Last of Us 2 download size on the PS4 suggests it's bigger than the leaks
Every major AAA game at the end of the PS4's life cycle is absolutely massive.
While plot-heavy The Last of Us Part II leaks dominated the discussion around the upcoming title last week, Sony also revealed the staggeringly large file size for the game as well. Expect it to take up a ton of your hard drive space with a file size that rivals massive RPGs like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Following leaks from an outside source, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced a new release date for The Last of Us Part 2 on June 19, 2020. After the announcement, the game's page on PlayStation's website was restored to include new information about the game, including the detail that the hard copy will come as two separate discs
It also confirmed that the initial download for The Last of Us Part 2 will be around 100 GB, or at least that's how much hard drive space gamers will need to initiate the download.
This makes it the largest Sony-published game on PS4 yet. A May 4 tweet from Naughty Dog confirms that this file size is set in stone now that the game has "gone gold." In other words, development is totally finished and the game is ready to be downloaded to game discs.
Why is The Last of Us Part 2's file size so large? This file size isn't too surprising, especially when you look at the massive amount of detail that Naughty Dog is putting into the world of The Last of Us Part 2 in the gameplay video above. FF7 Remake showed that high-fidelity linear games can still take up a lot of space, and The Last of Us Part 2 is sure to be no different with immensely detailed character models and environments.
As the game's leaks showed, The Last of Us 2 will also feature a lot of intricate cutscenes. Even with compression, it's possible that these highly detailed cutscenes are what ended up ballooning the single-player game's file size.
How does The Last of Us Part 2's file size compare to the original? At 100 GB, The Last of Us Part 2 will be about double the size of The Last of Us Remastered on PS4, which comes in at 43.45 GB. Any post-launch updates would only increase the game's file size, so be sure to have a large chunk of your PS4's memory open to store this game.
Early PS4s only had 500 GB of storage and most current models have 1 TB, so The Last of Us Part 2 will be taking anywhere from one-tenth to one-fifth of your system's hard drive space.
How much space would The Last of Us Part 2 take on a PS5? Even the PS5, Sony's next-gen console, is poised to only have 825 GB of storage, so The Last of Us Part 2 would even be a storage space hog on Sony's next console by taking up about an eighth of its total space. As next-gen rolls around and the amount of storage space doesn't really improve, one has to wonder whether or not storage space will become a major concern. Hopefully, developers can find a way to shrink the file size of great looking next-gen games.
The Inverse Analysis — While it's a bit disappointing that we'll all have to clean out our PS4's hard drive space before The Last of Us Part 2 rolls around, it isn't that unexpected. Most modern AAA games have very large file sizes, and given the level of detail Naughty Dog puts into its titles, it's no surprise that the game will take up so much memory.
When it comes down to it, most gamers will have to buy a digital copy of the game as many major retailers remain closed into June and shipment channels remain limited. So download speeds become something to consider as everyone's using their internet a great deal more in the era of social distancing. This gives some insight into why Sony may have delayed The Last of Us 2 to begin with.
If the game were released in May as originally planned, such massive digital download could have been frustrating for a lot of gamers if it were a digital-only release in some regions. Thankfully, Sony Interactive Entertainment only delayed its release by a couple of weeks so The Last of Us Part 2 should see a simultaneous physical and digital launch worldwide.
The Last of Us Part 2 will be released exclusively for PS4 on June 19, 2020.
