Game capacity has been increasing for years and it’s a problem gamers face by being forced into download the full game onto their console. However, Microsoft has confirmed the Xbox Series X will come with a 1TB SSD, just like the Xbox One X. That’s problematic because it severely restricts how many games a player can hold on the console. For example, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare weighs in at 185GB. Of course, not every game is that large, but most major titles are over 50GB. Games sizes have increased 3x since the launch of the Xbox One, but it seems Microsoft is unwilling to increase storage.
Compression
Instead, the company says it is using BCPack compression technology that could reduce the size of games. Hardware-level decompression in the Xbox Series X allows a new dedicated controller to handle storage. While that helps performance, Microsoft’s technology can also reduce file sizes by as much as 50 percent. Furthermore, Microsoft will also allow external drives to be connected to the Xbox Series X. Incidentally, Sony will also allow expanded storage on the PS5. Without adding another drive, it seems games will have to get used to another generation of installing and uninstalling games. Sure, the compression technology may help reduce the footprint of a game, but with titles becoming increasingly large, it seems compression will offset the storage changes rather than solve the problem.
