Size Isn’t Everything
It’s a problem every PC player has faced before: the constant shuffle of large installed games, the constant need to make space for all those fancy new releases. If you’ve faced an issue like that before, it may surprise you to know that Call of Duty: Vanguard may not need to be rotated out of your hard drive.
While the exact size reduction wasn’t stated, a recent tweet promised that Vanguard’s Install size would be “significantly below” that of previous Call of Duty titles.
Good news for hard drives everywhere: #Vanguard’s install size at launch will be significantly below previous #CallOfDuty releases.
New on-demand texture streaming tech expected to save up to 30%-50%+ on next-gen console and PC hard drive disk space ? pic.twitter.com/oYZoyIDTuO
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 26, 2021
Technology like this is an interesting use of established streaming infrastructure. It’s a good way to ease players into a new would without going full Stadia. That said, many of the downsides inherent to the streaming process seem likely to appear here too – on top of demanding a persistent internet connection, no streaming service can exist forever. Though at the very least, the use of this technology seems to be optional – those who don’t mind spending a bit more hardware space remain free to download the full-size game, if they so choose.
Innovations like this bode well for the future of streaming technology in the gaming space. This step away from an “all-or-nothing” approach introduces a whole new dimension for innovative programmers looking to invent the next cool feature for designers to include in their games. Ever had an explosion on-screen, that caused a bunch of physics-enabled props to chew through your framerate? Perhaps some of that computing load could be sent off to another computer, which would simply stream the results to your device? There are options here, a real method of separating next-gen games from their predecessors. With any luck, features like this could become easier to implement, more accessible, and have heavily-mitigated downsides – just like what Vanguard is doing for its game.