About game install sizes

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,674
2,821
126
So I was checking the requirements for Red Dead Redemption 2: https://support.rockstargames.com/articles/360037044893/Red-Dead-Redemption-2-PC-System-Requirements

150GB

But wait, it gets better! Call of Duty Modern Warfare: https://www.techpowerup.com/260022/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-system-requirements-revealed

175GB

This is absolutely ridiculous, 17.5% of a 1TB SSD for a single game. It's also bad for anyone with a metered internet connection.

Let's also discuss your current gaming library. Feel free to add or remove categories as you please. I'll start with mine:

Code:
Storage:                 1TB SSD
Total games installed:   65
Total game install size: 302GB
Smallest game:           Hexen/Heretic (GZDoom), 50.8MB
Biggest game:            Dishonored 2, 41.4G.
Oldest game installed:   Quake 3, installed in 2000
Newest game installed:   Crysis Warhead, installed 14 Sept 2019
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
126
Pretty crazy. Is this so that they can patch the assets easier, are they stored uncompressed? (Didn't iD Software make the WAD file-format for assets available freely? Has no-one learned?)

Or do they assume that every gamer in the USA has uncapped fiber broadband? (OK, I do, but I consider myself kind of lucky to have it.)
 

Phaetos

Senior member
Jan 27, 2005
391
27
91
Got signed up for MS GamesPass to check out newer games without having to buy it. Great business model for this. Anyway, I have Gears 5 at 85GB and Forza Horizon 4 at 75GB and two smaller games around 8GB each. 176GB for 4 games on a 1TB HDD. It’s ridiculous, I get new textures and graphics options need to be accounted for but how about just giving us 1080p or 1440p textures in the original download, and make anything higher than that as a downloadable option.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,494
470
126
Total games installed: 65
I couldn't get passed this part. Why do you have 65 games currently installed on your PC? Why aren't you uninstalling the ones you don't play? I have well over 500 PC games stretched across retail and all digital distributors and I currently have maybe four games installed and I'm only playing two right now.
 
Feb 4, 2009
34,506
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Seems like we will have 1TB installed games in about 6 years.
I agree the install size is ridiculous, how much of this is because of lazy programming or a lazy port to PC?
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,674
2,821
126
Why do you have 65 games currently installed on your PC? Why aren't you uninstalling the ones you don't play?
They're all under active play rotation so they're part of my "permanent" gaming library. At any time I could decide to replay any of them based on a whim. They're patched and configured perfectly to my liking and everything is backed up, so they can trivially be restored after a Windows reinstall.

Also if you notice, the total install size for all of them is only 302GB. That's less than two Call of Duties. I'd rather have my 65 picked games taking that space.

I agree the install size is ridiculous, how much of this is because of lazy programming or a lazy port to PC?
Some of it is from big cut-scenes, un-needed international files, uncompressed audio, MP files, etc.
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,288
2,682
136
Don't many games force you to download dlc regardless of not owning the dlc? I guess they do it so when you make your purchase you only have to download the key to activate it so you can play right away. If so that's a ton of wasted space for people who won't pay the riduculous prices they ask for their dlc.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
21,899
819
126
I remember way back I bought Wing Commander II and it was 25megs. My HD at the time was 20megs. I had to buy a compression program called stacker to install the game. 25 megabytes. Sheesh. Now I have 17TB all SSD in my system plus an external 10TB HDD for backups. How times have changed.
 

DeathReborn

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 2005
2,743
734
136
Install sizes have become a joke, can you imagine if the next Elder Scrolls game comes in at 175GB but then you gotta mod that and mods add another 75GB+ and there goes 25% of a 1TB SSD. Thankfully I have long since boycotted CoD & refuse to do anything with RDR2 before RDR1 is on the PC (Rockstar... you suck!).

I did a quick count and I have 76 installed, smallest being 8MB (Kyodai Mahjongg), biggest being 95GB (Middle-earth Shadow of War). I still have Morrowind installed, modded and configured to my liking with no intention of removing it, same for Civ 4 etc, sometimes you just want to spend a little time on something different.
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
61
91
The size of games doesn't really bother me. I have 3TB of SSD space and I don't have enough time to play 100s of games at a whim anyway. So having a solid 10-15 AAA games and hundreds of indie games installed at around 2TB isn't a problem. Sometimes having too many games creates decision fatigue and you end up playing none of them.

When I was a kid, one game lasted me months to years. Now it seems like I pay $50 for a cheap few hour thrill, at best and then I am done with it. Rare exceptions: King's Bounty Series - No Man's Sky - Dark Souls Trilogy - Slay The Spire. That said, Shadow of War was really good too, and the reason I know that? Because I finished it!
 
Feb 4, 2009
34,506
15,737
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Just wondering why some people have so many games installed. Do you play different games that frequently?
Is it saves you don’t want to lose?
Is it bandwidth?
No wrong answers I’m just wondering.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I believe Final Fantasy XV is around 150GB if you add on the extra and optional hi-res texture pack. I'm pretty sure that's my largest right now, and I'm using a 2TB SSD on my main PC.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
136
Thanks to the backlog of games I've been working through I tend to download a game once, play it, beat it, then achievement hunt if the game is enjoyable enough to warrant it. Then uninstall the game with the knowledge that I'll likely never fire the game up again for the remainder of my life. For the same reason, I also essentially never make any "must play *now*" impulse purchases anymore. I'll wait for something to go on sale for my target price, buy it, then put it back at the end of my playlist.

There are definitely a couple games I keep installed because of their sandbox nature or because they make good mindless fun while watching netflix or something, but they are largely the exception rather than the rule.

As such, my only real issue with games getting huge install sizes is just that my mediocre internet out here at the end of the line will mean I would have to plan ahead to play one of these games so it can download while I'm at work. Thanks to Comcast's throttling past a relatively low cap in the area, I can foresee a situation where one game basically wipes out my monthly cap in one go, so that would be a downer.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,255
403
126
Yeah install sizes have really skyrocketed. For the CoD Modern Warfare install size, they did say it would be less than that big size, that was just recommended for all of the future content. Source

At least storage is cheap these days, but the install sizes are still kinda nuts IMO.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,006
12,075
146
Blame static 4k textures and a lack of efficient coding techniques. Mostly those big textures though.
 

Whitestar127

Senior member
Dec 2, 2011
397
24
81
Just bought a 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO to be ready for some of the newer games, including RDR 2.
Btw, GTA5 install size is now over 88 GB...
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,006
12,075
146
Don't they use Mip-maps anymore?
Yeah, they use mip-maps with 4k textures :p

Seriously though, if I'm remembering right you still end up with 4k textures everywhere, it just fuzzes the distant ones to save on GPU cycles. So you still need your 100GB of textures, just not all loaded at once.

Me, I prefer modded textures that are 4-8k everywhere. Modded Skyrim hurrah!
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,444
2,084
126
i think my disk space is something like 300 gb in total - a 240gb SSD and a 60Gb SSD for system.

a quarter of that is system files
a quarter is porn
60Gb for Quake Champions
no i cannot get rid of the porn