
Updated details on Nintendo's official website have revealed Metroid Dread's initial file size, and it's actually considerably smaller than was initially expected.
Immediately after the game's reveal during this year's E3, Nintendo's website listed Metroid Dread for pre-order, indicating that its eventual file size would be 6.9GB. Now, as spotted by Nintendo Everything, that figure has changed to just 4.1GB in the US – a decrease in size of around 40%. Incidentally, the file size is a slightly larger 4.2GB in Europe.
This last-minute change in size isn't uncommon – a similar decrease in file size was also seen on Nintendo's listing for Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury just ahead of launch, for example – and while the cause for the reduction isn't known, there's no need for concern. It's much more likely that the change is down to late-development refinements and compression (something Nintendo is known to be fantastic at), rather than any content cuts.
The listing also confirms that Metroid Dread is compatible across TV Mode, Tabletop Mode, and in Handheld Mode, and will support Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, and English languages.
[source nintendo.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 52
More than likely just an optimization or reworked compression or something.
I bet they feel frustrated they couldn't squeeze the game under 4GB though, that would've saved on physical production costs.
@RupeeClock
Nintendo should have just cancelled the game. 🤷♂️
What's the chances the game actually ships on a 4GB cart with a day 1 update to cater for the additional size needed for the full game...
It doesn’t look like it has too many high-quality graphics assets so it doesn’t surprise me
Doesn’t matter a whole lot to me, as this is one game where I’m definitely picking up a physical copy. Metroid 5 here we come!
@BANJO I don't think Nintendo has ever done that themselves, have they? If this was a third party game, I could see it happening.
Nintendo is just very good compressing games.
Get ready to use thumbnail blockers on Youtube and avoid social media because the game has leaked on 4chan xmx
I pre-ordered the physical cart. No download required!
Still, that's great that the file size is so small!
I have a 400gb micro SD Card. I don’t care. #PreLoadDone
@Cia Can you imagine if Nintendo made Call of Duty?! It would be under 10gb =0p
Always mighty impressed with their small game sizes.
@KoopaTheGamer I don't think they have, I really hope it's not the case... I'm hoping somebody here will say the full games on the cartridge..
Aside from cutscenes it's a 2D game, albeit a very polished one. It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that it's a fraction of the size of 3D open-world 4k games on other platforms.
@Epo I think we will only get Englisch/Japanese voice over. The rest is only for the written text I guess. Or are there any information about translated voice overs?
@Meteoroid In Stepanie Sterling's voice 'Tripple AAAAAAAA video games'
I thought Nintendo use WinRAR for their compression?! =0p
Friday can’t come soon enough
@sikthvash a big factor for me in getting games on the Switch aside from portability are the miniscule game file sizes. I don't like the fact that games with mediocre graphics and minimal content taking up 30-40gb of valuable storage space. I can barely get 10 games in my PS4 installed at a time on the internal drive. I've given up on games that take up more than 80gb of space. Imagine you need to delete almost all your games just to play COD Warzone on stock storage.
Ori WotW is about the same size IIRC. Good comparison for a 2.5D flashy Metroidvania.
@Meteoroid do you believe this is true?
There are lots of Nintendo games with more content and possible game hours that other AAA. 90% of the files size on ps5 are the graphic files. Nintendo saves a minimum of 75% through the lower 1080p resolution.
And yet, 3rd Parties can't properly port their game to the switch without making it at least 15 gb in size...
@TKundNobody
Nintendo games also don't have much voice acted dialogue or pre-rendered cutscenes, which can massively inflate the file size of any game.
@Octane_st1m Absolutely, couldn't agree more! I make exceptions for large games like Halo as it's something I will always play, but it's refreshing to have 1st Party games on the Switch that take a very small amount of space. Keeps my MicroSD card very happy ^_^
WOW despite the high quality textures and graphics, Metroid Dread file size is so small.
@RupeeClock At the time of the Switch's release the 8GB cart was about the same cost as a standard blu-ray disc used by Xbox or Playstation, now I am pretty sure those carts are even cheaper.
Yeah I was rather surprised when I preloaded it yesterday
@Smash_kirby
Yes, NAND type storage is always getting cheaper, for both consumers and the industry.
But it remains far more expensive than optical media.
@Meteoroid I had a quick word with my Uncle who works at Nintendo, & the compression method they use is Thwomp™
It's a 2.5D game, why were we expecting a big file size? It was just a placeholder for a game that was not fully completed yet.
Why must we speculate on every inch of everything.. who cares?
Just enjoy the fact that we have a new Metroid game on the horizon.
Also, they glossed over one of the most important things from any eShop listing, it is Data Cloud compatible.
@DomGC maybe I should check those. Only checked the English so far. But I have a lot of games with only English/Japanese va so I’m not to concerned if it’s not in my mother tongue. But seems like I will enjoy Dread in German
@Epo I would say because there isn't THAT much to be translated? (compared to say an RPG)
@sikthvash
I just reinstalled Cold War on my PS5.
I’d be happy if they could get it down to 75 gigs.
There’s no reason multiplayer and Zombies should be 175gb in file size. No reason at all. Activision’s team have piss poor file management policies.
@thegametb TBH, it's easier to say what games don't have cloud support. At least by default.
@TheRedComet One of the disadvantages of digital. Since you don't have to fit everything on a single disc, most game developers have skipped compression.
@TheRedComet It's crazy isn't it? I've just upgraded the storage on my PS5, but with file sizes like that, it won't last long. Thankfully, Ghost of Tsushima will keep me going for ages ^_^
@NatiaAdamo
Exactly. It’s a curse.
I have a physical PS5 but I bought BOCW it digital mainly because the disc version actually doesn’t include much of anything. My best friend bought his on disc and it literally includes one multiplayer map with bots. Everything else has to be downloaded. His overall download size is only 12 gigs smaller than mine. So I just bought it digitally since I prefer to buy multiplayer games digitally anyway (I commonly switch between single player games and multiplayer games in the same gaming session; I buy single player PS4 and PS5 games on disc to save bandwidth)
@sikthvash
My Christmas present to myself is going to be a 1TB SSD M2 expansion.
Which drive did you go with? I’ve been reviewing the various options and it’s pretty nuts how much a drive with a built in heat sink costs. I’ll definitely just buy an aftermarket heatsink for which ever drive I go with.
I need to pick up Ghost at some point. I’m waiting for a price drop on the Director’s Cut before I take the plunge.
Hopefully the physical version will be on a huge discount for black Friday this year.
@TheRedComet I went with the WD BLACK SN850 1TB & then bought a QIVYNSRY M.2 heatsink, both on Amazon. Still stupidly expensive, but I split the costs over the next 4 months with the payment option on checkout.
GoT has probably been my favourite game this year, beating Spiritfarer for zen like experience. Well worth the money, even though I was initially annoyed at the upgrade cost from PS4 ha
No worries over here. I have a few 1 TB micro sd cards, plus I'll be buying the game on cartridge anyway. Patiently waiting for Metroid Dread, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Switch OLED to be shipped out!
Considering the 18 hour Metroid Prime 2 was only 1.47gb, I think this one will do okay. Metroid games are made with speedrun in mind so hopefully this one would at least deliver us over 30 hours of exploration goodness.
Not bad, though this will still need to go on a 8GB game card instead of a 4GB one. Nice for those downloading though.
Nintendo really do try to get their file sizes down. I wish Sony and Microsoft would work a bit on their file compression so you don't have to download those massive updates.
@Giancarlothomaz it's a 2d game, what did you expect from it? I'm not surprised by the file size really
Not $60 worthy, bad game, don't buy, it's not 3D, blah blah blah.
I have a feeling that this will be a very short game to finish.
@Trikeboy
1st party games from Sony (don’t have a lot of experience with current Xboxes) usually aren’t too bad.
Ratchet and Clank was like 45 gigs or so after updates.
Wow, that's low. Kena PS4 was about 8GB and the PS5 version about 17GB. Maybe it's a short game? Or they have good data fragmentation in place.
Can't wait for Wednesday reviews to see the direction the game is going ...
Nintendo are the masters of compression
@TheRedComet Xbox Series games are about the same.
The European version is bigger because of all the U's added in proper English.
@The-Chosen-one
I mean Mario Odyssey is about 5.5 gigs. Not much larger in file size. Yet it’s a pretty long game if you take your time.
@TheRedComet
Yeah thats true
@Pusher2021 Kena just feature way too many high resolution support which is why it required the high storage. The PS5 version added raytracing which upped the storage even more.
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