Helldivers 2’s PC File Size Issue Explained by Arrowhead Studios

Arrowhead Game Studios has released an official statement addressing the massive 150 GB file size of Helldivers 2 on PC—a complaint that has been plaguing players for months. The PC version’s bloated size, roughly three times larger than its console counterpart, has sparked considerable debate within the community.

The Root Cause: Data Duplication

A significant portion of the PC version’s files are duplicated. While the console versions clock in at around 30-40 GB, the PC build balloons to 4-5 times that size. The development team revealed that this stems from optimizations designed for older mechanical Hard Disk Drives (HDDs).

Mechanical drives rely on a physical read head that moves across spinning platters to access data, which takes time. To mitigate loading times, game files are copied and distributed across different sections of the disk. For instance, a tree texture might be placed separately near each level that uses it. SSDs don’t suffer from this limitation, which is why console versions don’t employ this duplication technique.

The Solution: A Three-Phase Approach

Arrowhead has outlined a comprehensive plan to tackle the issue:

• Short Term: The team will clean up unused assets from the system, achieving modest gains. However, new content additions in upcoming updates will offset these savings, so the primary goal is to prevent the file size from growing further.
• Medium Term: The most duplicated and space-consuming files will be consolidated into “common asset” bundles. While this will increase loading times slightly for HDD users, developers aim to keep the increase under 30 seconds rather than several minutes.
• Long Term: Future engine improvements will prevent unnecessary data loading, alongside larger and riskier projects such as implementing compression technology similar to what’s used on consoles.

Will 4K Textures Become Optional?

The team acknowledged that making high-resolution textures an optional download is technically feasible, but would require substantial changes to the game engine. This option will only be considered if other solutions prove insufficient.

How Many Players Still Use HDDs?

According to Arrowhead, approximately 12% of PC players still use mechanical drives, though this data isn’t entirely reliable. A crucial factor: in co-op missions, the slowest player’s loading time affects the entire squad. For this reason, the team is hesitant to completely abandon HDD support.

Arrowhead emphasized their commitment to balancing file size reduction with acceptable loading times. Initial improvements are expected to roll out in upcoming updates, though players should expect a considerable wait before seeing significant changes to the PC experience.