy XIII demo included on the FFVII: Advent Children Complete Blu-ray.

But, there’s another idea rumor. Following recent rumors that Naughty Dog is developing competitive and cooperative for Among Thieves, it seems that Naughty Dog may want to give it a spin in a beta of some kind – seen with Crackdown and the Halo 3 mutli-player beta. However, we’ll have to wait until the 27th to see if this rumor is real.

Besides Sony’s claims that “nobody will ever use 100 percent of [the PlayStation 3's] capability.” It now seems that Square-Enix producer, Yoshinori Kitase, claims that Final Fantasy XIII has maxes out all the capability of the system.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation 3, Kitase, when being asked about how much power the Final Fantasy XIII demo uses, he had this to say.

“Doesn’t the demo use about 50 percent of its power? Of course, I think the retail version will make use of nearly 100 percent,” he told the magazine.

He went on to say that the game will make use of all the PS3′s hardware power much like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X made use of the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, respectively. Kitase added that there won’t be any disc swap issues due to Blu-ray and the PS3′s hard drive.

This news only makes one wonder, what does this mean for the 360 version of the game?

["Final Fantasy XIII Uses Nearly 100 Percent of PS3 Power" via Kotaku]

Back when the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Wanted was released, Universal Studios implanted on to the discs 10 secret codes, which are hidden among the menu screen and/or bonus features, that unlock new portions of the game.

The codes will give you the ability to open up a new character, access enhanced weaponry and exclusive game modes, etc.. But, it also back into the DVD/Blu-ray movies. When an embedded code in the game is entered into the movie disc’s menu screen, a special featurette starring Wanted lead James McAvoy will be revealed.

Universal did not aggressively promote this game-movie cross-over when Wanted bowed on DVD and Blu-ray last year because the game, initially planned to release at the same time as the DVD, was delayed until March.

“Universal saw an exclusive opportunity to creatively intensify Wanted fans’ entertainment experience by crafting a code program that essentially is designed to drive film and game enthusiasts from the Blu-ray and DVD releases to the game and back,” said Hilary Hoffman, the studio’s senior VP of brand and digital marketing.“By bridging these two platforms, we effectively extend the marketing window for the film’s DVD and Blu-ray releases, substantially enhance game play and enable fans to unlock even more bonus content for one of their favorite films.”

[Wanted: Weapons of Fate in DVD, Blu-ray crossover via Video Business]

I was never a really a big fan of RPGs until this game came along and pointed me in the right direction, but it wasn’t because it’s a timed 360 exclusive, it was because it’s from Square. Now, I’m not saying that Fable, or the other RPGs, aren’t great games it’s just that this games from the Kings of RPGs. And well, it seems that when the game comes to the PlayStation 3 Squares going to be adding Japanese voiceovers.

“Because this is the 360 version and it’s just a DVD we didn’t end up with enough room on the DVD to have two languages worth of voice. There’s a lot of voice in this game. It would be cool if we can do that for a Blu-ray release. We’ll see!” - Yuji Isogawa via VideoGamer.com

It’s really kinda trivial to ask this question, but why just not just keep the game the same as the 360 version? O well, this is just as great anyway, but lets wait and see what other things they well change, like adding new missions but we can only lets hope.

Konami has released new images the European Metal Gear Solid 4 limited edition on PlayStation 3, which contains in addition to the game a making-of Blu-ray, the original soundtrack and a Old Snake 20 cm action figurine. There will be only 25.000 unit, this pack will leave June 12 and will cost 100 euros (155.19 U.S. dollars).

Today, DREAMWORKS and PARAMOUNT PICTURES announced that Transformers will be headed to Blu-Ray this September as a two disc special edition Blu-Ray movie. There was no information about what would be contained in the special edition movie combo but many would speculate that there would be a trailer for the upcoming Transformers 2 movie.