Killzone: Shadow Fall's final file size has been reduced to a more reasonable 39.7GB, developer Guerilla Games confirmed with Eurogamer. The studio noted, however, that this applies to the European version of the game and that localized versions will be closer to 37GB. By comparison, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Ghosts will allegedly require a whopping 49GB of space on PS4.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Guerilla Games technical director Michiel van der Leeuw explained that the main reason for Shadow Fall's size is due to art assets.
"The bulk of it is textures," he said. "I think we're probably a lot larger than the other cross-generation games, because we have no assets that have been made to a lower spec."
Van der Leeuw also attributed the game's size to the more open nature of its levels, compared to previous Killzone games. "The surface area, I'm just guess here, must be five to 10 times bigger than Killzone 3 was," he said.
Thanks to Sony's new PlayGo system, which allows gamers to start playing even before the full game finishes downloading, you should be able to get in on the action fairly quickly. Van der Leeuw estimates that with a "decent" internet connection, you should be able to download an initial 7.5GB for the first level to start playing. By the next morning, the full game should be ready to go.
"Realistically, I think a lot of people can do this… It's just that the initial chunk of 7.5GB is quite big. I think if we would have known exactly how everything would work… I think next time around we'll try to see if we can design something that doesn't jeopardize the game which will make it even friendlier," he said.
For me, the concern isn't so much the time it'll take to install, but the space next-gen games will take up. You're looking at about 90GB of space just between CoD: Ghosts and Killzone: Shadow Fall. With just 500GB of space built into the PS4, it seems likely that consumers will be forced to purchase another harddrive.
