'Star Citizen' Client Download Expected To Push 100GB

Cloud Imperium Games' "Star Citizen" is a massive endeavour in every conceivable aspect. The MMO incorporating space combat and trading simulation, along with an FPS element, has been in development since 2011. The project has amassed more than $52 million through crowdfunding, with $2.1 million from Kickstarter. The project's list of hyperboles has another addition now. The client download for the game is expected to be a whopping 100GB.

This reportedly isn't a huge surprise considering the sheer scope of the game. Although "Star Citizen" won't be shipped till sometime in 2016, the massive multiplayer online game with a persistent universe that changes dynamically according to user actions incorporates a staggeringly large number of gameplay aspects and modes. In addition to the staple space combat and trading aspects, the sci-fi game has a discrete FPS module, numerous story missions and social spaces, among other features, as noted by VG247. Since the game is far from complete, the sheer volume of in-game assets will reportedly easily push the download size to monstrous proportions.

If that download volume sounds intimidating, the ensuing patches won't inspire any confidence either. Jeremy Masker, the Director of Game Operations at Cloud Imperium Games, contends that the core assets in an average patch will run in the hundreds. This will amount to asset size of anywhere between 2GB to 6GB, considering that each asset can weigh in at 200MB. This reportedly gets worse when assets of this magnitude are estimated to require re-downloading 30 to 40 percent of the original client download. In effect, the subsequent patches could measure in at 14GB to 20GB.

"We are optimizing game patching for speed and to only deliver diffs, but this is unlikely to reduce actual patch size," wrote Masker in an official forum post. "Each patch has 100s of assets, each of these assets are at times 200 MB; this leads to 2-6 GB patches, and if we end up doing a file type re-factor and have to redownload 30-40 percent of the assets on the hard drive, then the patch will be 14-20 GB."

With download sizes such as these, it wouldn't be far-fetched for gamers to put a new hard drive in their wish list. The enormous bandwidth demands of "Star Citizen" could potentially put off gamers with slower internet connectivity and bandwidth caps. Using up over 100GB of the download limit for a single game will reportedly result in most limited connections reaching their maximum download limits. This also explains why the game is restricted to PC and Linux platforms, as consoles would have a hard time coping with the ensuing real estate issues.

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