Physical Copies of The Division 2 Will Require a Gigantic 90GB Download

90gigs wth lmao.

Whiners gonna whine

Man... I'm glad I'm not interested in this game, but it surely sucks for anyone expecting it to pop it in and start playing it. Seems like going for the digital version and preloading it is the best option in this case.

This doesn't surprise me at all the beta was like 50 GB's. I have the digital version on pre-order so I'm good.

I wonder if the PS5 will adopt 4K Blu-Ray discs? These discs can’t hold enough to play late PS4 games so it would make sense.

90gig ain't nothing when you have GTAV and GT Sport installed.

This is why I no longer care about physical copies.

I better check my hard drive! If the drive is close to full you normally need slightly more than stated to start the install.

I feel sorry for anybody with inter cap or slow connection.

Just when I thought I couldn't Nope this game hard enough.

I do suspect that late lifetime PS5 games will be released on portable hard drives. But in this case, it sounds like file compression is the thing to be nostalgic about instead.

@lacerz I haven't bought a physical game since GOW. I only did that because I had a gift card.

So basically we're not playing whatever is on that disc, this will be the reality for most of not all games next gen so I'm probably going to all digital now as physical is a bit of a myth at this point

Well it is an online only game............

Name me one single player offline focused game that required a 90 gig download day one for it to actually work?

Physical for life.

@carlos82 The difference is the install data is on-disc so for offline games you will always be able to download the game even after PSN is closed on PS4.

@TowaHerschel7 Bingo

Not planning on getting it anyways

@TowaHerschel7 is that for certain? Obviously you'll be able to install from the disc but will any updates or indeed DLC still be available to download if PSN is shut down on PS4? I've always been a physical first guy but these days it's becoming less and less appealing to me, discs were never as nice an object as cartridges and we haven't even had manuals for a long time. Next gen I would guess that most games will require a download ad file sizes balloon to take advantage of higher resolutions, even now Pro and X enhancements aren't on the disc

🎶Swing low, sweet chariot,
Come to take my HDD home!,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Come to take my HDD home🎶

That is ridiculous. Devs really need to work trimming down file sizes, I know some of us external HDDs but even they are gonna fill up.

@carlos82 Except that physical is usually about 80% of the price of digital (even less if you buy preowned), and then if you want you can trade it in for another game, return it for an exchange if you don't like it, lend it to a friend, etc. And as others have said, when they close down PSN - either in general or just for PS4 - you've lost all your games. And physical installs in seconds rather than a lengthy download. Though obviously this game is an exception, of course.

If digital was cheaper than physical, like it should logically be, then it'd be better, but would still have the other drawbacks.

@carlos82 Updates and enhancements are just that, you will still be able to play the base game before any patches or updates.
The only problem would be if the game was broken already on the disc.

@Gamer4Lyfe that's the thing though, increasingly games are being fixed by day one patches all the time plus multiple updates as we go on. I honestly don't see it as being that big of an issue in the future to get access to your digital library, I mean on Xbox they're actually adding older 360 and og Xbox games to its digital library. Whilst the whole point of their platform now is to take your digital library forward to the next generation and I suspect Sony will do something similar with PS5 and if not it'll be a long time before PS4 is disconnected from PSN by which point I'll be an old man anyway 😆

@carlos82 All good my man, I myself have a fair share of digital games so I wont be mad upset when physical eventually disappears but I will try to keep physical alive for as long as I can.
One thing is for sure I will never go streaming, when that happens I'll go back to previous consoles.

@nessisonett I really hope and believe PS5 is using 4K UHD as PS3 and PS4 used Blue Ray Discs.

Unacceptable for a physical copy of a game.

Good lord, man! Think of the poor HDDs out there!

Why even bother buying physical with this game, 90gb download is insane!

@Matroska You won't lose your downloaded digital games when PSN shuts down, but you'll want to have your games backed up to a second HDD in case your main one dies, otherwise bye-bye games.

Does it make any difference, though? Digital or physical, you'd still have to download the patch and the file size is roughly the same anyways. That being said digital is great for live-service games like The Division 2 if you plan on playing it everyday or often since it makes it more convenient. Personally, I'd still go for physical, though.

Anyways, it's unfortunate that so many big games get released in an unfinished or unpolished state nowadays that they have to be fixed with large patches.

@Matroska You are right to an extent, but with the sales that run fairly often, you can get digital versions of a lot of games for just as cheap or cheaper than the physical copies. Obviously even more of a savings if you are a Plus member. You still have to download a patch or whatever for the vast majority of games even when it's a physical copy. They install faster since you don't have to download the whole game, but I think the only game that installed basically instantly for me so far was The Witcher 3. Lastly, while I'm not saying some people won't go back to their systems some day, the vast majority of people will never play a PS4 again after they are firmly into the PS5, let alone way way down the road if PSN ever goes away. I'm not a pro-digital person as I still buy a lot of my games on disc, but still felt like I should make a comment.

This means the code in the disc is unplayable crap...

@nessisonett It doesn't even sound like that is the problem. It sounds like they're just using the disc as a download code with this game probably because the game is shipping unfinished.

@ApostateMage
Or Battlefront 2, DOOM, Red Dead 2 and bla bla bla

@Gamer4Lyfe
That's not a given. Many games are unplayable without patches.

All PS4 games, regardless of size, install to and run from the HDD. Doesn't matter if its 100Mb or 100Gb. Doesn't matter if you buy it thru the PS Store or Best Buy. Those that insist on buying a disc is just enforcing the frustration of switching them all the time. Yes, I guess you can sell them, but your player base interested in buying them is shrinking.

So I'm confused. Is it a 90GB install from the disc? Or you need an Internet to download and install it? If that's the case, The Division 2 disc will make a great coaster.

btw, if you exceeded your home's Internet cap, you will be charged $20 to download the game.

This is why you dont buy apps day 1. Not only do you have to deal with this, but it's not gonna have any content after the main course anyway (like TD1 lmao) and is gonna be broken as f@ck bc Ubisoft. AND it's gonna be $15 by Black Friday anyway, so why are y'all giving into this anyway?

well that's a nope then, in the area i live 25mbs is the BEST we can get and that will take HOURS, if i buy a game on disc then i expect the game to be on the bloody disc

and people want an all digital future, yeah some might get great internet and fast speeds but most of us don't

I have very fast connection i always buy a physical copy screw them over priced digital crap from psn they should cost less not more anyway i got gold edition for 65 bucks the file size will be the same for everybody download at midnight doesn't intrest me as i say i have lighting Internet speed anyway i will have my game monday anyway when i pick it up see you all in DC.ALIEN

@mmarkster it's an internet download as apparently according to the article "that update won't be added onto the base install size of the game. Instead, it sounds like it'll replace a lot of the data"

that means the data on the disc is actually being replace by the download and the last time something like that happened to me was with the Halo MCC and that's because the data on the discs were corrupted and instead of replacing them they just made an "update" that was actually the game itself

That's not a patch, that's the game. They're selling a season pass disc as physical copy. I remember when Telltale did that and see where it got them.

I don’t understand why this game has such a large file size when it’s D.C map isn’t even that big from what I saw in the open beta, I get the map will most likely open up more in the full game but even so I don’t see it being that big in the end. Games like GTA V and RDR2 really do warrant their 100+GB file sizes but The Divison 2 shouldn’t be anywhere near 90GB.

Does size matter now days???

We all have HUGE hard drives now days any way!

This game will keep me busy until Days Gone comes out in April.

@FullbringIchigo "if i buy a game on disc, then i expect the game to be on the bloody disc".

Good luck with that. A Blu-ray only holds at best 50Gb and many games now are nearly double and getting bigger. And physical media is not keeping up as content providers are switching to digital/streaming as sizes increase. So you may have a nice case you can sell, but understand that your game is as digital as mine.

Also, game files are "compiled" kinda like a zipfile so it's not as easy as just switching out the offending 20kb of code in a specific file as that file has been collected into a bigger compiled file that may be 5Gb. The PS4 cannot decompile files so the dev has to send the entire 5Gb file and not only the part that changed. That's why a 5Gb update for say something like Elder Scrolls Online doesn't just add 5Gb to the game size as 99% may be the same as to what you already have.

It's also easier to have everyone on the same version of the game even if you haven't bought the same DLC as your friend. Maybe you bought Morrowind and Summerset and they bought Summerset only... but I'd bet your game size would be nearly identical.

@Cycologist Actually dual-layered Blu-Rays and triple-layered one's exist so Blu-Rays can hold up to 150 GB the only problem is that those multi-layered discs put a horrendous strain on the PS4's disc-drive...

@Cycologist On what planet is ANY expansion or DLC 20kb LMAO.

@TowaHerschel7 Just because 150Gb or higher discs exist doesn't mean Sony will use them as manufacturing costs would be prohibitive

As streaming and digital sales account for an increasing percentage... the motivation for their use goes the opposite direction. The size of games will determine the move to digital more than anything as they'll get bigger faster than disc media storage. Particularly on consoles where your hardware specs are fixed for the life of the console.

@TowaHerschel7 IAgreed, a 20Kb DLC is a stretch! But a 20Kb modification to a file within a larger 5Gb update is not. Your overall game size will not change in any real sense, but you still have to download the entire 5Gb update

@Cycologist Ah! I see!

@Cycologist if it's too big for a blu-ray then why can't they do what Red Dead Redemption 2 did and put in another disc?

That 90gb figure is supposedley a mistake, from Engadget -

"One page on Ubisoft's website indicates that PS4 players will be burdened with a 90GB download, but that appears to be an error — 90GB to 100GB is just the amount of free space the game needs to install fulls on Sony's system."

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/09/the-division-2-patch/

90gb? that would be a day's download for me.. epic epic fail. a few gb day1 patch is one thing, but replacing the entire game is just ridiculous. part of the appeal of buying a physical disc is getting it early and being able to play it (and of course it's much cheaper on day1). can't help but feel when word of this gets out, it's going to put quite a dent in their sales.

I'm downloading right now. It's a total of 90 GB's.

@ThroughTheIris56 delete games? I have a one TB hard drive and 1 tb internal. I buy a lot of games and still don’t have an issue with space

@FullbringIchigo what’s a disc

@jly1987 Before I upgraded to a 1TB HDD, and that was no where near enough to store all of my games. Recently I brought a 2TB External HDD, and that has made my life easier. However I don't know how long that will last till, and it's annoying that you're pretty much forced to upgrade, even if your library is mainly physical.

@FullbringIchigo most games will not have the sales or the studio have R*'s or T2's money to fund it. It's not as simple as saying "oh our game is 150Gb let's do three discs". Packaging and shipping costs costs rise significantly in addition to the extra discs.

Given that the game ends up on your HDD anyway, it's more cost effective to release as one disc with a day one update with the rest of the game. If your packaging is too different, box stores won't like it as it won't fit their displays or take up too much space

Sadly, large day one updates will be common place. There's no reason for a game to release on multiple discs, unless like R*, you want to have a positive PR bullet-point to push your product. Not every dev can afford that.

And going digital means less packaging going to landfills

@Cycologist i get all that but there is also the fact many areas just don't have a good enough internet to support an all digital future, like i said 25mbs is the best you get in my area and that's on fiber broadband

maybe by the time the PS6 or PS7 comes out we will but for now a download that size you takes hours AND that's not to mention if your internet has a download limit, one that size could end up costing you quite a bit of money, just to download what should be on the disc if you buy the physical version

people might want a digital future but most places just aint ready for it

@FullbringIchigo fair enough as I wasn't thinking of places without good speeds and where I am the internet's pretty good although you pay for it, but faster (not necessarily cheaper) internet may come when the media people want is increasingly not available in stores at all

Serious question to those who have gone digital only. Do you still play all your older games? I ask because I rarely if ever go back to games I got long ago. Too many new games to play to go back to a game I beat last year. Surely some sit there untouched since completion.

This is why I go physical, so I can sell it. I'm at a ratio of buy 2-3 games get 1 free by doing that. Totally worth it.