Upcoming space game poster child, Star Citizen, is likely to be a very large download. Jeremy Masker, Cloud Imperium Games’ director of Game Operations, has said that despite optimisation and asset removal that will occur before launch the game is still likely to be 100GB, rather larger than a fan’s prediction of 30-40GB.
Masker (whose last name makes him sound like a super villain bent of filling our hardrives) also went on to say that patches will likely be around 2-6GB due to each containing hundreds of assets, and if there is a file type re-factor then players could have to re-download 30-40% of the assets, resulting in a patch that is around 14-20GB.
This might not be a problem for a lot of people, but there are still those who have slow connections and even monthly allowances who will likely have difficulty downloading their way into space. The very prospect of downloading 100GB on a 5Mb connection is enough to tighten anyone’s sphincter considering it would likely take somewhere around 50 hours of constant downloading.
If this isn’t a problem for you however you should certainly keep Star Citizen on your radar as it is looking pretty fantastic.
Source: PCGamer
Avenger
Whilst I’d love an ‘ultimate Freelancer’ game, 1/10 of an average HDD and a DVD’s worth of patches regularly, as well all the PC hype (I don’t think the game will live up to expectations), it just makes me less bothered with the game.
funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id)
physical release would alleviate most/all of the issues no?…
The Lone Steven
There’s a big game and then there’s this. Have we already reached the point where an average 500GB HD is no longer viable? Do we need to have the storage capabilities of a small business just to play games?
Also, UK gamers are pretty much screwed due to how shoddy our network speeds can be. *Shudders* 100GB may be something that should be streamed just to see one person slowly go insane at watching the game download.
Or they could just release it on a disc to try to cut out the fat. I think the game will become at risk of failing due to the patch sizes and people not wanting to download 20GB on top of 100GB.
But from what i’ve heard, it looks good and hopefully, will help to bring the space sim genre back from the dead.
freezebug2
I could only imagine ever possessing any game with a 100GB walloper to be via physical media.
The prospect of downloading that immense server buster would at 97GB, several weeks later, create a fanfare of squeeky bum that’d hospitalise anyone!
Dar-Kaus
I would clear my PS4 HDD in a heartbeat, if sony ever managed to bag the console release for this monster.