A highly placed development source has confirmed to Digital Foundry that the new disc format being beta tested in a new dashboard upgrade adds 1GB to the storage of Xbox 360 game discs.

The maximum space allocated to game data on the current disc format is just 6.8GB out of a maximum of 7.95GB on a standard dual layer DVD, with over 1GB dedicated to a DVD-Video partition that also contained anti-piracy security sectors.

Beta testers of the new dashboard get a free copy of Halo: Reach once they are accepted into the new preview programme. We can assume that this isn't just a generous gift on Microsoft's part.

[Z****] so what do u think about new disc format
[c4eva-] MS will introduce xgd3 – this will add more ap checks, cvi (content integerity) checks, increase the disc size and adds a new layer for protection issues – all in the 20500 sdk! bring it on!
[c4eva-] will know more once we get one of these new discs!