Next gen PC game download sizes.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming generation of consoles and what it will mean for PC gaming.

I love gaming on the PC and I don't expect that to change, but I am a little concerned about how large game downloads may get next generation. Some games on the PS3 have already pushed past 25 GBs and up to nearly 50 GBs if I am not mistaken. Now, I know that part of the reason is due to duplicated assets to reduce seek times, but, still, games are obviously going to be getting a lot bigger next generation.

Both the PS4 and next Xbox will have Blu-ray drives, and the more detailed graphics of next gen games will need that extra capacity. This could be a bit of a negative for many PC gamers since many of us get most of our games in the form of digital downloads. 

Unfortunately, the internet speeds available in my area are fairly slow and many big budget games on PC are already pushing download sizes that are becoming inconvenient for me. If next generation games are 25 gigs or more this could become a big negative for me given the fact that most PC games are not available at retail in my area. 

What are your thoughts on this? 

Better connection speeds on the future.

I live in Panama, a third world country (for those who don't even know what is Panama), and in the last few years the internet connection speed has gotten better and cheap. So that won't be a problem for many other third world countries, and for countries like the US.

I get anywhere from 1.5-7Mbps down on downloads so it won't be as annoying, but I kinda really wish that DD sites would offer mirror downloads with the game packaged in a torrent file or something. (Kinda like Perfect world did with...well Perfect World International lol; before ARC)

Use the dedicated servers for browsing and games, and lend a bit of their power to the mirrors, and use P2P connections to ease stress off of them. It does get rather frustrating sometimes to see my speeds jump up and down for long periods of time because the server is confusing itself trying to prioritize who to give the files to first and bogging my speeds in the process.

Better connection speeds on the future.

I live in Panama, a third world country (for those who don't even know what is Panama), and in the last few years the internet connection speed has gotten better and cheap. So that won't be a problem for many other third world countries, and for countries like the US.

Miroku32

Nah, I know where Panama is. I lived a short time in Costa Rica, which as you know is Panama's neighbor. Anyway, Im sure speeds will get better, but I don't know if they will get better fast enough to ease the problem for me. 

I don't see an issue... You can wait

You can even buy disk for games for PC IF you really want...

Data limits = Anyone support that garbage is doing more harm to them self

Better connection speeds on the future.

I live in Panama, a third world country (for those who don't even know what is Panama), and in the last few years the internet connection speed has gotten better and cheap. So that won't be a problem for many other third world countries, and for countries like the US.

Miroku32

This is why I want PC games to release on blu-ray ( of any size 25, 50, or even 128GB!) drm free (no steam/origin requirements). I don't want to wait to download the game. I'd rather order it from a store if I can wait, or go to the store and buy it there.

Then once I've bought it, take it out of the box,  install it, and play the game. Can we please go back to that way of doing things?

The simple concept of buying a PC game on blu-ray due to its massive art assets and uncompressed high fidelity audio, taking it out of its box, installing it and playing with no drm (securom/steam/origin) whatsoever needed.  No online needed unless its a multiplayer game of some sort, then you need internet to play online, is anyone with me on this? 

This is why I want PC games to release on blu-ray ( of any size 25, 50, or even 128GB!) drm free (no steam/origin requirements). I don't want to wait to download the game. I'd rather order it from a store if I can wait, or go to the store and buy it there.

Then once I've bought it, take it out of the box,  install it, and play the game. Can we please go back to that way of doing things?

The simple concept of buying a PC game on blu-ray due to its massive art assets and uncompressed high fidelity audio, taking it out of its box, installing it and playing with no drm (securom/steam/origin) whatsoever needed.  No online needed unless its a multiplayer game of some sort, then you need internet to play online, is anyone with me on this? 

Evil_Rage

ahhh

download wait hour- few hours and IF you really unlucky a day.

vs

getting in your car and going get it or waiting days for it ship.

YUP taking my download

[QUOTE="Evil_Rage"]

This is why I want PC games to release on blu-ray ( of any size 25, 50, or even 128GB!) drm free (no steam/origin requirements). I don't want to wait to download the game. I'd rather order it from a store if I can wait, or go to the store and buy it there.

Then once I've bought it, take it out of the box,  install it, and play the game. Can we please go back to that way of doing things?

The simple concept of buying a PC game on blu-ray due to its massive art assets and uncompressed high fidelity audio, taking it out of its box, installing it and playing with no drm (securom/steam/origin) whatsoever needed.  No online needed unless its a multiplayer game of some sort, then you need internet to play online, is anyone with me on this? 

soulitane

Stuff needs start coming on flash drives!

I hope Valve invest in more servers for Steam so more people will be willing to make their games Steamworks/Steamcloud compatible a long with some faster download speeds especially for people in countries/areas with crap internet

heck maybe some MMOs using Steamworks

Nope, blu-ray drives are expensive for PCsoulitane

[QUOTE="soulitane"] Nope, blu-ray drives are expensive for PCmastershake575

I hope Valve invest in more servers for Steam so more people will be willing to make their games Steamworks/Steamcloud compatible a long with some faster download speeds especially for people in countries/areas with crap internet

heck maybe some MMOs using Steamworks

NoodleFighter

Maybe a hitch or two along the way.

If some area's in the world would push internet to optic fibre, no one would have this problem. America still has bandwith caps for gods sake.LustForSoul

From what I've seen for America and Canada, the connection speeds and deals are terrible. I'm glad I don't have to put up with a poor connection and ISP deal.

Got to love fibre optic cable connections.

[QUOTE="soulitane"] Nope, blu-ray drives are expensive for PCmastershake575

[QUOTE="mastershake575"]

[QUOTE="soulitane"] Nope, blu-ray drives are expensive for PCsoulitane

Yeah in the US it's about 40-50 for blu ray drive, and around 80 for a burner

If some area's in the world would push internet to optic fibre, no one would have this problem. America still has bandwith caps for gods sake.LustForSoul

I have no caps :|

[QUOTE="LustForSoul"]If some area's in the world would push internet to optic fibre, no one would have this problem. America still has bandwith caps for gods sake.wis3boi

I have no caps :|

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

From what I've seen for America and Canada, the connection speeds and deals are terrible. I'm glad I don't have to put up with a poor connection and ISP deal.

Got to love fibre optic cable connections.

GarGx1

VDSL2 is plenty fine for me.

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="LustForSoul"]If some area's in the world would push internet to optic fibre, no one would have this problem. America still has bandwith caps for gods sake.lostrib

I have no caps :|

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="LustForSoul"]If some area's in the world would push internet to optic fibre, no one would have this problem. America still has bandwith caps for gods sake.lostrib

I have no caps :|

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

It happens in city limits BUT, that's only IF you choose to opt out for cheapest rate which is fine for those people. 

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

I have no caps :|

wis3boi

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

I have no caps :|

wis3boi

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

2ndWonder

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

2ndWonder

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

60mbps so 7.5MBps from steam, no problem.

Might have to buy more hard drives though, my 640GB just for games is full.

As games get bigger, average internet speeds keep getting faster, and hard drives get bigger and cheaper. I don't think it will be an issue. I get like 1-2mb/s on steam at the worst. 5+ at best. 

Also, even though DD is pretty much taking over, retail physical games will still exist for many years. And blu-ray drives are also super cheap now, and are even becoming more common in prebuilt systems. Not that it really matters that much, because PC games are always installed. So even if they need 5 or 6 DVDs, you only need to go through all the discs once, during install. But, maybe in a few years we'll start seeing retail PC games coming on several DVDs for standard editions, or a blu-ray with some extra stuff for special editions. Like back in the trasitional days between CD-roms and DVD-roms. 

They can compress which they do anyway. PS3 blu rays only look massive in data because they don't need to compress because there is enough space on disk. Some games are 10gb but when you install them they are about 30gb. I'm just glad i upgraded to a 2tb HDD :)

I have unlimited download.
So don't care.

5mbps DL speed off of Steam for me. And you dont have to download the full size of a game. Hitman absolution took up 30Gb IIRC but only needed an 11gb downloadIantheone

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

I have no caps :|

wis3boi

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

I remember there was a lot of news about it a few years back, did that become a thing?

fueled-system

I don't know anyone in the US with caps....canada is a different story though

This is why I want PC games to release on blu-ray ( of any size 25, 50, or even 128GB!) drm free (no steam/origin requirements). I don't want to wait to download the game. I'd rather order it from a store if I can wait, or go to the store and buy it there.

Then once I've bought it, take it out of the box, install it, and play the game. Can we please go back to that way of doing things?

The simple concept of buying a PC game on blu-ray due to its massive art assets and uncompressed high fidelity audio, taking it out of its box, installing it and playing with no drm (securom/steam/origin) whatsoever needed. No online needed unless its a multiplayer game of some sort, then you need internet to play online, is anyone with me on this?

Evil_Rage

I 100% agree. This is the way it should be done and I am crossing my fingers that it will happen.