Xbox Series X and PS5 'Game File Sizes Are Going to Have to Skyrocket' With Unreal Engine 5 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 October 2020 / 4,004 Views
Video game file sizes have been growing for the biggest of games each generation. Several AAA games in the last handful of years have even crossed 100 GB in size. With higher resolution and higher detailed textures, the next generation could see game file sizes top 200 GB in size.
Kitatus and Friends CEO and Lead Programmer Ryan Shah in an interview with Wccftech has stated that with Unreal Engine 5 the trend will continue next generation on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
"It looks absolutely fantastic," said Shah. "Especially the Nanite system for a start, I had to scoop my jaw up off the floor after that. It takes a lot of the headache out of asset creation, but at the same time, it starts to raise more concerns. And one of the examples is Call of Duty Warzone at the minute, as people are harassing Activision over the size of Call of Duty Warzone.
"And I think when we've got technologies now in the Unreal Engine 5 that allow us to use the original source meshes, with the original source textures and everything like that, the game file sizes are going to have to skyrocket which presents a unique set of challenges.
It was a very interesting presentation. What's more exciting than anything is that not all of the features, but a lot of the features are available in some form in Unreal Engine 4 as it stands. Like the particle system is already actively available to us now, even in a rough state, which has been fantastic for us, because this means when Unreal Engine 5 eventually launches, we've got the power to take what we've made now and kind of bring it up there instead of having to remake a game from scratch or make some serious porting adjustments. It will be hopefully relatively seamless to really tap the full potential."
Bigger file sizes could become an issue on the next generation consoles as the PS5 comes with a 825 GB SSD and the Xbox Series X a 1 TB SSD. Both consoles will launch in Holiday 2020.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Doesn't match what we heard from Cerny, but we are going to see. Have to remember that UE5 goes all the way from entry smartphones to top end PCs.
As I understand it, the fast SSDs can help to reduce files sizes by requiring less duplication of assets. In other words, a given tree only needs to be saved in 1 place, rather than 50 places, as it can be accessed from that one place fast enough to work in all 50 instances. I don't know if devs will actually take advantage of this theoretical capability though.
They are not going to have to. But they might. And they will if people put up with it.
I still prefer developers use and create their own in-house engines. Unreal is a very overrated engine imo. This news is unexpected, but since PS5 (and maybe series X as well) allowing partial downloads and partial uninstalls this problem has been addressed to some extent. Still think 1 TB is going to be tough especially with some companies like Activision seemingly putting no effort into file compression and optomization ...isn’t warzone or mw like 300 gb now? On the flip side, GoT is only about 35 gb and that’s pretty impressive for an open world game.
I still prefer developers use and create their own in-house engines. Unreal is a very overrated engine imo. This news is unexpected, but since PS5 (and maybe series X as well) allowing partial downloads and partial uninstalls this problem has been addressed to some extent. Still think 1 TB is going to be tough especially with some companies like Activision seemingly putting no effort into file compression and optomization ...isn’t warzone or mw like 300 gb now? On the flip side, GoT is only about 35 gb and that’s pretty impressive for an open world game.
As long as you can fit 2 or 3 games, no problem with installing/deleting/ re installing
Definitely gonna need that External HDD on the PS5 to store the games I'm not actively playing on.
Can't imagine how much a 2TB upgrade for the PS5 is going to cost. (2TB Gen 4 SSD costs about as much as the PS4 Pro does today)
Xcloud is now essential. Play immediately while the game downloads in the background
What if we scale back on the textures and go for art style?
Now the 825GB SSD of PS5 doesn't seem that large... it's actually the same as on Switch, where you can save about 4 AAA Nintendo titles on the internal memory.
People complain about file sizes and than bash the solution.. Streaming
One can just buy more storage.
Paying for more storage doesnt solve the games from getting bigger.
As long as you can fit 2 or 3 games, no problem with installing/deleting/ re installing
sounds horrible. I regularly play at least two racing games (one simulation and one arcade) + 2 multiplayer games and obviously those singleplayer games I just play through right now which are also most of the time like 3 at the same time.
But I doubt the games will be 250gb+
I never have more than 3 games installed on my base ps4. Not enough space, and so it doesn't concern me much. I always have one single player game at a time for my full attention, and 2 online games max at a time.
