Fun Club How long will it take until games will start to get 1TB day one patches?

[Irene]

Games are ballooning in size, as AAA games just keeps getting more and more technically intricate and content rich, with cutting-edge graphics and ridiculous budgets.

This doesn’t exactly bode well for neither the AAA industry, nor our storage spaces. How long will it take?

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Probably never because AI art algorithms will eventually be used for heavier compression that will be doable for real time use by the PS8 or something.

Game sizes are pretty much the same as last gen.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Never; they'll go streaming only before it can ever get close to that point.

 

[Touya]

Spoiler

If it happens at all, it will only be practical when ISPs can deliver the global bandwidth to their broadest customer base. Getting too far ahead of the infrastructure will just make the product not viable in the market.

 

[cire]

I don't think it ever happens, personally.

 

[shoptroll]

We're probably a very long way off from terabyte patches. Full downloads? Sure, probably once 8K becomes the norm along with increased definition on models and adding more audio with less compression. But it's also a big question if gaming needs to get to 8K, as current displays are more than "good enough" for the average living room. The extra resolution will just be a waste of processing power.

Probably never because AI art algorithms will eventually be used for heavier compression that will be doable for real time use by the PS8 or something.

Spore was already doing procedurally generated textures back in the mid 00's. I could see that getting more widespread adoption if bandwidth doesn't catch up.

 

[famicorpse]

From NIntendo? Not anytime soon. Sony/Microsoft? 5 to 10 years for full games (not patches. Well, maybe updates).

 

[ziggyrivers]

Before games touch 8k, they should really compress stuff and actually bother to delete unused stuff

 

[Shoulder]

I think compression algorithms, plus new techniques will be introduced before a game reaches 1TB in size.

And correct me if I’m wrong, but there is also another factor in all this, which is the cost per GB for storage. If I understand correctly, we're approaching a floor price for standard HDDs, and it’s not as though NAND storage is going to hit that low anytime soon (it’s actually supposed to increase next year btw). I suspect this'll force companies to implement compression techniques to keep sizes down over the long term.

I'm also thinking in terms of bandwidth caps for ISPs, and how that may affect storage as well.

I could be all wrong on this though, but that is my thinking.

 

[TreeSign]

The day games start requiring 1 TB of data just to play is the day I quit modern gaming.