What's Happening?
Helldivers 2, a game developed by Arrowhead Game Studio, occupies significantly more storage space on PC compared to consoles, with a size of 150GB. This is due to the game's support for players using mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs), which require data duplication to reduce loading times. Brendan Armstrong, Arrowhead's deputy technical director, explained that the duplication is necessary for the estimated 12% of PC gamers still using mechanical HDDs. The studio is exploring solutions to reduce the game's footprint, such as bundling common assets and improving compression techniques, but these changes may impact load times for HDD users.
Why It's Important?
The storage issue highlights the challenges game developers face in balancing performance and accessibility across different hardware configurations. As gaming technology advances, the disparity between older and newer hardware becomes more pronounced, affecting user experience. This situation underscores the need for developers to innovate in data management and compression to accommodate diverse user bases. The ongoing efforts by Arrowhead to address these challenges reflect a broader industry trend towards optimizing games for a wide range of systems, ensuring that players with older hardware are not left behind.
What's Next?
Arrowhead plans to release an update later this month to address some of the storage issues, although significant improvements may take more time. The studio is committed to enhancing its engine and compression techniques to reduce the need for data duplication. As the gaming industry continues to evolve, developers will likely focus on creating more efficient ways to manage game data, potentially leading to industry-wide advancements in game storage solutions.
