Microsoft's big new Xbox update makes some game installs much, much smaller

The ability to optionally install games on the Xbox 360's hard drive is something we've been jazzed about for some time, because while the machine's DVD drive isn't terribly slow, it isn't terribly quiet either -- and who has time for progress bars? However, those of us still rocking older, 20GB machines quickly discovered that the 6-plus GB install files of some games put a real hurtin' on what little disk space we had left, leaving us to choose between reducing load-times while exploring the Urban Wasteland or deleting all those random demos we keep forgetting about. Microsoft has a solution, and this time it's not a moderately less expensive new hard drive. Included in the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update, due one week from today, is a previously unmentioned feature that shrinks those game installs, sometimes by a huge margin. King of Fighters XII went from 3.4GB down to 703MB, while Raiden Fighters Aces is now just 484MB. Any of you early bird previewers finding other titles that have trimmed the fat?

[Hafk Posted Aug 4th 2009 11:44AM]

Gah! You beat me by a hair.

[grydlok Posted Aug 4th 2009 11:09AM]

I will install something later to see if it really improved.

[GeekPI Posted Aug 4th 2009 11:39AM]

Now if they'd only allow for you to store the installs to a networked Home Server vs. the onboard drive.

[D3rwin Posted Aug 4th 2009 12:06PM]

lol, love the graphic

[Maeztro Posted Aug 4th 2009 12:17PM]

Gears of War 2 dropped a bit, but not by much. Guess it is very variable.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 4th 2009 1:33PM]

Is that Ashton Kutcher? :)

[fpendl Posted Aug 4th 2009 2:20PM]

i think it may be

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 4th 2009 3:11PM]

Someone remind me....why are we installing games, again?

[tjberens Posted Aug 4th 2009 3:40PM]

Of course the biggest problem is that downloading several GB games would take quite a few days.

[paralax Posted Aug 4th 2009 9:17PM]

Faced with the choice of smaller installs or reasonable prices on hard drives, is it any surprise MS went with the former?

I have the big three and play 360 almost exclusively, so no, I'm not a trolling fanboi. Put your guns away, kids.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 4th 2009 11:46PM]

This is fantastic. This will help free up some space on my HD. With reinstalling my games, ill probly have room for like 2 more games. Cool!

[PsycoGadget Posted Aug 5th 2009 1:31AM]

BlazBlue was 3 GB installed compared to the 4.3 GB i'm seeing on the web

[MSiqueira Posted Aug 5th 2009 2:32AM]

GRID was 6.6 GB, now 6.4 GB

Burnout Paradise was 3.4 now 3.2

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 5th 2009 5:47AM]

Here is my game install size observations after the update:

Name - size reduction
Prototype - 0
Army of Two - 1.3 GB
Assassin's Creed - 0.1 GB
COD 4 - 0.2 GB
Fable 2 - 0.2 GB
Fallout 3 - 0.4 GB
Forza 2 - 0.6 GB
GoW2 - 0.4 GB
GTA4 - 0.3 GB
Saints Row 2 - 0
R6 Vegas - 0.1 GB
R6 vegas 2 - 0.2 GB
Viva Pinata TIP - 0.2 GB

[PsycoGadget Posted Aug 5th 2009 9:51AM]

Ninja Gaiden 2 - 6.8GB now 6.7GB whoooooa!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 5th 2009 1:58PM]

NHL 09 went from 5.7G to 5.1G

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