"Helldivers 2": Update reduces storage requirements from 154 GByte to 23 GByte
Once colossal, soon portable: An update for "Helldivers 2" drastically reduces its storage hunger. The reason is an adjustment for hard drive users.
(Image: Arrowhead)
An update for "Helldivers 2" reduces the PC version's storage requirements: Previously, "Helldivers 2" occupied 154 GByte on the hard drive. By adjusting the file structure, this footprint could be massively reduced, writes the development team from Arrowhead in a Steam post. In the future, "Helldivers 2" will only take up 23 GByte.
This is a storage space reduction of 85 percent, the team explains. This brings the installation size roughly in line with the console versions of the online shooter. This was made possible by "de-duplication" of the PC files, Arrowhead explains. Previously, the files were available in an additional version for users who still use a hard drive as an installation medium.
This was not a bug, but intentional: By duplicating the installation files, they wanted to reduce loading times for such hard drive users, writes Arrowhead. While this works, tests have shown that the effects were significantly smaller than anticipated. This means that HDD users will have to expect loading times that are "a few seconds" longer in „Helldivers 2“ in the future – and not "ten times longer loading times," as Arrowhead had originally feared.
11 percent play on hard drive
In addition, Arrowhead released an insight into user statistics: About 11 percent of all PC players still have "Helldivers 2" installed on a hard drive, which is significantly slower than SSD configurations. This also means that all other players had to accept a actually unnecessarily huge installation size for these 11 percent until now.
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"Helldivers" developer Arrowhead is very open about the situation – but it is likely that other games are also in a similar dilemma. A good indicator is the comparison between console and PC versions: If the console version of a game is significantly smaller than the PC version, it could be due to concessions to hard drive users. However, many modern games now require an SSD.
The smaller installation size of "Helldivers 2" is currently still reserved for users of a technical beta before it is distributed to all users. This can be selected and installed via the Steam menu. Arrowhead provides instructions for this in the Steam post. Arrowhead developed the update in collaboration with the studio Nixxes.
(dahe)
