Rockstar Games has announced that pre-load times for Grand Theft Auto VI begin on November 10, but a more staggering detail is that players will need upwards of 212GB of storage to install it. Rumors of the mammoth-sized install began circulating a couple of weeks ago and at the time seemed to be just that, but now we know that the publisher has found another way to ensure their game is getting the most play by making it so users probably don’t have enough room to keep anything else on their drives. Obviously, this premise is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. For example, an unmodded base PS5 with 665GB of storage will dedicate roughly 1/3 of what’s left to the game. By far and wide, either 1TB or 2TB NVMe drives are the most popular among many users from PC to console, and for those with only a single drive option, you are looking to commit at least 10% of your storage to this install.
“The pre-load file will require up to 212 GB depending on your device, so make sure you’ve got ample space to begin pre-loading as soon as possible.”
– Rockstar Games
Now it seems that Rockstar may’ve been wise to abandon a true physical release for GTA VI. At roughly 212GB, a complete install would require, at minimum, 2x triple-layer UHD 100 discs and more than likely a 3rd disc as well, given that file system overhead doesn’t mean all 100GB could be used, so try to imagine the increased production costs for that. Sensationalism aside, many PC users are already used to such install sizes when it comes to their favorite flight sim or game which has had a bazillion mods added to it. It doesn’t mean anyone is happy about it, especially at a time when even minute storage capacities come at a premium price, but things are what they are. It will be interesting to see if modders manage to compress files to reduce the game’s footprint, but only time will tell if that is to happen.
Rockstar has also said that on November 19, when GTA 6 officially launches, it will be offering a free digital download of a printable Grand Theft Auto VI cover art poster along with a map of Leonida, and a double-sided version of the poster will be available from their store for $1 but can be had as a free gift with any purchase on the storefront.
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →Just one more reason not to purchase and play GTA6. I'm starting to run low on discretionary storage space, and market conditions are not favorable toward purchasing more.
Agreed. I still cringe when I look at the install size for RDR2 and that's half this.
They should at least let the user tone down the texture sizes if the user isn't going to run 4K which is like the vast majority. With reduced texture sizes and reasonable audio bitrates (not everyone has 7.1 audio or cares about that), it should be under 80GB.
Wow, that's big... I still remember the first time a video game demo cross the 100MB mark, and you had to download it from a friendly BBS that wouldn't mind you tying up their modem line for HOURS.
Everything scales... in 5-10 years... ok sorry I forgot the AIPOCOLYPSE.. some time in the 2030's we will look back on 4TB hard drives as a.. 'Remember when... ' Like I do now when I think about my first 80 megabyte hard drive!
Yeah but HDD prices haven't come down as drastically as they should have. I got my 8TB WD external drive when it launched at around $275 in 2016. I checked prices about a year ago and 8TB drives were still close to $200. For that price, I was expecting to get at least 14TB.
Yeah, that will be the interesting part. How much is it high res textures and sound files that can be easily culled. That or they are doing the excuse Helldivers2 devs did with it needs all that space because its installed to slow hard drives which eventually hit 150GB. 1.5 years later the PC version of HD2 is the same 22GB that the console version is because the devs were dumb and lazy. Marvel Rivals loses around 40GB if you uninstall the high res textures, down to only 75GB. Then they added a 16GB movie event to kill Thanos. Yay.