File Sizes Are Too Big These Days

Mortal Kombat 1 is going to be 100 GB, and this is fast becoming unsustainable for gamers and their console space

[isarai]

Not when they use PS5s Kraken compression

[phoenixwing]

That stuff seems like magic compared to the competition. One of the better buys by sony

[Bobertt]

I was watching a podcast where an Infinity Ward developer was talking and he said that one of the reasons the games are so big these days is because they have to duplicate assets a lot. He said the different parts in a game may require the same assets but the assets now are too big for the bandwidth of that console or PC to load them from one set in the game without pop ins or other issues. So they have to copy the same assets and load them into the different systems so they don't have to share and wait for it to be sent to them first. This bloats up the file size a lot he says.

But he said the PS5 compression and system bandwidth makes it possible to have less copies and send it to the different systems in time. Also it's not just the Kraken Compression and SSD that make the PS5 so fast it's the other parts too but i forgot their names. For example you could get a SSD on PC now that is as fast or faster than the PS5 but the other parts in the system aren't designed like the PS5 parts to utilize the full speed so you hit bottlenecks on PC even with a fast SSD.

[Tacoboto]

PC games would need to implement DirectStorage 1.1 at minimum (or develop a custom solution) to leverage the GPU instead of the CPU to load/decompress assets. DS1.0 has some boost to it but it's the 1.1 SDK that gets PC games closer to PS5/Xbox Series-like loading.

It'll be interesting to see how Ratchet and Clank in particular performs on PC - Spider-Man was especially CPU intensive traversing around the city, and Dead Space Remake has traversal stutter going around the ship when you reach load points on PC which are present occasionally on console but to a lesser degree.

[nitus10]

It depends on the game. Take for example "Horizon Zero Dawn: Forbidden West", "The Witcher 3" and "NioH 2" all are over 90GB for the PS5 and the PS4 editions.

Granted that there are PS5 games that are much smaller than 90GB but like I have said before that depends on the game, the compression method used, graphical fidelity and a whole host of of other atributes that must be taken into account.

[banger88]

The worst part about this is when they put "download required" on the box, so we don't get the complete game on disc. All because they're too f***** stingy to give us a second disc. For physical collectors and preservationists, this is a nightmare scenario. And screw digital-only as well. If I didn't have Forza Horizon 3 on disc, I wouldn't even be able to play it full stop.

[EvertonFC]

There would be a download requirements even with 2 disks, going form the games gone GOLD , to the gamer picking up the game at retail there is always patch and bug fixes and day1 update.
Dam let's be real on average your on patch update 1.03 after a week or 2 after release.

[Snookies12]

"there is always patch and bug fixes and day1 update."

Final Fantasy XVI would beg to differ. If what we've heard about it being incredibly polished before release is true.

[Magog]

What a lame complaint. If you want more variation in textures, environments, and enemies you're going to have a bigger game.

[Bobertt]

Mortal Kombat is a fighting game not an open world game it shouldn't be 100gb.

[nitus10]

Well you could have differnt skins and play attibutes per extra characters which (correct me if I am wrong ) you have to pay real money for. :-)

[Viljong]

So what its easier to expand than with pc.

[nitus10]

I actually have a 1TB USB drive which I originally used for backup purposed on my PC that I have connected to my PS5. Basically I use my USB drive for PS4 games which are played directly from that drive and for PS5 games I play directly from the inbuilt SSD (you don't have a choice).

Of course that are some PS4 games which do benifit from be played directly from the SSD in that loading times are dramaticaly reduced although that will depend on the game. An example of this is "Kingdoms of Amalur" where entering and exiting a door can get really annoying when played directly from a USB disk drive so installing on the PS5's SSD (approx 30GB) is not consuming to much space.

[Viljong]

And its super easy to add an m.2 nvme ssd in ps5 and series x. Ps5 only require really fast specs but other that its plug and play.

[boing1]

Usually if something is of high quality, it will take more space. Music is the same, no? Movies? Same. Progress requires sacrifices. This is our new real. At least Sony saw it as an issue for the future as well. Hardware supported Kraken and expandable storage via normally priced ssd were kind of visionary if you think about it in hindsight.

[CrimsonWing69]

4k textures are big. Do we just have news stories where there’s nothing but complaining now? Like, is this where we’re at with things?