After seeing the latest bit of news on the size of PS4 launch title Killzone Shadow Fall, I think we should all consider ourselves, and our wallets, lucky that both Sony and Microsoft are sticking with games on discs for the next generation of video game consoles.

Sony Computer Entertainment UK revealed that the digital download of Killzone Shadow Fall will be a 50 GB download. For comparison, that’s almost twice the size of The Last of Us and about 10% of the PS4’s hard drive capacity.

In an interview with Eurogamer, SCE UK VP Fergal Gara mentioned the game’s file size while talking about the PS4’s “Play As You Download” functionality. He told Eurogamer, “The Play As You Download functionality, for example, means you don’t need the whole file before you go. This is a little bit counterbalanced by the fact the files themselves are getting bloody big. Killzone: Shadow Fall is an uber file – I think it’s cracking on for 50 GB. It looks it, too, when you see it.”

While digital downloads are an increasingly popular way of buying games thanks to services such as Steam, Origin and even the PlayStation Network, it’s not going to be the most economical way of doing things at the moment.

If Killzone Shadow Fall is typical of other next-gen games, that means that you might get ten games on your PS4’s hard drive before you run out of room. Sony has previously said that the PS4 hard drive is replaceable but that’s still going to be a bit of a pain for a non-techy person such as myself. However, the Xbox One console was originally said to be not-replaceable. I haven’t heard if that’s changed but that would make their original emphasis on digital downloads a catastrophically bad plan given the small hard drive capacity.

On top of the relatively small hard drives, your bandwidth cap isn’t likely helping. While most bandwidth caps in America are greater than 100 GB, that’s still only a one game download without incurring massive overage fees (I’m assuming that you do more than just download games in a month). Some people don’t even have a 50 GB bandwidth limit.

I realize that digital downloads are the way of the future but ISPs aren’t keeping up with the games industry’s desire to go digital. As such, discs are going to be the order of the day until we get more bandwidth.

Source: CVG