PC games are getting bigger and bigger, but here’s a counterexample: one that has reduced its size significantly!
While our hard drives and SSDs are getting bigger, so are games. By 2025, we’ll see an explosive increase in file size. Previously, 30 GB was considered large, but today, PC games can be released with sizes ranging from 100 to 200 GB. However, one game has gone in the opposite direction. Arrowhead Game Studios announced on Steam that it had reduced the size of Helldivers 2 by 85% using a magical method. By eliminating complete data duplication, the storage space occupied by the game on PCs was reduced from ~154 GB to ~23 GB, resulting in a total savings of ~131 GB (~85%). As Arrowhead notes, this is better than the game’s installation size on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which is around 35 GB. This raises the question of how much duplicate data the studio had accumulated. Have we accidentally installed the game six times?
Helldivers 2 specifically copied a lot of information to make life easier for old HDDs. Perhaps Arrowhead has found a way to remedy this problem. Other developers could use the same trick, especially those behind Call of Duty. After thanking Sony’s porting company, Nixxes, for their help, Arrowhead did not elaborate on how they achieved this. However, they did reveal how to access Helldivers 2’s new, minimalist experience. After conducting several internal quality assurance tests, they are ready to make it available to early adopters as a public technical beta.
We can sign up for the Helldivers 2 beta on Steam now. To do so, right-click on Helldivers 2 in your library, select Properties, then select the Betas menu option. Finally, select the Slim beta from the drop-down menu. The change in file size results in only a slight increase in loading time — a few seconds at most. Other than the installation size, there is no functional difference between the traditional and Slim versions.
We join the same galactic war as everyone else, use the same account, and transfer all progress, war contributions, and purchases between the different versions.
