Why are game-sizes getting bigger and bigger while they still offer less content?
"Where's the 80+GB-patch going here? Looks like shit."
Why should you question this as a major issue? Simply put I shouldn’t have to “waste” upwards of 20+GB on a game if it doesn’t really require it.
If you’re running a game on a single
GeForce GTX 1060
, do you really need assets designed for 4K? Probably not. If you’re playing in English, do you need to install uncompressed audio for a dozen other languages? No. And if you only ever plan to play singleplayer, do you need all of the multiplayer stuff too?
Same with original Deus Ex (25-35hrs fully voiced gameplay = 431MB installer, 712MB install size). Sure, better HD textures and "bigger engines" will take up more room, but I think there's a lot more "reduced bloat" optimization they could do on a number of games if they truly wanted. The fun / enjoyability / immersion factors (especially of post 2013 games) don't seem to be going up anywhere near as much as the "bloat curve" even with "better textures" factored in. A lot of it is "cinematics" (the obsession with demanding every trivial action be scripted and Hollywood-ified), however many of us find that when that involves "snatching" control of the player back and forward every few seconds, it actually reduces immersion rather than adds to it. If there was an option to turn off micro-cutscenes, that would be yet another thing I'd disable more often than not (on top of dumb post-processing FX), and all that "you stepped over a pebble. Let's start a pre-rendered pebble-stepping-over cutscene!" stuff probably adds another 5-10GB!
Most of the Mad Max footage I’ve seen has been in a desert with next to nothing on the horizon. So why on Earth is this game 32GB ?
Guilty Gear Xrd for PS4 has 5.7GB.
It's good at graphics and it does not have photorealism as goal.
I think we are overestimating the value of photorealism in games!
We’re About to Have a Storage Crisis – Games Are Too Large
The games industry needs to ease the burden of these gargantuan installations. Let the people who want (and can handle) 80GB downloads continue as normal, but the flexibility of the PC as a platform should mean there’s a way for people who don’t need the whole package to pick and choose, be it by accepting downgraded assets or by installing only one mode at a time, or whatever else developers can think up.
The data-capped masses will thank you for it, developers—as will our poor SSDs.
And yes, lazy coding, no optimizations etc...etc. Lazy coding is made good with increased h/w requirements...I mean why write fast and optimized code, say, in assembler or highly optimized C++ if you can just have poor, slow code (--> Windows)...and then just take 8GB of memory and the fastest quad core CPU you can get...even if THEORETICALLY this Windows OS or this game, if written highly optimized could run well on a machine 10x less powerful
(source: http://gutscakeearshot.soup.io/post/636723688/Why-game-sizes-are-getting-bigger-and)