Game installs of 100GB or larger have now become the standard

[midian182]

In brief: While powerful graphics cards are becoming an increasingly important component for PC gamers, the big releases we've seen this year suggest that a large-capacity SSD would be a more sensible buy. It's starting to look as if 100GB titles have become the standard, and that could be a problem for some people.

As noted by PC Gamer, the recent launch of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor marks another game that many buyers will spend hours downloading. Its 130GB file size makes it the largest PC title released this year. This is a trend that's become not just annoying for those with slower internet connections but a pain for anyone with limited storage space.

The most recent Steam survey shows that just under half the participants have more than 1TB of drive space, followed by 23.18% with 250GB to 499GB and 14.62% with 750GB to 999GB. Those in that second category are going to find themselves deleting a lot of their drive content in order to play some of this year's biggest releases. In addition to Jedi: Survivor, there's been Forspoken (120GB), Redfall (100GB), The Last of Us Part 1 (100GB), and Atomic Heart (90GB). It's also interesting to note that most participants only have 100GB to 249GB free space on their drives.

Games have been gobbling up more drive space for a while now. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's infamous 200+GB size led to people buying an SDD just for that one title - before players were able to remove game modes they didn't need. Borderlands 3: The Directors Cut reaches 135GB, Red Dead Redemption is 120GB, and Final Fantasy 15 Windows Edition clocks in at 110GB. Don't expect things to change, either: another 90GB will also be required for Diablo 4, while the final release of Baldur's Gate 3 is said to hit 150GB.

According to Steam, the average American downloads games at 12MB per second, meaning a 150GB title would take 3 hours and 28 minutes to download. And say a prayer for any users who have a data cap.

Beyond deleting and installing all the time, it seems buying a large SSD is the best solution to an issue that isn't going away. You could always subscribe to GeForce Now Ultimate, but that comes with plenty of caveats.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98685-game-installs-100gb-or-larger-have-become-standard.html

 

[KofeViR]

SSDs are cheaper than ever at this point, im fine with it, as long as the quality reflects the install size.

 

[urielejh]

Italy here. 2.5gb@25euros/month, flat, no caps. 980 Pro 1tb for windows, apps and games + 970 evo 1tb, 860 evo 2tb and an hdd 1tb

 

[WhiteLeaff]

Play less... Plus, another 2T SSD

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Data caps are still a very big thing in the US. I'm stuck behind one. I have zero interest in downloading these games. I've got 250mbps download, about 10mbps upload (the upload sucks, it usually sits around 6-7mbps) and a 1.2TB data cap.

130GB game would take me, depending on connection speed and server connection, 1.5-2.5 hours and require 11% of my data cap. In a normal month (without a game download) my family can easily hit 90% of the data cap. That's 1080GB. I wouldn't have enough of my data cap left to download a 130GB game without exceeding the cap and then getting billed an extra $10 per 50GB (capped at something like 500GB, after that you won't get billed anymore, so that's up to an extra $100 a month). So I don't bother with games that require large amounts of data.

I'd love to pay for a physical copy of a game, even if it comes on multiple blu-ray discs - 50GB blu-ray disc means 3 discs for a 130GB game. I know people would cry that physical media is slow with the readers, but if that's the case, then don't use it and go with digital. A physical copy would just give those that don't/won't/can't download the game another option.

With a physical copy I could install the game from the discs and any updates/patches can be downloaded. It won't happen, of course, because devs won't want to pay for physical copies because why cut into the profit lines of selling the game for $70 digitally instead of only making maybe $40 off a $70 sale after costs of physical copies are factored into it.

 

[brunocasarini]

Well... As 4K resolution becomes more common and people want game graphics to be more and more realistic, it was a natural consequence to see game installation sizes balloon up like that.

 

[colossusrage]

Data caps are still a very big thing in the US. I'm stuck behind one. I have zero interest in downloading these games. I've got 250mbps download, about 10mbps upload (the upload sucks, it usually sits around 6-7mbps) and a 1.2TB data cap.

I'm sure there's an option for you to upgrade to 'uncapped', but you just aren't willing to pay it. I'm at 1GB/s Download, no cap, for $140/month.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I'm sure there's an option for you to upgrade to 'uncapped', but you just aren't willing to pay it. I'm at 1GB/s Download, no cap, for $140/month.

A lot of people think that faster download speeds mean better internet. However, you're still limited to what you connect to (servers) what your network devices (modem/router) are capable of, network cabling/wifi antenna are capable of transferring and how fast your device can handle all the data. I've got no need for a 1GB connection speed, my household doesn't saturate the 250mbps speeds we get now. I have zero reason to pay almost 3x as much for the same internet price/plan you pay.

Xfinity does allow a $30 no data cap addition, but they don't offer it in my area. I'd be willing to pay this, but they don't offer when I last checked with them in the past 6 months.....

Here's the kicker:

I could however, move to one of their "new" plans and rent their equipment and get unlimited data, but I'd be paying about an extra $20-25 more than I would if I could just include the $30 no data cap to my current plan.

So, no thank you. I'm not getting pigeonholed by them anymore than I already am.

 

[Aranarth]

Data caps are still a very big thing in the US. I'm stuck behind one. I have zero interest in downloading these games. I've got 250mbps download, about 10mbps upload (the upload sucks, it usually sits around 6-7mbps) and a 1.2TB data cap.

130GB game would take me, depending on connection speed and server connection, 1.5-2.5 hours and require 11% of my data cap. In a normal month (without a game download) my family can easily hit 90% of the data cap. That's 1080GB. I wouldn't have enough of my data cap left to download a 130GB game without exceeding the cap and then getting billed an extra $10 per 50GB (capped at something like 500GB, after that you won't get billed anymore, so that's up to an extra $100 a month). So I don't bother with games that require large amounts of data.

I'd love to pay for a physical copy of a game, even if it comes on multiple blu-ray discs - 50GB blu-ray disc means 3 discs for a 130GB game. I know people would cry that physical media is slow with the readers, but if that's the case, then don't use it and go with digital. A physical copy would just give those that don't/won't/can't download the game another option.

With a physical copy I could install the game from the discs and any updates/patches can be downloaded. It won't happen, of course, because devs won't want to pay for physical copies because why cut into the profit lines of selling the game for $70 digitally instead of only making maybe $40 off a $70 sale after costs of physical copies are factored into it.

Starlink will be a little slower but no data cap.
Set it to download overnight and you will often see 100 to 150mpbs speeds. I often see speeds up to 200mpbs in my logs but the average is much lower.

 

[MaestroIT]

Game developers should pay more attention to optimizations, but as drives and memory are cheaper they don't care to reuse textures.

Some demo scenes back in the 80's had demos with nice graphics that fit in 15-20kb

 

[bviktor]

Yes, more detailed assets = more storage needed, what a shock horror indeed.

 

[Nobina]

SSDs are cheaper than ever at this point, im fine with it, as long as the quality reflects the install size.

Nobody guarantees that SSDs will be cheap forever.

100 GB games will fill up those "cheap" SSDs quickly, forcing you to buy additional storage, which isn't so cheap. And devs will gladly turn 100 GB to 150, 200 and so on...

 

[scavengerspc]

Does anyone play Ark: Survival Evolved?

My son just bought a new gaming rig, and he told me over the weekend that it was a 315 GB download!

 

[neeyik]

My son just bought a new gaming rig, and he told me over the weekend that it was a 315 GB download!

The base game is 60 GB, and expansion packs combined are 50 GB, so it's perhaps a bugged download size report.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

The base game is 60 GB, and expansion packs combined are 50 GB, so it's perhaps a bugged download size report.

You should see what happens with Sniper Elite 4 - game is roughly 80GB installed. A new multiplayer map and some skins were causing people to download upwards of 70GB. Then an update with just skins was upwards of 10GB

I don't know why they struggle with it, but they've had a lot of issues with massive sizes of downloads even when what you're downloading is only maybe a couple of GBs in size.

Improper compression? No compression? Either way, these large downloads suck, if you ask me.

 

[Hodor]

That's why you need to play low poly games, their textures are ridiculously small and they run on anything. If I want hyperrealism I look outside through the window.

 

[scavengerspc]

The base game is 60 GB, and expansion packs combined are 50 GB, so it's perhaps a bugged download size report.

See that's what I said (I didn't know the numbers though) but he says he is sure and that ARK can get to 400 GB.

I hope he didn't start drinking

 

[godrilla]

FYI Verizon has a 2 gigabit connection available now at $94.99 4 years price lock guaranteed as per their website.
100 gigs of data can be downloaded within 6 to 7 minutes.
I personally regret getting another 2 terabyte nvme ssd ( 990pro) should have gotten a 4 terabyte one.
Crucial has a 4 terabyte one for $213
@ 4.8 gigs/s read/writes

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/crucial-p3-plus-4tb-internal-ssd-pcie-gen-4-x4-nvme/6509710.p?skuId=6509710

but you might need a $12 heatsink to prevent performance throttling.

 

[Godel]

Well, there's always the FitGirl site. These are compacted (cracked) versions of mainstream games with greatly reduced file sizes but longer decompress times at install time.

If you don't like pirating games, there's nothing to stop you buying the game legitimately and then downloading the FitGirl pack for installation.

Buyer (and downloader) beware.

https://torrentfreak.com/meet-fitgirl-the-repack-queen-of-pirated-games-200604/

 

[Gars]

How about this games come preinstalled on SSD you buy
its a cartridge right?

 

[KofeViR]

Well, there's always the FitGirl site. These are compacted (cracked) versions of mainstream games with greatly reduced file sizes but longer decompress times at install time.

If you don't like pirating games, there's nothing to stop you buying the game legitimately and then downloading the FitGirl pack for installation.

Buyer (and downloader) beware.

https://torrentfreak.com/meet-fitgirl-the-repack-queen-of-pirated-games-200604/

The games are cracked - How you want to use the installer for a "paid" game?

 

[loki1944]

Thus proving that size absolutely does not equal quality

 

[loki1944]

FYI Verizon has a 2 gigabit connection available now at $94.99 4 years price lock guaranteed as per their website.
100 gigs of data can be downloaded within 6 to 7 minutes.
I personally regret getting another 2 terabyte nvme ssd ( 990pro) should have gotten a 4 terabyte one.
Crucial has a 4 terabyte one for $213
@ 4.8 gigs/s read/writes

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/crucial-p3-plus-4tb-internal-ssd-pcie-gen-4-x4-nvme/6509710.p?skuId=6509710

but you might need a $12 heatsink to prevent performance throttling.

screw that; I'll save my money and just dowmload over a few hours

 

[godrilla]

screw that; I'll save my money and just dowmload over a few hours

$94 a month doesn't seem like a lot compared to what you are getting especially with a whole household of data users. Hopefully your PC is not one those that uses 100s of watts at idle . The delta difference in cost is probably negligible in the grand scheme of things.

 

[StrikerRocket]

Until one month ago, I had crappy ADSL with a max D/L rate of 5 Mbps, yes, you read that right, 5 Mbps, not a typo! And 1 Mbps upload. Then I switched to fiberoptics broadband and now I have 1 Gbps download and 700 Mbps upload. What a relief! Installing RDR2 takes less than half an hour now. I bought an Asus wifi 6 router, the Rapture GT-AX6000 and it's changed my life! LOL!
I have lots of space on my rig with 6+ TB, but that's right, the amount of space taken by games is really going up, and the trend has been like this for a long time now, and I really understand those with slow internet and small SSDs/HDDs. Hard drive manufacturers and SSD makers are happy now... we, a little less... :-(