Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#1

Post by SergeAx » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 8:08 AM UTC

Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction
store.steampowered.com

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#2

Post by habbekrats » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 8:54 AM UTC

it seems wild the state of games and development today... imagine 131GB out of 154GB of data was not needed....

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#3

Post by wvbdmp » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 9:09 AM UTC

habbekrats wrote: post #2

it seems wild the state of games and development today... imagine 131GB out of 154GB of data was not needed....

The whole world took a wrong turn when we moved away from physical media.

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#4

Post by andrewstuart » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 9:10 AM UTC

How is there so much duplication?

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#5

Post by jy14898 » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 9:16 AM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #4

How is there so much duplication?

The post stated that it was believed duplication improved loading times on computers with HDDs rather than SSDs

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#6

Post by breve » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 9:18 AM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #4

How is there so much duplication?

They duplicate files to reduce load times. Here's how Arrowhead Game Studios themselves tell it:

https://www.arrowheadgamestudios.com/2025/10/helldivers-2-te...

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#7

Post by breve » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 9:20 AM UTC

wvbdmp wrote: post #3

habbekrats wrote: post #2

it seems wild the state of games and development today... imagine 131GB out of 154GB of data was not needed....

The whole world took a wrong turn when we moved away from physical media.

Hard drives and optical discs are the reason they duplicated the data. The duplicated the data to reduce load times.

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#8

Post by habbekrats » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 10:00 AM UTC

breve wrote: post #7

wvbdmp wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole world took a wrong turn when we moved away from physical media.

Hard drives and optical discs are the reason they duplicated the data. The duplicated the data to reduce load times.

do they even sell disc of these game?...

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#9

Post by dontlaugh » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 10:51 AM UTC

jy14898 wrote: post #5

andrewstuart wrote: post #4

How is there so much duplication?

The post stated that it was believed duplication improved loading times on computers with HDDs rather than SSDs

Which is true. It’s an old technique going back to CD games consoles, to avoid seeks.

Re: Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction

#10

Post by Calzifer » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 10:53 AM UTC

I was curious if they optimized the download. Did it download the 'optimized' ~150 GB and wasting a lot of time there or did it download the ~20 GB unique data and duplicated as part of the installation.

I still don't know but found instead an interesting reddit post were users found and analyzed this "waste of space" three month ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1mw3qcx/why_the...

PS: just found it. According to this Steam discussion it does not download the duplicate data and back then it only blew up to ~70 GB.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/553850/discussions/0/43725019...