Rockstar Warns Against Installing Grand Theft Auto V Play Disc On Xbox 360

Rockstar Games has warned Xbox 360 owners that installing the “play” disc inside the boxed retail version of Grand Theft Auto V will result in less than “optimal” performance.

The physical Xbox 360 version of GTA V comes with two discs (“install” and “play”), each containing approximately 8GB worth of data. While both discs can be installed to the 360 hard drive (the “install” disc is a mandatory installation), Rockstar has issued the following warning about the “play” disc:

@justinkeppler @Insanely_Bored @EliDrinksZona An 8GB install is required. For optimal performance, we recommend not installing the play disc

— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) September 16, 2013

The studio has not yet officially explained why they are recommending users not install the Grand Theft Auto V “play” disc on their Xbox 360 consoles, but EuroGamer’s Digital Foundry is reporting that doing so will result in “regular” object and texture pop-in.

“Based on what we’re seeing on the Xbox 360 version, perhaps running both DVD and HDD assets from just the one source slows down access times, impacting streaming performance. It’s not game-breaking stuff, but it does take you out of the moment when it does manifest and for that reason we can’t recommend installing the play disc.”

Grand Theft Auto V officially launches tomorrow, September 17th, (although there seems to be several naughty retailers who broke the street date). If you are picking up the Xbox 360 version (or you already have it) make sure to limit your installation time to just one disc.