Rockstar has released a special Q&A about GTA V

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/50871/asked-answered-gtav.html

Here is some of the more important details

“Hi R*, as you said GTAV will be the biggest game that Rockstar ever created, normally it should be the biggest in size too. So how you are going to solve Xbox 360 disc limit issues? I mean will GTAV have many discs (on Xbox 360 platform)…?”

Grand Theft Auto V is the largest and most ambitious game we have yet created, and takes full advantage of every ounce of processing power available in the current generation of consoles. In order to provide the best possible experience for such a massive and detailed world, the game will have installation requirements on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 systems. For Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto V will ship on two discs; Disc 1 will be used for a one-time mandatory install and Disc 2 will be used to play the game. After the install, players will be able to enjoy both Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online without any need to switch discs.This initial install will require an Xbox 360 Hard Drive or an external 16GB USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of free space. If using a USB flash drive it must be at least USB 2.0 with a minimum 15mb/s read speed and formatted for Xbox 360 use. A new USB flash drive is recommended to ensure optimum performance. For PlayStation®3, the game ships on one disc and will install content as soon as you insert the game. The install is roughly 8GB, and players will be able to play as soon as the install is complete.

“Will we ever see some GTA V gameplay?”

Yes. Soon (or in September if you don’t want to see it before you play it… it’s up to you) – the first Official Gameplay Video is on its way...

More info about character switching is detailed in the link above.

How the fuck will one DVD hold 8 gigs of data? And how the fuck is the new GTA only 8 gigs big?

I must be missing something.

At least is sounds like they did it right by allowing an install that doesn't require you to ever switch discs afterwards

@jouseldelka: Yes, you are.

@jouseldelka: I think those 8 gigs are the important stuff like textures and some gameplay stuff. Ps3 games do this all the time as we need to install some data in most games this is the same as 360 the only difference is they have to do it from another disc while ps3 dont.

Title of the thread had me nervous since I was thinking of getting the 360 version if I do decide to pick this game up. Glad to see they are doing things the right way when it comes to multiple discs. For an open world and somewhat nonlinear game like this, switching discs all the time would have been a royal pain in the ass.

I find it interesting that they refer to the multiplayer as "Grand Theft Auto Online." A proper noun and everything.

Kojima did the same thing with Metal Gear Online... which has its own separate page for some reason. Why does the MP component of a game have it's own separate page? Who's running this place?

I'm entirely ok with that but will it load quicker than previous GTA's?

Soon.

@jouseldelka: A Standard DVD-9 Dual Layer disc has 8.54GB of capacity on it.

Because Metal Gear Online in Japan was actually a stand alone product. It was also developed by an entirely different part of Konami. Kojima's team did not have anything to do with it.

Well you're missing an entire disc, for one.

Interesting solution. Is this the first 360 game to require an install?

@chaser324: Halo 4

I think so. Forza and Battlefield gave you an option to install some stuff (a high res texture pack for BF and some cars and tracks for Forza), but this sounds like it's mandatory. i wonder how are they going to advertise that, because there is a lot of people without hdd's etc. on their 360s ;o

/shit, totally forgot about halo4 and the multiplayer mode mandatory installation.

fuck, I can't make enough space on that 20 gig drive, it's already full. Thought I could ride that thing until I buy a PS4 but Rockstar had to fuck the pooch

@faustyn: Halo 4 required an install. So rockstar will probably tell retailers to let people know just like MS did with halo 4

That's a relief. There's nothing more annoying about playing on a 360 this late in the gen than having to regularly swap discs.

@pyrodactyl: You can use a usb stick to store the data

This is not surprising at all.

In fact i would have been more surprised if it was a single disc

@naru_joe93: @jimmyfenix: @faustyn: Yeah, I was aware of Halo 4, but that was only for the multiplayer. I'm pretty sure this is the first (and most likely also the last) game that requires an install to get any functionality.

Neat, looking forward to it. Hope they'll format the gameplay trailers ala Red Dead and Max Payne 3, preferably with the same narrator at that.

Cool, really looking forward to the next trailer.

I always knew I would be purchasing the PS3 version.

First gameplay video coming tomorrow July 9 at 10am eastern.

twitter.com/RockstarGames/status/354253783183794177

Tightened up driving and use of the RDR aiming system. I'm in if the GTA V trailer has these things.

Ah, crap. I'd rather get it on PS3, but I've been bumping into HDD space limitations for a while now, and I don't know that the odds of me being able to clear up another 8GB is very good at this point. I might end up waiting a week or so when the game comes out to see which is the better of the two versions. As if I didn't already, I really wish there was going to be a PC version available at launch. The PC version of L.A. Noire was really pretty good, but it came out half a year after the console release, and I don't think I want to wait that long for GTA V.

Hopefully the 360 version still looks good and runs well with the install, or I'll have upgraded my PS3 HDD by then. It'll be interesting to see how the 8GB mandatory install is received though, that's really not good for people with the arcade consoles or the 20GB models, as I bet running that stuff off of a USB stick is pretty bad.

@dharmabum said:

Looks like Game Informer is going to have an article as well.

https://twitter.com/mattbertz/status/354264971925925889

Oh cool, it's like Forza then. Saying It's 2 disks would seem to imply disc switching but it's one game disk and one install disk.

@jouseldelka: Because double-layer DVDs hold 9.4GB of data.