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Gears of War 4 install has ballooned to 100GB+

Microsoft really wants you guys to buy bigger SSDs. Or at least that's what it seems, as the install size of its Gears of War 4 is just going up and up. Already a big install at around the 80GB mark when it was released, the game has since ballooned up to over 100GB the last time we installed it.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of reviewing certain products, like full systems, is running all of the benchmarks we use. When it comes to Gears of War 4 though, the most time-consuming aspect is simply downloading it, as at the time of writing it's 101.1GB on the Windows Store.

The problem wouldn't be so bad if you could simply copy files over from another drive and have the Windows Store use that, but for some reason it doesn't work that way. So every time we test a new system, it's a massive download all over again. Thankfully we have speedy internet connections, but even on high-end fibre, 100GB takes a good while to download.

This latest increase in file size comes from the Valentines update for the game, which adds new maps like Impact Dark and War Machine, as well as a few additional gameplay tweaks.

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KitGuru Says: What are some of the biggest game installs you guys have come across? Is Gears of War 4 the biggest right now?

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28 comments

  1. Windows Store DL speed is the worst there is. Is it any wonder why most people don’t use?

  2. A full 200mbps here. I’d check your settings if anything but without a doubt a shoddy method to download and run data. Personally hate it for Forza.

  3. I got a 1000mbit up and 1000mbit down connection. Lightning fast but 100 gig would still take well over half an hour I think.

  4. Wow a whole 30 minutes a lot of others only wish it would be that fast..lol

  5. That is a bit crazy for sure. I think if they want us to use the download only method they have to at lease try to keep the game sizes in check. 101GB for most people will take several hours & others maybe days. At that rate what is the point if you got to wait a day to play. What’s worse is once you get that big download there may be several hours of updates as well. It seems the programmers no longer know how to just make a patch file any more and a lot of the time you end up downloading most of the game all over again.

    I think they need to pre patch the game files on their servers before it is even there for the consumers to buy & download that way it saves us a whole lot of time but hey they would have to spend that little bit of time doing it so that most likely won’t ever happen. Their way of thinking is let the end user spend countless hours doing it instead.

    I am not ranting or anything just have been noticing a trend that things like this have not been thought out very well and at the end of the day the end user gets shafted by having to waste a lot of their own time. I miss the days where you went to a store picked up a game and installed it ran a 15 to 20 minute update if you wanted to play online and you were done.

    Hell last night I decided to try the Forza Horizon 3 demo it would not even let me download it until I ran a Windows update it said my Windows was not up to snuff basically so waste time doing that and then was allowed by Microsoft after their server gave it’s blessing I was allowed to download the demo oh yea and it warned me my i5 3750K @ 4.7Ghz may not give the best experience it said i7 5820K or something like that was the better option I was like F off MS my CPU is fine go get bent…lol

  6. 68 hours on my connection.

    No thank you.

  7. Fair enough :’)

  8. Yet if you got a repack from the scene it would probably be only 25% of that size!

  9. Not worth 20gbs of space if you ask me. Seriously, are people satisfied with this game? Playing this game was a serious reminder that games have not progressed in decades and we are just being treated as a source for these devolpers salaries. Besides visuals, there is nothing that would make me think this game was developed/released as a triple-a title in 2016. I love gears but this was the definition or treading water….10 year old water.

  10. Despite what some people might say, GoW4 on PC is what I have the most fun playing than anything out. The size might be big, but with all the content you are getting, I would say it is worth it.

  11. I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of. All other services I use can run at full speed with no problem (as much as the service allow you to)

  12. Strange, unsure why you’re not getting the speeds you should be receiving. Contact your ISP to progress the matter, they could be capping it somewhere potentially.

  13. When I use Steam, Origin, GOG, Uplay and Battle.net the speed is fine. Only when I use Windows Store. The funny thing is that when it’s small games (1-6 GB) it goes full speed.

  14. Tpyical Micro$shaft then by the sound of it.

  15. Yup

  16. That’s only if you’re daft enough to spend £41 on GoW4’s ‘season pass’ – the most laughable rip off in video games since Destiny.

    For me the game sits at just over 76GB.

  17. I’ve only mostly played the Gears series for the multiplayer. The single player is always short. It comes and goes. Where the multiplayer has replay value. The single player this time around was a let down for me. It felt extra short and I literally thought the final boss was just a mid-boss we had to fight. When the game ended I was left saying, that’s it? Really? I’m not too happy with the multiplayer either. It feels more cheap than ever as opponents sometimes refuse to die when you blatantly hit your mark. It can get frustrating. Most of the new maps are too massive as well. Making them tedious to play on. I like smaller, tighter maps. I try to play more on the classic maps that they included in the game. I find myself going back to Gears 3.

  18. umm my game is at 112gb and still download looks like another 20gb left. I think something might be wrong haha

  19. jeez ur internet I want

  20. The game is 125 gb now, ill be playing it tomorrow when it finishes.

  21. 127.7gb and it’s still downloading. The only upside to this is strangely (so far, I haven’t played the game yet obviously), Windows Store download is faster than any of the other platforms for me.

  22. 130.5GB and still downloading….

  23. I have a 250mbps connection and it is currently going at around 200 – 215mbps. Not bad

  24. just bought this game and downloading it, Microsoft said it’s 107.4 GBs, I’m already at 110.2 and counting….

  25. Amazing game but eats your hard drive like a rat.

  26. 120 GBs now (downloading the trial)

  27. This is incredibly stupid

  28. I am one of the many that has download problems. I have downloaded 250GBs for my secondary system. Seem the download is on a loop. How stupid can Windows Store be? Things like that never happen on Steam, Origin, Uplay you name. Why on Earth can’t I just copy the files from one PC to the other. I have the game installed on my primary rig already.

    What’s worse, since I have left Windows Download optimization for systems in my local network enabled, why the hell isn’t the stupid download getting the files from my other system?

    I swear to God I will avoid Windows Store from now on, like the Devil avoids Holy Water.