The good news just won't stop for Battlefield 6 as EA seems to be doing everything right for its launch. Yesterday, we covered an alleged performance report showing impressive numbers for a modern AAA title, which coincided with the hardware requirements reveal earlier this week. Now, we're finding out that Battlefield 6 will have fragmented downloads — meaning, you can download only the parts of the game that you want instead of installing the entire thing at once. A liberating sigh of relief for storage drives.
Talking to PC Gamer, an EA representative confirmed that the base install size of the game is 55 GB and that includes the core components. From there, the player can choose to download the campaign and multiplayer on top, which will drive that install size up to 80 GB. This discrepancy was already visible on the game's Steam page, where two install sizes are listed; therefore, PC Gamer reached out to EA for a confirmation.
"Yes, you will be able to pick and choose which components of the game you install. There will be a shared base package, and then you can separately choose to install the main components," the representative told PC Gamer. This is similar to how the modern Call of Duty launcher works, where you can choose whether you just want Warzone or also the current mainline releases like Modern Warfare 2 and 3, and their subsequent individual elements. However, the base size of that app is already frankly obscene, marred down by the amount of titles it has to carry—something Battlefield 6 entirely dodges.
A more apt comparison would be, funnily enough, Fortnite, which allows you to download Save the World (campaign) and Battle Royale separately, along with high-resolution textures and DirectX 12 shaders. It also has a unique "cosmetic stream" setting that pre-loads all the cosmetics in the game ahead of time, such that when you come across a skin, it doesn't need to be streamed because it's already sitting downloaded somewhere in your storage. This clears up some processing heardroom as well, netting you bonus FPS.
Regardless, even if you choose to get the full 80GB game, that file size is a far cry from the 150 GB monstrosities we usually associate with blockbuster titles these days. Players with limited storage will be able to enjoy the latest entry in the Battlefield series without having to worry about freeing up space. Moreover, you can choose to install only the campaign first, play it, delete it, and install the multiplayer, which would take the convenience to the next level. After all, large, sprawling multiplayer battles with real-time environment destruction are the hallmark of Battlefield.
This news aligns well with the modest hardware requirements and the reported 300+ FPS performance numbers, suggesting that devs have prioritized optimization above all else. Battlefield 6 comes out on October 6, 202,5 with an open beta planned for later this week. The game will release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC—all that remains to be seen is whether fragmented downloads are a PC exclusive or also available for console.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
