History Main / MultiDiscWork

* Music/PeterGabriel's ''Music/{{Passion}}'', ''Music/{{Us}}'', and ''Music/{{Up|PeterGabrielAlbum}}'' were released on two [=LPs=] out of necessity, as all three albums were recorded with the Platform/CompactDisc format in mind. Gabriel's still-in-DevelopmentHell follow-up to ''Up'', tentatively called ''I/O'', was also first conceived as a double-CD album, though he reconsidered the idea as its production dragged on.

For the UsefulNotes/LaserDisc format, this was effectively inherent to the medium -- one side of the disc could only hold 60 minutes for a maximum of 120 minutes on a single disc, so with movies users had to manually flip the disc in the middle of the format, similarly to a vinyl record; many higher-end players supported automatic side-switching to save buyers this trouble. Any release over 120 minutes would require two discs or more. The successor format, UsefulNotes/{{DVD}}, was also able to come in a dual-sided configuration (and with similar auto-switching high-end players), though oftentimes used it more to divide a release between PanAndScan and {{Letterbox}}ed versions of a widescreen release, or between the main film and bonus features, owing to the much greater storage capacity per side. For a film to be split across two sides of a DVD, it had to be ''very'' long, with the likes of ''Film/SchindlersList'' and ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' being among a small few to hold this distinction. Even then, the digital nature of [=DVDs=] and support for a second data layer on a single side meant that studios were more likely to compress the film further to keep it on a cheaper, single-sided disc, in part because even a dual-layered DVD of this kind is cheaper to make and less of a hassle on the viewer than a double-sided one, making them more appealing.

Another common case is with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_CD Video CD]] (VCD), a variant of the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc popular in developing nations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. [=VCDs=] have comparatively less storage space than [=DVDs=], with video data occupying the same amount of space as audio data on an audio CD, resulting in an identical maximum capacity of 74-80 minutes. Since most movies are considerably longer than this, they tend to be spread across at least two discs on VCD releases.

* Music/PeterGabriel's ''Music/{{Passion}}'', ''Music/{{Us}}'', and ''Music/{{Up|PeterGabrielAlbum}}'' were released on two [=LPs=] out of necessity, as all three albums were recorded with the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format in mind. Gabriel's still-in-DevelopmentHell follow-up to ''Up'', tentatively called ''I/O'', was also first conceived as a double-CD album, though he reconsidered the idea as its production dragged on.

** The vinyl releases of both ''Music/WeCantDance'' and ''Music/CallingAllStations'' were [=double-LPs=] out of necessity, as both of them were recorded with the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format in mind. The latter album only occupies three sides, with the fourth featuring a stylized etching of the band.

** Because ''[[Music/AndJusticeForAll1988 ...And Justice for All]]'' was Metallica's first studio album to be recorded with the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format in mind, its 65:25 runtime is too long to fit on a single vinyl record. Consequently, LP releases spread the album across two discs. ''Music/{{Metallica|Album}}'', ''Music/LoadAndReLoad'', ''Music/StAnger'', ''Music/DeathMagnetic'', and ''Music/SeventyTwoSeasons'' would continue the trend, featuring CD-oriented lengths that require them to be divided among two [=LPs=] each.

** Because ''[[Music/AndJusticeForAll1988 ...And Justice for All]]'' was Metallica's first studio album to be recorded with the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format in mind, its 65:25 runtime is too long to fit on a single vinyl record. Consequently, LP releases spread the album across two discs. ''Music/{{Metallica|Album}}'', ''Music/LoadAndReLoad'', ''Music/StAnger'', ''Music/DeathMagnetic'', and ''Music/72Seasons'' would continue the trend, featuring CD-oriented lengths that require them to be divided among two [=LPs=] each.

** Because ''[[Music/AndJusticeForAll1988 ...And Justice for All]]'' was Metallica's first studio album to be recorded with the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format in mind, its 65:25 runtime is too long to fit on a single vinyl record. Consequently, LP releases spread the album across two discs. ''Music/{{Metallica|Album}}'', ''Music/LoadAndReLoad'', ''Music/StAnger'', ''Death Magnetic'', and ''72 Seasons'' would continue the trend, featuring CD-oriented lengths that require them to be divided among two [=LPs=] each.

* Music/Sum41's final studio album, ''Heaven :x: Hell'', is a DistinctDoubleAlbum consisting of two differently-styled parts (''Heaven'', focused on the band's initial PopPunk style, and ''Hell'', which keeps the HeavyMetal sound that the band had progressively developed over the course of their later discography), with a single disc delegated to each of them in all of the formats the album was released on.[[note]]While it requires two discs to fit the whole album on vinyl, as was the case with their previous, significantly shorter albums ''Underclass Hero'' and ''Screaming Bloody Murder'' (the latter of which never had a vinyl release), ''Heaven :x: Hell''[='s=] 55-minute length is still short enough for a single disc on CD.[[/note]]

* Music/Sum41's final studio album, ''Heaven :x: Hell'', is a DistinctDoubleAlbum consisting of two differently-styled parts (''Heaven'', focusing on the band's initial PopPunk style, and ''Hell'', which keeps the HeavyMetal sound that the band had progressively developed over the course of their later discography), with a single disc delegated to each of them in all of the formats the album was released on.[[note]]While it requires two discs to fit the whole album on vinyl, as was the case with their previous, significantly shorter albums ''Underclass Hero'' and ''Screaming Bloody Murder'' (the latter of which never had a vinyl release), ''Heaven :x: Hell''[='s=] 55-minute length is still short enough for a single disc on CD.[[/note]]

* Music/MyChemicalRomance's ''Music/TheBlackParade'' is a notable example in that its 2-disc LP release only covers three sides across the two records, with the second one's back side merely featuring etching.

* Music/Sum41's final studio album, ''Heaven :x: Hell'' is a DistinctDoubleAlbum consisting of two differently-styled parts (''Heaven'', focusing on the band's initial PopPunk style, and ''Hell'', which keeps the HeavyMetal sound that the band had progressively developed over the course of their later discography), with a single disc delegated to each of them in all of the formats the album was released on.[[note]]While it requires two discs to fit the whole album on vinyl, as was the case with their previous, significantly shorter albums ''Underclass Hero'' and ''Screaming Bloody Murder'' (the latter of which never had a vinyl release), ''Heaven :x: Hell''[='s=] 55-minute length is still short enough for a single disc on CD.[[/note]]

* 2020s: The march towards an all-digital future continues, with both the Platform/PlayStation5's Digital Edition and the Platform/XboxSeriesS lacking support for discs entirely, and in the PC realm, disc drives became something the buyer had to specifically ask for on pre-made rigs. But for those still using physical copies, the [=PS5=] and Platform/XboxSeriesX now support Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs with capacities up to 100 GB, which prevented this trope from occurring till 2024 outside of {{Compilation Rerelease|s}}. The SSD storage of these consoles also allow developers to implement more aggressive compression techniques without introducing LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading, which should help to reduce the file sizes of games compared to the previous gen. Also notable in the console space is allowing players to begin a game that's only been partially installed. While it works across all games, in multi-disc works this allows players to install the Play Disc with all the data needed to start the game and play for several hours, then switch to the Data Disc that installs in the background.

* 2020s: The march towards an all-digital future continues, with both the Platform/PlayStation5's Digital Edition and the Platform/XboxSeriesS lacking support for discs entirely, and in the PC realm, disc drives became something the buyer had to specifically ask for on pre-made rigs. But for those still using physical copies, the [=PS5=] and Platform/XboxSeriesX now support Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs with capacities up to 100 GB, which prevented this trope from occurring till 2024 outside of a CompilationRerelease. The SSD storage of these consoles also allow developers to implement more aggressive compression techniques without introducing LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading, which should help to reduce the file sizes of games compared to the previous gen. Also notable in the console space is allowing players to begin a game that's only been partially installed. While it works across all games, in multi-disc works this allows players to install the Play Disc with all the data needed to start the game and play for several hours, then switch to the Data Disc that installs in the background.

* 2020s: The march towards an all-digital future continues, with both the Platform/PlayStation5's Digital Edition and the Platform/XboxSeriesS lacking support for discs entirely, and in the PC realm, disc drives became something the buyer had to specifically ask for on pre-made rigs. But for those still using physical copies, the [=PS5=] and Platform/XboxSeriesX now support Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs with capacities up to 100 GB, which should prevent this trope from occurring for several years outside of a CompilationRerelease. The SSD storage of these consoles also allow developers to implement more aggressive compression techniques without introducing LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading, which should help to reduce the file sizes of games compared to the previous gen. Also notable in the console space is allowing players to begin a game that's only been partially installed. While it works across all games, in multi-disc works this allows players to install the Play Disc with all the data needed to start the game and play for several hours, then switch to the Data Disc that installs in the background.

* 2000s: Early in the decade 3D PC games would sometimes be released on a few [=CDs=] if they're big enough, in order to support customers who didn't have DVD drives yet, and because on PC disc swapping was now only an issue during installation. While Adventure games also decreased in popularity and [=RPGs=] started only using single discs, RealTimeStrategy games had transitioned to 3D and usually required this, to say nothing of the rise of [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMO]] games. However, the transition to [=DVD-ROM=] around the middle of the decade allowed most games to ship on a single-disc for the rest of the decade. In the console space, the Platform/PlayStation2 and Platform/{{Xbox}}, utilized [=DVD-ROMs=] as their standard storage medium, which had a much higher capacity of 4.7 GB for single layer discs, with dual layer discs holding up to 8.5 GB. Both the UsefulNotes/{{Dreamcast}} and UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, which utilized smaller-capacity proprietary optical media formats (1 GB [=GD-ROMs=] and 1.5 GB [=mini-DVDs=] respectively) instead of [=DVD-ROM=]s, did see a few games require multiple discs. During UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames, the Platform/PlayStation3 utilized Blu-ray (25 GB per layer), however since the Platform/Xbox360 used [=DVD=]s, some games were multi-disc on 360 and single-disc on [=PS3=].[[note]]Most infamously ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', which affected the actual structure of the game mid-development and left a lot of DummiedOut situations in the game's data.[[/note]] Even then, a single dual-layer 360 [=DVD=] was typically enough for most releases.
* 2010s: Multi-Disc Works become even rarer during the eighth console generation: more and more games were available digitally through online services and stored completely on internal/external memory, as hard drives can hold at least 1TB of memory and even SD cards can hold more than 256GB. Further, the UsefulNotes/WiiU, Platform/XboxOne and Platform/PlayStation4 all utilized Blu-ray Discs with up to 50 GB of storage this time around, making it much easier for most games to fit on a single disc across all platforms. But the rise of digital platforms and streaming services meant Blu-Ray storage advancement was less of a priority, which may explain why some late-generation games pushed beyond the limits of a single disc anyway, with titles such as ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' and ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPart2'' shipping on two. The big change is that the [=PS4=] and Xbox One require all games, even physical releases, to be completely installed to the hard drive, meaning they worked like PC games had for decades and swapping discs mid-game was now a thing of the past. As for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, it uses "game cards" with Flash ROM similarly to Nintendo's prior portable systems (UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS families), with maximum capacity reaching 32 GB. Cost remained an issue with cards however, and since Nintendo charges developers more to use higher-capacity carts, several Switch titles opt to include only part of their data on a smaller card and require an internet connection to download the rest of the data into the main unit's internal memory, rather than provide a second or larger card.[[note]]Some games go as far as to provide a download code instead of a card![[/note]]

* UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows fell into this trope as [[TechnologyMarchesOn CD's and DVD's became popular]].