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In game data/patch downloads need to piss off

Lagamorph

Lagamorph

Wrong About Chicken
Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,355
Why do games do this?
I've got a friend coming over tonight so I downloaded PES 2019 via Gamepass, game downloaded as quick as I'd expect on a 350Mbps internet connection, launch the game and I'm met with a message that what I've downloaded is actually only 20% of the game and until the rest is finished I have hugely limited features.
And the game has taken twice as long to download just 5% of it (I assume from Konami's servers rather than Microsoft) than it took to download the entire Xbox part.

Oh, and if I close the game the download stops so I have to leave my Xbox sitting on a title screen for hours just to download the rest of the game.

I remember Injustice did this on PS4 too when it was free on PS Plus. Download a massive gane, then be stuck on the title screen for ages while it downloads a load more data.

Destiny 2 does it for patches too but at least they tend to be small.


Why do some games do this? Why not just download everything via PSN/Xbox Live with the initial download?
All this does it make it a longer and more frustrating process to get into a game.
 

Deleted member 1413

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,617
Mobile games tend to do this a lot. Fire Emblem Heroes is pretty annoying since I stopped playing it, but anytime i want to use a free summon in an event I need to download something for a few minutes and you can't back out and download in the background.

Not entirely sure why this is done, for security reasons or something?
 
OP
OP
Lagamorph

Lagamorph

Wrong About Chicken
Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,355
Cartridge Games said:
Mobile games tend to do this a lot. Fire Emblem Heroes is pretty annoying since I stopped playing it, but anytime i want to use a free summon in an event I need to download something for a few minutes and you can't back out and download in the background.

Not entirely sure why this is done, for security reasons or something?
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I think in mobile games it's an anti-cheat measure to try and make sure you aren't messing with game files to get extra in game currency or unlock units for free by messing with the game data.

There's no reason for it on console games though.
 
KanameYuuki

KanameYuuki

Member
Dec 23, 2017
2,650
Colombia
I'm glad FFXIV stopped doing this, there was a bug at SB launch that would make you download the whole game, it happened to me like 5 times and each time was around 20GB, no option to play anything else while it is downloading or leave it in rest mode.
 
Lindsay

Lindsay

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,136
.hack//G.U. Last Recode was my first experience with this an I was confused over what even was happening. At least it was a once-and-done. Street Fighter 5 does this from time to time, usually after downloading a massive patch via the normal method, and I just don't get why. Its pretty annoying and this in-game patch has to be reapplied (not re-downloaded mercifully) each time ya start up the game. Really dun see why this should be a thing.

edit: an where are these patches coming from if not from a console holders network o.o? if they're coming from the games dev/pub are these patches even gonna be around for the longterm?
 
Captain of Outer Space

Captain of Outer Space

Come Sale Away With Me
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,356
This was a thing I hated about multiplayer games on Xbox 360 since the update size limits prevented them from being pushed as normal updates, which caused some attempts to play certain multiplayer games to just turn into me playing on another console. Thankfully, I haven't seen much of it this generation.

Cartridge Games said:
Mobile games tend to do this a lot. Fire Emblem Heroes is pretty annoying since I stopped playing it, but anytime i want to use a free summon in an event I need to download something for a few minutes and you can't back out and download in the background.

Not entirely sure why this is done, for security reasons or something?
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This always annoyed me when I had little space available, the last thing I need is a game that was a 400 MB download to actually balloon up to 1 GB after start-up to use up the rest of my space. I ended up just deleting those games because I didn't want to support it.
 
808s & Villainy

808s & Villainy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
42,700
I didn't realize this was even a thing. Sounds like a terrible system. I wonder why they don't just use the normal patch download system. Is it so users are in control over what is downloaded?
 
Transistor

Transistor

Hollowly Brittle
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,171
Washington, D.C.
Destiny did this a lot if I remember

KanameYuuki said:
I'm glad FFXIV stopped doing this, there was a bug at SB launch that would make you download the whole game, it happened to me like 5 times and each time was around 20GB, no option to play anything else while it is downloading or leave it in rest mode.
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XIV stopped this bullshit? Might finally be time to jump back in!
 
Lindsay

Lindsay

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,136
808s & Villainy said:
I didn't realize this was even a thing. Sounds like a terrible system. I wonder why they don't just use the normal patch download system. Is it so users are in control over what is downloaded?
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Its the opposite of giving users control in my experience. You can pause/cancel psn patches. For the stuff I mentioned ya gotta sit there on the main menu waiting for the in-game d/l to finish. Ya can disconnect your system from the net an still play though that applies to the normal update method anyhow.
 
dock

dock

Game Designer
Verified
Nov 5, 2017
1,370
Are there any non-Japanese games that do this?

The Taito (Square Enix) mobile games are really bad for this. Like, how much data do you realistically need extra for Arkanoid or Space Invaders?! Please stop.

I had no idea this system had leaked into console gaming.

On the other hang, I'm pretty into games not downloading all of their levels right away. I'm probably never getting further than a third of the way in! Please stop hogging my storage.

I've deleted plenty of games I otherwise would have completed because they hogged too much of my storage.
 
Bjones

Bjones

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,622
I think you answered your own question. In the case of Destiny it's because they use their ones servers to push updates across multiple platforms. I am sure only the big guys are allowed to do things like this.
 
BeeDog

BeeDog

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,556
Gran Turismo 5 was the absolute worst in this regard, ugh. Thankfully Polyphony wised up for their subsequent games.
 

Deleted member 10737

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
49,774
Cartridge Games said:
Mobile games tend to do this a lot. Fire Emblem Heroes is pretty annoying since I stopped playing it, but anytime i want to use a free summon in an event I need to download something for a few minutes and you can't back out and download in the background.
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mobile games have to do this, because apple puts a very ridiculous limit on the app size that you can download on mobile data (so without wifi), i think it's 150 MB, and a lot of people are going to download apps with mobile data. so they have a small initial app size and then force people to download as much data as they want in the app cuz apple can't limit that.
 
Mass Effect

Mass Effect

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
16,803
Warframe does this as well. It's moderately annoying.

I think Battlefield 4 did it as well.

Oh right and Destiny Too.
 
elelunicy

elelunicy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
175
Cartridge Games said:
Mobile games tend to do this a lot. Fire Emblem Heroes is pretty annoying since I stopped playing it, but anytime i want to use a free summon in an event I need to download something for a few minutes and you can't back out and download in the background.

Not entirely sure why this is done, for security reasons or something?
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Click to shrink...
I know iOS doesn't allow downloading apps over 150MB using cellular data. Many games keep its app size <150MB and then the rest of the data is downloaded in-game (which has no size limit).
 

Deleted member 1413

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,617
mazi said:
mobile games have to do this, because apple puts a very ridiculous limit on the app size that you can download on mobile data (so without wifi), i think it's 150 MB, and a lot of people are going to download apps with mobile data. so they have a small initial app size and then force people to download as much data as they want in the app cuz apple can't limit that.
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elelunicy said:
I know iOS doesn't allow downloading apps over 150MB using cellular data. Many games keep its app size <150MB and then the rest of the data is downloaded in-game (which has no size limit).
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Ah, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks
 
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