The 6.8gb I thought was the limit for older xbox 360 discs and was changed later to 7.8gb. I only worked on 360 arcade stuff so we never had to worry about dvd distribution but it is mentioned here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_hardware
That's assuming the stuff they took out didn't have art assets in other places in the map. I.e. if they had a texture used in that scene that was in a different place you wouldn't save any space.
That's assuming the stuff they took out didn't have art assets in other places in the map. I.e. if they had a texture used in that scene that was in a different place you wouldn't save any space.
As for the size limit on 360 DVDs: You're right. That was changed with an update sometime last year as far as i recall.
But astonishingly, very few games go beyond that old limit.
In fact, the only game i played recently that actually reaches the new limit is Resident Evil 6 with 7.7GB.
I can't tell though for how long Doom3 BFG was in the works and if they might have taken that old limit into account.
I'm a pc programmer working with DirectX and have no info on 360 aside from the XNA doc they included in the latest pc SDK.
Insider info on how and when that change from 6.8 GB to 7.8 Gb was communicated to the developers and if this brought additional developing or licensing costs with it would be helpful.
But here's a link to an interview with Tim Willits on Doom3 BFG including some interisting remarks about "taking out frustrating moments in the game", the censoring of the Wolfenstein secret maps "which nobody will miss" and that they had a "good relationship with the USK on what's ok and what's not".
The USK is the german ratings board...

http://spong.com/feature/10110762/Interview-id-Software-on-Doom-3-BFG
The maps and map parts that were cut from ROE had, as far as i remember, no unique texturing or models so space requirements would be low.
At least one multiplayermap from ROE is also missing.
I forgot the name (pc version currently not installed), but it was a hell themed design and was quite large and performance heavy.
In fact it was the only multiplayer map in ROE which had larger frameratedrops below 60 fps on my system.