this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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For example, both Final Fantasy XVI & STALKER 2 take up 152GB & 165GB on my 2TB external SSD. I mean, why are steam games HUGE as f*ck regarding their file sizes lately? Don't even mention CoD (200GB?!), even with the fastest internet connection: you can't bypass patience as these things take up time. For me, it took me about 2 days to finish (pause & resume download). I've finished installing KCD II (Royal Edition) and that was 85GB (took up 8-12 hours with fast internet, I was binge watching a TV show on Prime Video the entire time).

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[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 43 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

They optimized for things other than install size. Optimization is often choosing one thing at the expense of others.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

they optimized for least effort.

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Pray tell, how do you think "they" should optimize game assets? People who have zero experience in game development love to talk about "optimization" like it's a slider in the options or some challenge that can be solved by throwing resources at it. Modern compression algorithms like Oodle are about as performant and artifact-free as mathematically possible. Everything beyond that is a trade-off between quality, size, and performance.

But are you thinking about it in abstract? Would you prefer a game to have occasional pop-in, stutter issues, and CPU spikes in exchange for a smaller size?

(edit) Before you say it, I know there are relatively low-fidelity games that run like ass. Those are usually caused by poorly written game logic or shader codes, which can be refactored, but won't have an effect on file sizes.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Hey, listen to OP and turn your file compression spider up at least 50%

I remember jak and daxter being amazing because they optimized to not have loading screens (unless you teleported). First time I remember that in a 3d game

edit: it stays :3

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Do you need to take any precautions around the file compression spider?

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

just don't leave any important paperwork around it or you'll have to go hunting for it on the web.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

When time is money, optimizing for time is a worthwhile endeavor. 6+ year dev cycles aren't something anyone wants. But realistically, large file sizes probably aren't going away with more dev time.

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

6+ years dev cycles is something I am comfortable with, because I want something done well, and if it's something big enough (like Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate), then of course it will take a long time, even with big ~~command~~ team

But I still haven't figured out another end of such a deal: how to keep all the ~~command~~ team members alive, fed and comfortable for this long time? Buying a game once, even multiplied by whatever-count-of-copies-they-have-sold-for-now, doesn't give a guarantee that all those people have enough money to just keep creating something exciting for as long as it takes