Activision defend Modern Warfare 3’s larger install size, promising to shrink it before launch

Activision-Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remake is a bit of a mammoth on all platforms, with the Steam page requiring that you set aside 149 GB of SSD space unless you have Call of Duty HQ and Warzone already installed, which drives the total down to a relatively svelte 78 GB. Activision have now posted an explanation for the heavier footprint of this year’s Call of Duty, while pointing out that you can customise your install to lighten the load.

The increased file sizes over last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are “due to the increased amount of content available Day 1, including open world Zombies, support for item carry forward from MW2, as well as map files for current Call of Duty: Warzone,” the publishers wrote on Xitter.

(In case you missed it, there’s a lot of content carry-over between the Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 remakes, which has led some to suspect that Modern Warfare 3 is glorified DLC upgraded into sequel status to fill a gap in the schedule.)

The Activision-Blizzard post adds that final file sizes will be “smaller than the combined previous Call of Duty experiences” as the developers, Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward, whittle the package down ahead of launch. Also, you can go to the manage files section of the COD HQ launcher to uninstall stuff you don’t want.

I went to tell my own gaming PC, Methuselah, the news, and found it crying hysterically in a corner, babbling about Starfield and Hitman 2 and 8K resolution textures. “Don’t worry!” I said. “If all else fails I’ve got that spare terabyte drive in the cupboard.”

“You’ve been promising you’ll install that since August,” wept Methuselah.

“Look, enough of your grousing,” I told it sternly, “Or so help me, I’ll re-install the entire Total Warhammer trilogy – then spend the next three months playing some 80MB Itch.io RPG instead.”

Modern Warfare 3 is out 9th or 10th November, depending on your region. Our Jeremy has a guide to all the Modern Warfare 3 release dates and times. Ed Thorn was a bit lukewarm on the Modern Warfare 3 beta.