Activision Explains Behemoth Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 File Size

In the face of criticism from gamers, Activision moved quickly to explain the behemoth Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 file size. During the game’s campaign early access, those who pre-ordered the game pointed out a huge install size of more than 200 GB for both PC and console. For instance, players on PlayStation 5 reported an eye-watering 235 GB install size. Activision, the game’s publisher, shared a statement on social media that sought to explain the massive storage footprint of their latest title. 

In the statement, Activision placed the blame primarily on an increased amount of content that will be available upon the official launch. The extra content includes support for items carried forward from Modern Warfare 2(now Call of Duty HQ) and open-world Zombies. Additional content also includes map files from their current battle arena game, Call of Duty: Warzone. 

Activision also added that they are undertaking optimization efforts and that the final game install file size will be smaller than previous Call of Duty experiences. In the same statement, Activision admitted that the file sizes were “larger than last year.”

In recent years, gamers have become accustomed to dealing with huge video game file sizes. Advancements in gaming technology have resulted in some modern AAA games demanding a significant toll in storage space. Call of Duty fans know all too well of this problem. 

Recent entries in the long-running franchise have attracted criticism for their increasingly unoptimized and gargantuan file sizes. Call of Duty Black Ops 3, Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare, and Modern Warfare 2, for example, take up at least 110 GB of storage. Modern Warfare 3 looks to continue this trend and stands as the largest Call of Duty game ever.

Managing The Behemoth Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 File size

However, there’s some good news for those looking at ever-dwindling storage space. Activision and Sledgehammer have offered some degree of control over what you actually install. The developer states that players can use the “manage files” section of the Call of Duty HQ launcher menu to manage the game’s files. 

The menu allows you to uninstall certain content that you aren’t playing actively, among other options. This means you’ll be able to save a couple of gigs here and there. Whether these options will be able to make a significant difference in storage constraints is yet to be seen. 

Players only hope is that Activision sticks to its commitment to optimize the game. It doesn’t bode well, however, as Modern Warfare 3’s launch day update further exacerbates the file size problem.

Modern Warfare 3 Post-Launch Update Exceeds 100 GB 

As Activision and Sledgehammer Games launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Friday, November 10, the developers have released a massive preload update. The update has a file size that exceeds 100GB on both PC and consoles. 

It preloads Modern Warfare 3 and enables players to access different game modes, including Multiplayer and Zombies, as the game releases. 

Reports coming in from players on Xbox consoles and PCs reveal that the preload update has a file size of 135 GB. PlayStation 4 and 5 players have reported that the update is relatively smaller, with a file size of 100 GB. Further, if you are installing a Call of Duty HQ launcher, you may have to spare up to 180 GB of space on both PC and console to preload Modern Warfare 3. 

As expected, Call of Duty fans are not happy with the massive pre-launch update file size. The game itself already eats up well over 200 GB on both PC and consoles. This means players will be looking at a game file size that exceeds 300GB, a first for a franchise already synonymous with large game file sizes. 

Console owners are likely to feel the storage pinch more as Modern Warfare 3 will take up almost half of their available storage space. The criticism being leveled at Activision and Sledgehammer is warranted, as many players will be forced to uninstall other games on their consoles to enjoy this latest title.

If you like to keep a good game collection or play a variety of titles, you have no option but to invest in an SSD storage upgrade for your console. Compounding this problem is the possibility of additional post-launch updates, further increasing the game’s file size.

Why Modern AAA Games Have Huge Install File Sizes

While discussing Modern Warfare 3’s massive file sizes, it’s also important to look into why modern games require large amounts of storage space. Many game developers attribute the problem to texture assets. Modern games utilize high-resolution textures in increasingly higher resolutions (2K, 4K, and even 8K). 

To preserve game quality, developers try as much as possible to store texture assets in uncompressed files. These files tend to be huge. Using all these texture assets in massive games like Call of Duty presents the file size problem. 

Texture assets are just one part of the issue, however. The leap into next-gen gaming also means a leap in visual fidelity. In a way, our desire for nearly photorealistic rendered visuals is partly to blame. 

Every single asset developers create to render these visuals will consume storage space. Also, aspects such as character models, high-quality sounds, realistic lighting (real-time ray tracing), and more contribute to modern games’ storage footprints. In short, the better and more immersive we expect video games to be, the more storage space we should expect the games to take. 

The question, probably on many gamers’ minds in light of the massive Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 file size, is whether games will keep getting bigger. There are two ways this can go. Developers will have to compromise their artistic visions to reduce game install sizes. There’s only so much optimization can achieve. 

Given the history of gamers’ preferences and demands, this seems highly unlikely. The other option is for players to start getting used to large games as the norm, which seems to be the case. As gaming technology improves, gamers will have to invest in bigger storage drives. 

An alternative solution is cloud gaming, which allows players to access their favorite games online rather than locally. However, cloud gaming requires fast and reliable internet speeds to provide good latencies and manageable input lags. As such, widespread adoption is still slow. As it currently stands, the price you’ll have to pay for next-gen gaming includes storage upgrades.