STALKER 2, the first STALKER game released by GSC Game World since Call of Pripyat back in 2009, promises to take players back to the horrific wonders of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. However, if you’re playing on Xbox Series X or S, the STALKER 2 file size may give you pause before downloading.
According to the Microsoft Store, the file size of the game is around 180 gigabytes, making it an absolutely massive game. While the console holds nearly a terabyte of information, 180 gigabytes is still a huge chunk of it, even with the ability for people to pick and choose what parts of a game they can download.
STALKER, as a franchise, takes place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the site of the largest nuclear disaster in history. The place is abandoned for over a thousand square miles, though unlike in STALKER, the place is not overrun with mutants, monsters, and all manner of horrific experiments and phenomenon.
Either way, for the STALKER 2 file size to be so big really speaks to just how massive the game will be. With plenty of ruins to explore, quests to go on, and ground to cover, hopefully there will be just as much content in the game as there is memory for it to take up, and the game will also use Unreal Engine 5.
Of course, the huge file size may still be an issue with earlier Xbox Series X and S consoles. The Xbox Series S, for example, even now, only has 512 gigabytes of storage, which means that the STALKER 2 file size could take up more than a fifth of its memory, even with optimization.
While we did get to see some of what looked like gameplay at this past E3, there’s no telling what exactly STALKER 2 will look like until the game is announced. Hopefully, since it’s been 12 years since the last game, the new technology will let the game speak for itself. STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl will be coming out on April 28 of next year for PC and Xbox Series X and S.
