Middle Earth: Shadow of War no longer Auto downloads the game’s 4K content
Middle Earth: Shadow of War no longer Auto downloads the game’s 4K content
When Middle Earth: Shadow of War launched, many users complained about the game’s huge 90+GB download size. This became a huge point of contention on several online communities, as the game did have an option to disable/delete the game’s 4K Cinematic pack, saving over 20GB of drive space.
This highlights a big problem with several modern games, as many gamers are forced to download files that are not utilised by the end user, a problem that is particularly annoying for those who use older hardware, lower display resolution or have limited storage space.
Thankfully Monolith has now addressed this issue in Shadow of War’s PC version, removing the 4K Cinematic Pack and High-Resolution Texture packs as mandatory downloads and making them completely optional, which is great news for those without 1440p or 4K screens. Now new downloads for Middle Earth: Shadow of War will be under 70GB, which is still large but represents a reduction in storage/download requirements of over 20GB.
Those who want to use this game with its highest resolution textures will need to download the game’s 4K Cinematic and High-Resolution Texture packs separately, allowing them to be used only when the user wishes.
This will likely be the start of a new trend for PC gaming, with Ultra-HD/4K content coming as free optional extras rather than as a mandatory add-on, saving users storage space and sellers like Steam, Origin and UPlay network bandwidth.
You can join the discussion on Middle Earth: Shadow of War’s download size on the OC3D Forums.