While Call of Duty has been popular among casual and hardcore FPS fans around the world, one aspect that fans have not been happy with is the increasingly large amount of hard drive space needed to install each game. Ever since the 7th generation of gaming that introduced hard disk drives to game consoles, the file size that each new CoD title has only gone up. And at one point, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) had a file size of over 175 GB, which is absurd by today’s standards. The reason for these massive file sizes is most likely due to the lack of compression used with models, textures, and other types within the game’s files, so as not to compromise the high fidelity graphics and visuals.
But today, Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Vanguard will have a significantly smaller file size compared to previous titles. The news comes straight from the official Call of Duty Twitter page, as they claim that players will have access to “On-demand texture streaming” which will reduce the overall file size by a hefty amount.
Good news for hard drives everywhere: #Vanguard’s install size at launch will be significantly below previous #CallOfDuty releases.
New on-demand texture streaming tech expected to save up to 30%-50%+ on next-gen console and PC hard drive disk space 💥 pic.twitter.com/oYZoyIDTuO
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 26, 2021
The announcement specifically mentions On-demand texture streaming for current-gen consoles and PC versions of the game, and no mention of previous-gen consoles whatsoever, so Playstation 4 and Xbox One users may have to make some space on their hard drives before downloading. There is also no word on what kind of disk drive will be needed to make texture streaming work. Since all current-gen consoles are using SSDs, texture streaming should work well enough, but most PC users are still using traditional hard drives, most of which are still significantly slower than SSDs. which is probably why this technology isn’t available by default.
Development for the previous CoD titles have made attempts to reduce the massive file sizes overall, but due to recent titles being tied directly to Call of Duty: Warzone as a centralized hub, having large portions of the game saved to players’ hard drive seems inevitable due to each CoD title sharing data between each other, as well has been stuffed with content from single-player to co-op and competitive game modes. Regardless, many players are hoping that the developers will figure some way to reduce these large file sizes once and for all, and hopefully, this new texture streaming technology will help reduce some of the bloated data.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is set to release on November 5th, for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Pc via Battle.net.
