id Software is a big company and RAGE is a big game. We know. It seems though, that at least the console versions, namely for the Xbox 360, will be bigger in size than expected. Much bigger.

John Carmack revealed during his keynote speech at QuakeCon some crucial information regarding hard drive space the game will need in order to install onto the Xbox 360:

“On the 360 we don’t have a partial install option; it’s all or nothing, which is kind of unfortunate. It means you have to install 21/22GB of stuff which takes a long time but if you’ve got it and you play it on the 360 that’s the way to go.”

Remember also that the game will most likely come out on at least 2 DVD’s (X360) and 1 Blu-Ray disc (PS3) – which doesn’t seem to do much better, because eventhough it has a larger space for the data to work with, it takes more time for the large BD disc to pull everything in and that could eventually result in slight hiccups before all the textures load properly.

“Once you get everything from memory that works pretty good, but if you’re coming straight from the hard drive then the first time you walk into everything from the DVD or from the Blu-ray – even worse in terms of total latency time – you listen to that Blu-ray churning around as its pulling everything in.”

Hopefully it will be possible to install the PS3 version onto the HDD as well and that will help. If you want more insight into the developing process of RAGE, watch Carmack’s keynote in full below. Prepare some popcorn though, because this is a, literally, 86 minute blockbuster movie!