When you finally play Lost Planet 2 after it launches on May 18, you'll explore and uncover more of the misplaced celestial orb than ever before -- but you won't see everything. In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu (transcript; Kotaku translation), producer Jun Takeuchi explained that, although development on the co-op shooter proceeded without trouble, a "significant" amount of content had to be cut before the final product took shape.
Takeuchi noted that "the edited content was way too much and dealing with that was more difficult than anything." Whether it was difficult to say goodbye or simply to get it to work in the first place is unclear, but it's a story that has become familiar as games grow in intricacy and developers share information with more candor. "This time, truly, the content that was cut was significant and at the end, we had to wrestle with disc space," he said.
Since the Xbox 360's DVD drive offers the least amount of storage space -- compared to the Blu-ray drive on the PlayStation 3 -- it's easiest to assume that disc space was the cause of the cut content, and not an additional issue. However, in a note to Joystiq, Capcom described the process as standard practice. "Editing the amount of content released with the final version of any game is a standard practice during game development. Edits to the initial concept of a game can come from a number of sources including the amount of time given to develop the title, hardware constraints, story elements, or other factors that can detract from the experience. We are confident that consumers will not be disappointed with Lost Planet 2 and the variety of massive Akrid, powerful vital suits, beautiful environments and deep level of customization included in the final product."
The final product may be expanded through DLC in the future (just like Assassin's Creed 2, which lost several sequences to a deadline), but for now Lost Planet 2's excised terrain will remain on ice.
