EA keeps saying all the right things, as fans approve of the latest annoucement for this year’s Battlefield 6.
While Call Of Duty has always been the dominant military shooter, EA’s Battlefield series has come close to challenging it on occasion – even if those days are a while ago now.
EA clearly wants this year’s Battlefield 6 to renew the rivalry with Call Of Duty, including giving it an autumn launch window, and so far it seems to be working, with many Call Of Duty fans expressing an interest in jumping ship.
But Battlefield fans don’t necessarily want the series to be exactly the same as Call Of Duty, far from it (especially when it comes to potential crossover skins) and EA has just made clear another important difference.
In a statement to PC Gamer, EA has confirmed that while Battlefield 6 sports a hefty file size of 80GB, that’s only for the complete experience and you can actually pick and choose which portions of the game to download.
For instance, if you only care about the single-player campaign, then you can download that part of the game without the online multiplayer. Or vice versa if you have zero interest in solo play.
‘There will be a shared base package, and then you can separately choose to install the main components (i.e. single0player, multiplayer, etc.),’ EA explained, with the base package expected to come in at a much smaller 55GB.
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This isn’t a new idea and is something Activision’s been doing with the Call Of Duty games in recent years, in response to how much storage space they had begun to take up.
However, the install sizes for Black Ops 6 are much bigger, at 128GB for the whole thing or 78GB if you already have COD HQ and Warzone installed. So Battlefield 6 is going to be considerably smaller.
‘Never thought I’d see the day that EA makes pro-consumer choices. No forced launcher, staying true to IP, and putting in quality-of-life improvements. This is a great start, hopefully they keep it up,’ writes one fan on Reddit.
Another fan adds that customisable installs ‘need to become the norm now if compression is going to go out the window,’ highlighting things like language packs and 4K graphics packages that should be optional.
‘It’s crazy that they are saying all the right things and after that reveal event everyone who played it is backing it up,’ says another, referencing the recently revealed multiplayer gameplay, which is so far making a good first impression among the community.
Some still hold reservations, though, with one fan suspecting that Battlefield 6’s file size will balloon with inevitable updates: ’55GB at start and after 2 seasons 100GB.’
Others also have difficulty believing EA’s promises. ‘They’re saying a lot of pro-consumer/pro-Battlefield fan stuff but let’s see them DO these things’ says one, while another adds, ‘ Guys, don’t believe anything EA says. The launch and following months is what will show the truth.’
They’re not entirely wrong. While a new game can make a very strong first impression, interest can quickly wane if certain problems aren’t addressed.
Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds, for instance, seemed like a future classic when it launched this February, but while it’s still the best-selling game of the year overall, sales have sharply declined since.
This can partially be attributed to fan frustration with how Monster Hunter Wilds runs on PC and, as a result, not only has the player count dipped, but the game’s being outsold by much older Resident Evil and Devil May Cry games.
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