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Modern Warfare developer will address controversial file sizes

Brandon McIntyre
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An Infinity Ward developer tweeted Wednesday that the company will decrease the total file size of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as players await Season 5’s imminent release.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was criticized for taking up a massive amount of hard drive space. Since its release, subsequent updates and multiplayer seasons further increased the game’s overall file size despite widespread complaints from the community.

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Paul Haile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s Production Director, said Season 5’s patch “is coming soon, and [it’s] big,” saying it will prioritize reducing the size of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone to give players’ hard drives some breathing room.

its a priority for us to keep working on reducing the overall size of MW & WZ on your hard drives, but at the same time also delivering new seasons for everyone to enjoy. we'll continue to work on this and keep pushing space reductions out with future updates.

— Paul Haile (@Tyrael) August 2, 2020

Ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s October 2019 release, Activision posted a preview of the game’s requirements to its blog, which pointed out PC players should save 175GB of hard drive space for the game. This included the size for both the base game and its post-launch content, including patches and seasons. The game’s initial size on consoles was just above 60GB, not including post-launch updates.

With Season 4 well underway, the game’s file size has ballooned to about 200GB across all platforms, far beyond the norm for PC and console games.

Console games typically use up a lot of hard drive space as it is, ranging from below 20GB to more than 60GB, with post-launch updates often increasing file sizes over time. Destiny 2, Red Dead Redemption II, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III are also some of this generation’s largest titles. Given that standard console hard drives typically hold between 500GB and 1TB, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s file size takes up a large chunk of space.

Still, Modern Warfare, which Infinity Ward supplemented with Warzone for players who prefer free-to-play titles, remains a popular choice among gamers. As 2020’s best-selling game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s seasons keep players coming back for more with Season 5 launching August 5, bringing the new Shadow Company faction, additional maps, and more weapons. The update itself will take up 36GB of hard drive space, with Warzone receiving simultaneous multiplayer updates and content.

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Brandon McIntyre
Brandon McIntyre
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