Activision is finally lowering Call of Duty's horrendous install sizes for Black Ops 6's launch

For years, our PC storage has been tormented and buckling under the tyranny of gargantuan Call Of Duty installs. Like peasants in the 13th century trying to lug around huge, wobbly loads of freshly minted laser sights, our SSDs have been crying out for justice. Perhaps sensing the impending rebellion and the mass audience's shift towards low-polygon shooters with more civilised file sizes, Activision has caved. Future installs of the overstuffed FPS will be “smaller and more customised”, but in a final stroke of cruelty, they're demanding you download a major update to set the stage.

The first step for Activision is to “separate” its free-to-play live-service battle royale Call Of Duty: Warzone from other aspects of the Call Of Duty experience. It makes sense — the Venn diagram of audiences for COD campaigns and Warzone isn't a perfect circular crosshair. “When you purchase an annual game, you only download the files for that game by default,” an Activision blog explains. “On the free-to-play side, players can 'opt-in' to get Call Of Duty: Warzone when downloading a new annual game, or they can download it separately at any time.”

The second step is to “expand our use of texture streaming.” This will allow developers to “push less frequently used content by players into a streaming cache, eliminating the need to download it directly to your device's storage.” In return, “you may see older content appearing at lower quality until the streaming cache is fully loaded,” but you can always select the new “Optimized” high-fidelity graphics quality setting to render textures more quickly. There'll also be a “Minimal” graphics quality for those who don't have the internet bandwidth to spare.

To “make way” for all this, Activision wants you to download a Call Of Duty update right away, a few weeks before the Black Ops 6 beta and a few months before the Black Ops 6 release date. This “[reorganise] It's a big file, but the developers promise that “this initial download will not permanently add the listed file size to the storage Call of Duty takes up on your device.” Once installed, you can expect Call of Duty to take up less space over time.

I moved away from Call Of Duty for a number of reasons, but having to load hundreds of gigabytes onto my PC every time is definitely a standout. On the other hand, I'm not sure my internet connection can handle the increased streaming load. What's your situation?

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