The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Install Size on Xbox One Revealed; PS4 Install Size Dropped to 35 GB

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt‘s download size on Xbox One has been made public on the game’s Xbox store listing, and it’s quite small compared to expectations. The install size on PS4 has also been lowered compared to the previously reported 50 GB, which was probably a placeholder.

[DarkOcelet]

I honestly expected a much bigger size for the Xone version. Half a blu ray disc is small for such a massive game. Wasnt God Of War 3 on PS3 40 gigs or something like that? Amazing how they can compress a game this much.

[Abriael]

Open world games actually tend to be pretty optimized for what asset size is concerned, often more than close level games.

That's because all those assets need to be streamed quicker than in closed level games between hard disk and memory, in order to keep up with your movement. You can't push them to memory with as much predictability as you can with other games.

[mikeslemonade]

Parity

[_-EDMIX-_]

Agreed. Many times the size of the data may not be indicative of the actual size of the physical game.

This is still a pretty big jump for them from what they used last gen on PC and last gen on 360.

Next gen games need next gen space.

[vishmarx]

the game was initially 50gb from what we know.or prolly more which is why they had to compress it
skyrim,fallout and fc3 were extremely tiny games as well(3-5gb).

[Abriael]

vishmarx: most probably that "50 gb" was a simple placeholder.

[Articuno76]

True. And you have to keep in mind that in many linear games there are actually more total assets (more unique surfaces) whereas with an open world game it's the same grass/dirt/rock texture applied again and again.

[BecauseImBatman]

I just pre-ordered on Xbox One store and it's actually 30.4GB not 25GB, I believe it's 40GB on PC and it's 35GB on PS4. So yeah great job compressing the game I must say considering most open world games like GTA 5 and Dragon Age are pushing close to 50GB...

@Abriael
I'll try get one...

[Abriael]

The listing says 25.15 on both the web store and the xbox one, do you have a pic so I can update in case?

Edit: Thanks a lot :D

[Abriael]

Got it and updated, helpful bubble for you :D Thanks.

[BecauseImBatman]

@Abriael
No problem mate, thanks.

[GribbleGrunger]

Does anyone else see a correlation between the originally announced install size, the two full sized DLC story packs and the reduced install size? Is it hidden in plain view? I'm not sure I like the smell of this myself.

[DarkOcelet]

Are you saying the other two story dlc were cut out content to be sold separately?

And thus its reduced from 50 gigs to 30 gigs? I dont want to believe that. But at the same time, i wouldnt be surprised.

[GribbleGrunger]

@DarkOcelet:

We couldn't possibly know that for certain but the idea can't be ignored. Let's see how big the DLC is when it releases. If it all adds up to around 50gb (Game + DLC) then we've got reason to believe it COULD have originally been intended as included content.

I'm still going to be getting The Witcher 3 though.

[d0x360]

Chances are it wasn't a place holder. Its likely that they had planned to include every language in every version but decided against wasting so much user HDD space. I'm ready to preload from steam, got my PCI express ssd empty for this game. Let's goooooo!

[nitus10]

Assuming the digital download is the same size 35GB is quite a bit of data to download. Still if you have a fast internet and a large monthly cap or unlimited then there won't be a problem although it will take some time to download.

Me I think I will stick to physical media since installation or even re-installation is relatively fast, much faster than a Digital Download and if you want you can give the game to a friend or even sell it. If you don't mind waiting you can even get this game second hand. You can't do this with a Digital Download.

[Cyb3r]

This brings back memories I remember a few years ago reading that Skyrim on the 360 and PS3 was only 3.8GB filesize I was very surprised that such a large world could be so small in filesize compared to games like Uncharted 2 and MGS4. Im really impressed that CD Projekt Red can make The Witcher 3 look so good and have such a large openworld map and still have leftover disc space

[_-EDMIX-_]

It depends on how demanding the engine is and how big the textures are if they exist. Last gen that game was 3.8gb as it wasn't a PS3 exclusive and could just be bigger or anything lol.

Uncharted, Killzone, MGS etc could do that on that system last gen. They may have cleaned up some content, took some textures out of certain areas, compressed etc.

[d0x360]

Skyrim was small for 2 reasons. One it had to be designed so it could run on the split pool of ram on the ps3 which required some design concessions and two the game uses a ton of repeated textures and other design elements. Hopefully their next game is bigger with less repeated art work and less linear dungeons.

[GearSkiN]

Do we still get all the bells and whistle even if we get digital? Maybe I'd be better to get a physical copy, so I can have all those goodies.

[Saijahn]

that stuff comes with the collector's edition which is sold out all over except in the uk i believe.

[jznrpg]

My drive is probably getting close to full even though I buy physical mainly and have a 1tb hybrid, but great rpgs I like to have both so something may have to get deleted.

[Kingscorpion1981]

Probably the PS4 and PC version has better textures and models than the xbone version hence the bigger size

[hard joe]

hope the resolution and frame rate won't drop

[Agent_hitman]

So in comparison with GTA V? I guess it's too small, kudos to all the devs of this game making the file small as possible.

[1nsomniac]

Hope this 15gb drop doesn't suggest a lowering of assetes quality.

[Seafort]

It'll just be optimisation and compression for the different platforms.

I never worry about disk space but I only game on PC atm till Uncharted 4 is released :)

[d0x360]

Its likely just the removal of various foreign audio files. No need for 20 different languages in every regional version. I'm looking at you call of duty and titan fall