If you have bought a physical copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, we have some bad news for you. It won’t be possible to just install the game and enjoy playing it from the disc.
Activision and Treyarch Studios announced today that to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, you will have to download a mammoth 50 GB update. This update is necessary to boot the game especially if you have a retail copy since it will replace the exciting files overwriting a lot of the old data that has been pressed on the disc.
On the official Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 FAQ, it has been clarified that while the game requires 55 GB of hard disk space after installing the day one update, you will need around 115 GB of hard disk free in order to actually download and install the game. If you have bought a retail copy, there is a roughly 50 GB day one update that has to be downloaded first before playing the game. This patch is already available for the digital version so only retail copies will be affected by this change.
Before playing for the first time, players will need to download and install a day one update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This update must be installed completely in order to access Multiplayer, Zombies, and Specialist Headquarters. Blackout is fully playable once installation is about 30% complete (approximately 16-20 GB).
For an optimized download experience, players should have 112 GB of free hard drive space – note that this is not the size of the download, it is the amount of space required to complete the installation process. The final installation footprint will be approximately 55 GB. In order to play Blackout before the full installation is complete, select “Update to Latest Version” when the prompt appears.
The day one update package is roughly 50 GB. Download speeds may vary based on region, platform, connection type, and the speed of your internet connection.
This was further confirmed by other press outlets and some retailers are even letting the customers get the copy one day early on October 11 so they can download this update and play the game on launch. As for how this mistake happened, it is too early to tell but it is possible that the version that was sent as the master copy was likely an outdated and the new update completely overwrites any old data files with new one.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will launch on October 12 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
