Retailers Can Sell Black Ops 4 Early So You Can Download The 50GB Day One Patch

The pain of having to sit and wait for a day one patch to download is one that’s becoming all to familiar for gamers, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is set to be one of the worst offenders with a whopping 50GB update to download before you can play. For people buying the game on disc, it’s a pain point that Activision and retailers are trying to work around.

Game, Tesco and Smyths Toys are all known to be letting people buy or pick up pre-orders at 6PM on Thursday 11th, ahead of the game’s official launch on 12th October. Amazon have also begun shipping game discs ahead of time. Other retailers probably have the option to do so as well.

Of course, while you have the disc early, Black Ops 4 lacking a traditional single player campaign means that the entire experience hinges around having server access, which Activision can control remotely.

While the physical box covers revealed that Black Ops 4 will require 100GB to install, the actual install will only be around 55GB once it’s finished updating on PS4, Eurogamer confirm, while Microsoft say the digital install will be “approximately” 48.42GB. Considering there’s 50GB of space on a dual layer Blu-Ray, it seems there’s up to 45GB of redundant data or empty space on the disc. You do have to wonder what on Earth Activision have actually sent to the printers…

Source: Kotaku, Eurogamer

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9 Comments

  1. In some ways it’s a good idea to release it early if you can’t play it anyway because they forgot to put the single player mode in for some reason.

    But making the discs with completely the wrong game on?? Or almost completely the wrong game. I guess they put 5GB of menus on the disc, and a 50GB download to replace the other 45GB they got wrong?

    How long does it take to make all those discs? Did they send the game off to the manufacturer, realise the game was shit and just thought “Let’s just knock something up in a couple of months, nobody will notice. Can we reuse some old maps? Nuketown again, maybe?”

    What are the odds on their servers falling over at midnight? If everyone gets it early and the updates all finish in time? Everyone ready to go at the same time instead of being spread out due to varying times to download the update?

    • I doubt that will happen. Diehards will play at midnight, some people might take the day of launch off work, but the vast majority will be playing after school and work in the evening. I’d say that Activision have enough experience with game launches of this scale to avoid this.

      As for what’s on the disc, it could be anything. It’s effectively a physical DRM key to get access to the game, and maybe Activision are using it as exactly that instead of filling it with game assets.

  2. Cue in folks failing to get a day off work to phone in sickie xD
    Man why do I get the feeling that Red Dead Redemption 2 will have 50gb patch for the multiplayer down the line whenever that will be.
    I am not getting Black Ops since its online only and no campaign plus I hate the Battle Royal style in that game for some reason.
    But let’s see what happens tomorrow from 6pm onwards when the games go flying off the shelves!

  3. Steam let’s you download some games before release and then unlocks on release day, it would make sense for Sony to let you download patches before you even get your hands on the disk so you can install it as soon as you’re ready.

    • It may depend on the game, but Sony don’t even let you download patches if you’ve pre-ordered a game digitally and you’ve downloaded it in advance ready to play as soon as it launches. The update doesn’t appear until the game is unlocked at midnight (or usually midnight at least).

      So even if Activision are working with retailers to get the discs out early, there’s still a chance the update doesn’t appear until midnight anyway.

  4. Downloaded last night 54.67 GB in size.

    • This includes the Classified Zombies map that was a separate downloaded just under 3 GB,if I remember correctly.

  5. Where is the source detailing Tesco 6pm sales?

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