Update [Tue 31st May, 2022 12:45 BST] It seems like some wires have crossed between the My Nintendo Store and the eShop. The file size for Sonic Origins' Digital Deluxe edition is much smaller than what's recorded on the web version.
Instead, the Digital Deluxe version comes in at a much more reasonable 3.8GB. The ordinary release is also a smidge smaller, at 3.5GB. Still both bigger than Mania, but Origins is a collection of games along with a museum, extra music, challenges, and cutscenes. This isn't a concrete figure, either, but we just wanted to give you an idea of what the file size might be.
Thank you to MattUmby on Twitter for highlighting this!
Original article [Mon 30th May, 2022 13:30 BST] The collection of four classic Sonic games, Sonic Origins, release in just under a month, and we've got an idea of just how much free space you'll need to make to have all four of these Mega Drive / Genesis games in one bundle.
Of course, it's not that simple, is it? There are a few different digital versions of the game which caused some confusion when the June release date officially dropped. As you'd expect, the package won't take up a ton of room, but both eh standard and Digital Deluxe versions are a little chunkier than you might expect.
Sonic Origins' standard release will be around 3.6GB. Amazingly, that's bigger than Sonic Mania (which is a tiny 390MB), Hollow Knight, and ARMS. The Digital Deluxe release is more than twice the size of this, at an impressive 7.8GB — that means it's larger than both Sonic Forces and Sonic Colors Ultimate on the Switch. How did the blue blur manage that?
The game includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and will have its own Story Mode with new cutscenes, but you'll only be able to play as Sonic in this mode. However, those animations, cutscenes, and the extra DLC included in the Deluxe release must be doing some extra work to help beef up its size.
We've got until 23rd June to clean up our SD cards to make room for Sonic and friends on Switch. Will you be grabbing this classic collection? Let us know in the comments.
[source nintendo.com]
Comments 53
Is there any physical version confirmed?
Unfortunately No
@Nintendo4Sonic Not yet, no... worry not, friend. It'll arrive eventually.
I think the music in the Museum Mode is what made the file sizes so damn gigantic.
They probably had uncompressed music files here. They may even be in Hi-Res Audio.
@Nintendo4Sonic I am hoping they are going to follow the Sonic Mania route, that after a year there will be a big update and then the physical will be released.
I noticed the game is finally available on Nintendo's site last night. Pre-ordered!
I will be getting this but not at launch. It's not like I can't play these games right now anyway with 2 of them being on my Phone and Tablet.
8GB..? How- Did the add the whole Sonic X series in full HD in there?
The marketing for this game has been murky at best. I still don't know what is and isn't exclusive to the various versions, and what's unlockable through gameplay. With less than a month until release, that's pretty poor. I mostly stopped buying Sega games when they started locking off content behind "digital deluxe editions" and pre-order bonuses. It's a shame here because I'm a big Sonic fan, but Sega are being really greedy.
This is abnormally large, especially that the deluxe version is so much bigger - is all the extra music uncompressed FLAC? Are the animated menus and unlockable bonuses super high res high quality video files? 🤔
That's more than 20 times the size of Mania, which is using the same engine, and has way more frames of animation for sprites etc, larger tile sets, and the music sounds crystal clear and the hand drawn animated cutscenes look crisp and beautiful. I'm really struggling to see any logical reason it should be this size.
Honestly I'm kinda concerned, given that Headcanon made such a song and dance about not being responsible for any of the menus, presentation etc implementing their work, that maybe whoever at Sega was tasked with bundling this all together has done a poor job optimising things. A large file size I can cope with. But the Switch does not deal well with bloated software using memory unecessarily.
@UltraZelda64 Yeah I noticed that yesterday too Its not been added to the official Sonic Origins website yet, I hope the pre-order bonues still apply to pre-ordering directly from Nintendo...
8GB is just insane... did they accidentally put Frontiers in the Deluxe?!
@samuelvictor They should. I don't see why they wouldn't--in fact, after advertising it, if they didn't stick with it on Switch, they would likely find themselves in legal trouble for Bait & Switch (heh...) and correct the problem real fast.
@RainbowGazelle The Digitial Deluxe version includes the "Classic Music Pack" and "Premium Fun Pack", which will later be available for £3.99 each, whereas the Deluxe version is £4 more and contains both.
None of that content is unlockable but its all cosmetic only stuff except for "Hard Missions".
The pre-order bonuses are unlockable, except for a purely cosmetic wallpaper for if you play in 4:3.
I agree its all confusing and silly. They really should have just gone with the unimpressive "Deluxe" content being standard and selling for £44. Keep the "DLC" for later stuff that actually matters, like extra characters or redesigned levels, like in Mania.
I would guess it is just the animated cutscenes that make the download such a weighty package.
The Android versions of Sonic 1, 2, and CD, which form the basis of Origins, together are only about 300 MB (of which half is the actual game data used for the Retro Engine).
@UltraZelda64 I agree. I'm definitely pre-ordering. But even though I noticed it yesterday, I didn't pull the trigger right away incase it was somehow better to click through the link on the Sega site. But thats not there yet. I'm sure I'm being silly at they just haven't got round to adding the link yet.
How is it so big?! And does this mean that the game is available to preorder on Switch?
@RupeeClock I agree, thats the only logical thing I can think of. But the 4k download of the Sonic 2 movie is only 6gb... thats 2hrs long and live action/cg which doesn't compress as well as 2d animation. I mean, I'd love it if we are getting literally hours worth of fully animated cutscenes for the story mode, but that seems implausible. So whats more likely, is whoever at Sega packed this up decided for some reason to use uncompressed or super high bitrate videos, which is entirely unecessary.
@P-Man Yes it went live on Nintendo's website and the eshop yesterday, with no fanfare. I accidentally found it whilst browsing other Sonic games. @UltraZelda64 also noticed yesterday too
@samuelvictor Thanks for the info! I’ve been waiting to preorder it since it was announced!
@samuelvictor
Video files can be compressed many different ways.
The streaming version (or whatever version you have) of the Sonic 2 film, even in 4K, is probably a pretty low bitrate if it's only 6GB.
A Blu-Ray 4K release of Sonic 2 is likely to be around 50-60GB, using something called HEVC or H.265 (x265).
But that would be the highest bitrate encode commercially available, a download or streaming version will use a much smaller bitrate to conserve bandwidth.
Did you know that the Switch version of Team Sonic Racing doesn't have a video intro? It was cut from that version to keep the game under 8GB, otherwise it would've needed a 16GB cartridge for a physical release.
The fact that SEGA have kept Sonic Origins just under 8GB is encouraging, indicating a preference for a physical release in the future.
Some people on Twitter said 7.8gb is an error and that the digital deluxe is listed as 3.8gb on the eshop on Switch.
@Hydra_Spectre I think it's also partially because of the 3D model islands they showed since those look pretty big.
Wow, well that's really big 😳
@RupeeClock Oh yeah I'm aware, I literally do video encoding and preparing movies for DCP, Streaming services, as well as DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K BR as part of my job. The 6gb 4k version is indeed the official streaming version. I watched it on a big TV yesterday, looks great, will do until my 4k BluRay arrives
But my point was, I can see absolutely no reason why cutscenes using 2d animation for a 1080p max Switch game would need such high bit-rate videos. Switch can easily play well compressed h.264 and h.265 videos as well as many other formats that would look perfect - just like the animated introduction, ending and attract stuff in Sonic Mania. If they used the same codec, logically there would have to be hours of footage to fill 7gb - and I can't see that happening - so somewhere along the line, someone's been wasteful and not optimised things wisely. I hope I'm wrong though! Full series of SatAM and "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" as unlocks please!
Thats a very good point at keeping it under 8gb to fit on a cheap cart. Thats great! I'm very much assuming there will be a physical release down the line, as with Mania, just adding some DLC. It doesn't make business sense not to.
@Clyde_Radcliffe
Nintendo.co.uk does indeed state that Sonic Origin's download size is 3683.00 MB.
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Sonic-Origins-2217817.html#gameDetails
Which itself, is just under the 4GB threshold for saving expenses on physical prints.
@NotArmani
Truthfully, a few 3D models won't take up much space.
The geometry itself is very lightweight, all the filesize comes from the textures and their level of detail, and it still won't be that much compared to a full game.
@samuelvictor
We recently just learned that the game download is actually closer to 3.7GB. I would assume that's the full game and they don't download the cutscenes separately, unless SEGA want to be ultra-cheap about a physical release.
3.7GB sounds about right for what's probably 10-20 minutes of animated scenes at 1080p. I would've guessed that for Switch games they might use a specialised codec, but it makes sense that it can just play h.265 encodes, which is hopefully what they'd use over h.264.
I just recently discovered the joys of doing h.265 transcodes on an i7 12700k, when I used to do h.264 on an i5 4690k. The sheer difference in encoding time for a better looking end result at a more efficient filesize is awesome.
@RupeeClock Yeah, but that link is only for the Standard version. This link: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/sonic-origins-digital-deluxe-switch/ for the Digital Deluxe version says 7.8gb, so just as this article says. I can't fathom why theres such a huge difference just for some animated menus?
[edit] Ok disregard what I said above, poster below has pointed out thats definitely a mistake on the Nintendo website. 200mb bigger makes a LOT more sense! lol
And yeah totally h.265 is a HUGE upgrade - better quality for smaller filesizes? Sign me up! Sadly is it is a lot more processor intensive for cheaper/older hardware to play so its less compatible, but I've personally tested it on Switch in my own games and it works fine.
@P-Man No worries, me too!
Hello!! I'm the person on twitter trying to clear up the filesize stuff.
The US Nintendo Store listing is an error. The game is not 7.8GB!
If you go on the eshop on your Nintendo Switch and search Sonic Origins, two lisyings come up - the regular game and the digital deluxe.
The regular base game, on Switch eshop, is listed as 3.6GB.
The digital deluxe, on Switch eshop, is listed as 3.8GB. 200MB larger, that's all!
So yeah - the game is NOT nearly 8GB. The digutal deluxe version does not add 4.2GB of content. That'd be ridiculous. It's 3.6GB for the base game, 3.8GB for digital deluxe!
@MattUmby Thank you for clearing that up! I was thoroughly confused. Nintendo needs to update that website asap.
@Clyde_Radcliffe You're right! I checked the eShop page after reading the article. An additional 4 GB for DLC seemed a bit much. lol
@Mauzuri I'm afraid it doesn't, its not emulation. It does save your progress though, and you have infinite lives in the main mode, but you'll have to restart from the last continue point or level start.
@Mauzuri For what it's worth, even assuming there aren't save states, if Sega is smart about modernizing their old games, I would expect them to allow players to save after each act. They've gone far enough to rebuild the game for a modern platform; adding saves should be quite feasible.
I'd probably wait for reviews before buying. I want this, but I'm waiting for a cartridge version...or never buying lol.
@MattUmby That makes MUCH more sense, thank you for the update!
It's a tragedy how games have bloated in size.
8GB? Nooo, don’t do this to my SD storage.. darn you, Sega.. shame!
@Danrenfroe2016 Seems natural though, I apparently got 2TB combined on my Series X and yet I can barely install more than 40 games, and quite a few of them are smaller games. Compare that to my Switch where I can have well over 100 with a 1TB card.
Simply looking back at my Vita, where 32GB was initially the most you could have, and 64GB was seen as massive, it's crazy how the requirements have gone up.
3.6 Gb bigger than Hollow Knight? Pretty sure the latter was over 5 when I gave it a welcoming shot not long ago. Or has it seen significant updates since release?
I'll be waiting for a physical release...or a sale...
@Mauzuri The coins you can earn ingame allow you to retry special stages, and you can continue from the level you died on, so hopefully that makes things a little easier
@inenai I know you're joking, but the first 2 seasons of Sonic X in SD clock in at 50GB, all three is closer to 75GB, and that's before the files have been converted to a smaller size. Sonic X in HD would be well over 75GB, depending on how it's done, it could be around 200-300GB.
The GameCube version of Sonic Mega Collection is only 1.4gb and it had 10 games on it so my guess is that the reason for Sonic Origins Digital Deluxe larger file size of 7.8gb is probably due to the HD pixel perfect graphics, 60fps performance, new contents, and the added fully animated cutscenes for Story Mode which probably won't had that many of them. If the cutscenes are in-game graphics instead of animations, then it would reduce the file size but if it's hands drawn and animated like a cartoon and in HD it will had bigger file size, Dragon's Lair Trilogy for Switch which had 3 fully animated films as FMV games is about 7.6gb and it's just 3 games. The standard version is only 3.6gb so I guess if you bought that version you won't get the animated cutscenes in Story Mode or probably won't get Story Mode at all.
@Knuckles I was, but interesting facts nontheless.
@samuelvictor My guess would be it's not only a switch game. they could have just used same videos on all platforms, it'd be pretty lazy but possible.
@MysticalOS Thats what I was wondering too - 4k videos for PC. PS5 and Xbox and they didn't bother downsizing them for the Switch, despite the fact it has lower performance, more limited storage, and a max res of 1080p. As you said, that would be lazy, and its things like that that makes me slightly nervous as I outlined in my comment above, incase it causes performance problems for Switch, given that its not actually confirmed that it will run at 60fps, we're all just assuming it will because Mania does. Keeping everything crossed!
I'm really confused about why there's so much hype and excitement around this. I must be missing something. I love the original Sonic games too, but do we really need another release of these games?
But there's no harm to me or anyone in the release of this game so go buy it Sonic Fans!
I heard that the next version will be out in black and white with DLC for RGB and a deluxe version that lets you watch the end credits!
Hopefully there will be a Less confusing contains it all Physical edition released in the future. Until then im not going for it.
@Oliverrb Hopefully if you get the season pass for that it will work out cheaper.
@dkxcalibur
Those in the loop are excited because:
These remasters make the game true widescreen, have bug fixes, additional playable characters, new secrets and added content, improved multiplayer modes, etc.
That's why people are excited, it's not just repackaging the Genesis ROMs of Sonic 1 and 2 for the 50th time.
@Mauzuri Pray for Easy Mode from the Sega Saturn version in this Origins collection version, to this day that version is the only one that make the whole experience in Sonic 2 way too easy. The game mode only had one act per zone, Wing Fortress Zone is skipped, Death Egg Zone will give you some rings to grab before the fight and Silver Sonic died in 3 hits instead of 8.
@RupeeClock Slight addition - the remakes of 1 and 2 are also available on iOS.
@dkxcalibur I think it's mostly sonic 3, since it's been caught in legal hell for ages. I'll be more excited though if they port it to mobile, where other 3 have had solid headcannon ports for ages.
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