Call of Duty: Vanguard's file size will be "significantly" smaller than earlier games in the series

News
By
published

And you can thank new texture streaming tech

Call of Duty: Vanguard
(Image credit: Activision)

Call of Duty: Vanguard won't take up nearly as much hard drive space as earlier games in the series, Activision has revealed.

In a tweet, Activision says it's employing on-demand texture streaming to cut down Call of Duty: Vanguard's file size by an estimated 30-50% on PC and new-gen consoles. That's great news for folks who like to have more than a couple of games installed on their consoles at once.

For some context, Call of Duty games have become utter behemoths, each yearly package featuring a robust single-player campaign, plenty of multiplayer modes and maps, and of course an army's worth of guns. Naturally, that requires a whole lot of hard drive space - more than the vast majority of modern games. The most recent mainline Call of Duty, 2020's Black Ops Cold War, gulped down more than 130GB on PS5 and Xbox Series X at launch.

But now, thanks to some fancy new tech that apparently streams some textures instead of storing them on your hard drive, Call of Duty: Vanguard won't be quite as much of a hog as its predecessors, as least when it comes to PC and new-gen consoles.  It's unclear if the texture streaming tech will be used on Xbox One and PS4, and we've reached out to Activision to see if we can find out.

Call of Duty: Vanguard launches on November 5 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Call of Duty Vanguard beta times | Call of Duty Vanguard guns | Warzone Pacific map | Call of Duty Vanguard beta crossplay  | Call of Duty Vanguard ammo types

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

See comments