I don’t think anybody really had a clue what kind of epidemic would spring up back when Capcom first announced that they would require a mandatory HDD install in order to play Devil May Cry 4.

It has infected a number of games so far, but now that epidemic has traveled to a new host, Resident Evil 5. The news came out today that RE5 will require a whopping five gigabyte installation in order to play the game on the PlayStation 3.

Once again, Xbox 360 gamers are in the clear, as that version of the game will not require the install. No one has ever fully explained to gamers why this is the case. Why do so many games require a mandatory install on the PS3, but not on the 360?

This question has been fuel on the fanboy flame wars since the original announcement, but it’s a valid question. Why should multiconsole gamers be expected to sit around and wait for an install to finish to play their games. That used to be one of the major perks of gaming on the consoles. Not to mention the huge chunk of your hard drive space that is missing once the game is installed. When this generation began, we looked forward to having hard drives in these systems because they were supposed to be used as complementary to the gaming experience (demos, videos, PSN games) but now they’re turning into a crutch.

The PS3 doesn’t have a lot of things going for it right now, and if they don’t stop deliberately pointing their potential customers towards the 360, they’re going to be in trouble soon.