We Need to Talk About These Obnoxious Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Updates

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is an enormous game, requiring over 175 GB for a complete install.
• Another upcoming update adds a further 15 GB to the game’s size.
• Something needs to be done about this issue before it gets even more out of hand.

Console hard drive space is a scarce resource. Most triple-A games take up at least a tenth of a standard hard drive, so you’re severely limited in what games you can keep installed. Size matters – and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is not helping. 

The game is already bloated beyond belief. Warzone alone takes up 100+ GB, with the total install size for the entire Modern Warfare game clocking in at 175.2 GB.

And now there’s a new update incoming  that will add another 15 GB. We’re slowly approaching more than 200 GB for a single game installation.

Something really needs to be done about this mess.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Has a Size Problem

If you don’t think Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has a size problem, then you need to put your self in someone else’s shoes. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have an upgraded hard drive, but someone without the know-how or funds to upgrade is in trouble.

This single game takes up over a third of the hard drive of a standard PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Which means it’s going to be hard to get a decent number of games installed on the system at the same time. Plus, if you delete Modern Warfare and want to re-download it later, it’s going to take an eternity.

Surely there could have been a way to let players optimize their downloads a bit more effectively. Even if you choose to only install the multiplayer mode, you’re still looking at losing a ton of hard drive real estate.

CoD Fans Aren’t Too Happy About It Either

Folks on Twitter seem pretty upset about the ridiculous footprint of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which is only growing larger with each subsequent update.

One irate gamer even accused it of being an anti-competitive move , because it prevents players from having competing games installed.

These concerns are echoed in the rest of the replies too. There’s a common refrain: These bloated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare updates are getting out of hand.

The upshot is that the titanic bulk of certain triple-A titles like Modern Warfare makes them less accessible to the average gamer.

There are obviously plenty of reasons the files are this large, but if .kkrieger can fit an entire FPS into a 96 KB file , then surely Modern Warfare’s developers can find a way to optimize space a bit more efficiently.

If only Activision and Infinity Ward knew how to program that intelligently.

About the Author

William Worrall

William Worrall is a professional writer based out of the UK who has been writing about video and tabletop games for over a decade and has covered industry events such as EGX and UKGE. Contact him at [email protected], see his LinkedIn profile here.

See more

[email protected] Twitter