There has been an interesting development on the Battlefield 3 front; DICE executive producer Patrick Bach confirms that the Xbox 360 version of the game is only “standard definition” without installing the optional high resolution texture pack that is on the second included disc.

The bottom line is that if Xbox 360 players want the same “high definition” experience that is found in the PlayStation 3 and PC versions of the game, they will have to install the high resolution texture package that is included on the second disc to their Xbox 360 hard drive. There is no actual difference in performance or content; this is a matter of storage space on the first disc and the ability to stream the high resolution textures from that disc.

The decision not to include the HD textures on the first disc was apparently a matter of space on the media, as well as the need to support Xbox 360 configurations for users that do not have a hard drive. It is recommended for the best experience that users install the HD textures to the hard drive.

So far, DICE has not explained how much hard drive space it will take to install the HD textures, but we suspect that it will not actually be that much. With this info, Xbox 360 users without a hard drive might want to steer clear of this title; but we suspect that the majority of Xbox 360 users that will buy this game will have a hard drive, so it isn’t a big deal.

Battlefield arrives on October 28th for the Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 3 and PC platforms.