Lego City Undercover Switch cover mentions 13GB download [Up3: Full game on card]

Required downloads happened before. You couldn't play Halo MCC multiplayer without downloading a 25GB patch for the exact same reason as you listed : they didn't want to use a second blu-ray.

Even in cases like that, I don't recall seeing that "online required" message on the front of a box before. Maybe it'll just be a new thing for Switch but I just can't find any context for that.
 
Yeah, I do find it a bit odd the amount of people scared they wont be able to play Lego City on Switch in 10-20 years if this day one patch is required. I'd imagine there will be a lot of unplayable games across all systems when servers shutdown and platform holders and publishers move on to the next thing. You'll just have to rebuy Lego City on Switch 2 Pro in 2030.

The point is that it devalues physical games and could possible start a new trend.
 
Yeah that's a big one. There are other games that require significant day 1 patches to be in a playable state as well (I know No Man's Sky was one of them). That sucks and so does this.

These are patches/content updates. Neither of them is required to play these games.
 
Why would a likely-720p port on an underpowered platform have a larger overall file size than a 1080p port on something a good few times more powerful than it?

More languages available? I'm not sure what the resolution plays into here, given that the original game was 720p and 20GB.
 
Just checked things out on the eShop and now I really don't understand why people are freaking out. The eShop literally lists the download for the game as 7Gb, why would the cartridge magically need 20Gb?

This still doesn't answer the question of what that back-of-box message means, but I think it makes it pretty clear that the game itself is 7Gb.

Thats what I dont get, it cant be a day 1 patch can it? Has there ever been a game with a day 1 patch bigger then the game itself lol.
 
Well, it's confusing, but I'd argue if the 13GBs of THE GAME are needed to be downloaded for it to work, their statement would be entirely false, no?

They say retail copies "do not need to download the game to play," how can that be true if 13GBs of "the game" are needed to be downloaded to play?

And how can the eShop listing be 7GBs if it is larger than that?

I guess that's why this is so confusing, who knows.

Yep. I think that untill the game launches, or someone gets the hands first on it, we won't know for sure. Because the statement didn't deny that there could be a 13GB download of "something" to run the game.
But they kinda admit the game cover was wrong on the "game download" part.
 
Thats what I dont get, it cant be a day 1 patch can it? Has there ever been a game with a day 1 patch bigger then the game itself lol.

I'm not sure if game boxes detail requirements for a day one patch. I think messages like that normally detail storage requirements for future DLC.

Not going to say I'm 100% sure on this one though. I won't pretend that I've checked every game that has day one DLC to see what the back of box details.
 
Optimization, most likely. The Wii U game ran really bad, with a lot of loading times. Maybe they redid the game in another engine.

That might be plausible, since it was their first open world game that they had in development at the time (I think LEGO Batman 2 beat it to the punch as far as release date, but LCU was in the works earlier).
 
I'm not sure I've ever seen a game detail requirements for a day one patch on the back of the box. I think messages like that normally detail storage requirements for future DLC.

Not going to say I'm 100% sure on this one though. I won't pretend that I've checked every game that has day one DLC to see what the back of box details.

Could be Voice Acting, faster loading times, a bunch of things. World of FF did that on Vita
 
Why is the X1 version smaller than the Wii U version, then?

Compression? Refined code? I don't know, what matters is that it is and I can't think of a good reason why the Switch version might be higher.

More languages available? I'm not sure what the resolution plays into here, given that the original game was 720p and 20GB.

Why wouldn't they use the extra 30gb or so on the Blu-Rays for more languages?

As for the resolution, it's relative between the X1 and Switch versions. The Wii U version isn't a direct comparison as it's not the same version of the game.
 
Not sure how much difference it would make but with all the 2nd screen stuff the game did on the Wii U, surely stripping all that out would reduce the file size
 
The issue is not the internal storage...

It's a physical edition that you cannot play without downloading 13Gb because WB didn't have the ass to put the full game on the cartridge, making it a useless piece of plastic that only serves as a DL key.

WOW! This is terrible.
 
Why is the X1 version smaller than the Wii U version, then?

The Wii U version was coded POORLY. The game is great but the load times are absolutely fucking horrendous (and that is an understatement).

Something went terribly wrong during development and it was never addressed. It seems like TT was given a 25GB storage media on the WiiU so they just slapped all their game assets onto it without regard to how it was going to be accessed. Then they copy pasta'd the entire thing into the download version.

To this day I think it's the only game on Wii U that sees no significant reduction in load times when comparing the download version to a disc version.
 
The Wii U version was coded POORLY. The game is great but the load times are absolutely fucking horrendous (and that is an understatement).

Something went terribly wrong during development and it was never addressed. It seems like TT was given a 25GB storage media on the WiiU so they just slapped all their game assets onto it without regard to how it was going to be accessed. Then they copy pasta'd the entire thing into the download version.

To this day I think it's the only game on Wii U that sees no significant reduction in load times when comparing the download version to a disc version.

I once made and ate a small meal while that game loaded.
 
The Wii U version was coded POORLY. The game is great but the load times are absolutely fucking horrendous (and that is an understatement).

Something went terribly wrong during development and it was never addressed. It seems like TT was given a 25GB storage media on the WiiU so they just slapped all their game assets onto it without regard to how it was going to be accessed. Then they copy pasta'd the entire thing into the download version.

To this day I think it's the only game on Wii U that sees no significant reduction in load times when comparing the download version to a disc version.

And that's a big part of the reason I want to buy the switch version. I'd love to play through the game again but several minute load times are really unattractive.

I hope we know the full truth about this game before launch.
 
Why wouldn't they use the extra 30gb or so on the Blu-Rays for more languages?

As for the resolution, it's relative between the X1 and Switch versions. The Wii U version isn't a direct comparison as it's not the same version of the game.
The easy explanation goes back to the cost of game cards, which could mean that WB wanted to load up the Switch version with all the necessary languages to save the cost of having to publish more than one or two versions of the game worldwide. Blu-rays aren't as potentially cost prohibitive and don't have anywhere near the same kind of lead times required, which allows them to not need it.

I mean, I don't really see that much plausibility in the game actually being large on Switch than on other platforms myself, but I'm just spitballing possibilities as to how it would be possible.
 
I think the PR line about being able to play without the "patch", actually means you can play a part of the game without the patch (as in, the tutorial, or a few missions). That means the game IS playable as far as Nintendo is concerned.

And because the game without patch is 8 GB, the game is 8 GB as far as Nintendo is concerned, too.

I don't know what's going on with the "8.2 GB" thing in the european eShop tho. This would be even more stupid if they're actually using a 16 GB cart in Europe yet only filling 8.2 GB... holy shit
 
I think the PR line about being able to play without the "patch", actually means you can play a part of the game without the patch (as in, the tutorial, or a few missions). That means the game IS playable as far as Nintendo is concerned.

And because the game without patch is 8 GB, the game is 8 GB as far as Nintendo is concerned, too.

I don't know what's going on with the "8.2 GB" thing in the european eShop tho. This would be even more stupid if they're actually using a 16 GB cart in Europe yet only filling 8.2 GB... holy shit

Then why limit sales by writing "Internet required" on the cover when you can say something like "Internet required for full features" or whatever. Or heck just do something like PD expansion pack info:

6075_back.jpg
 
I don`t get how they could misunderstand the question.

They didn't misunderstand the question. They answered it as it was asked.

What EG probably should have asked "is this game able to be played from beginning to end without a download on the Switch platform," which leaves a hell of a lot less wiggle room for a PR person to comment upon.
 
Are the cutscenes videos, or are they in-engine?

If they are in-engine and not videos, are there any chances that all the voices in all the different languages could possibly be 13 GB in total, or is that beyond the question?

Because MAYBE, just maybe, that's what is in the 13 GB "patch".
 
"but the suggestion here perhaps is that at least some of the game is playable without downloading"
That's still as bad if true should be all of the game playable without internet connection
 
Maybe it's just a misprint. I really don't know how it could be otherwise if the eShop listing is 7GB.
If the 13 GB download is a patch then the eShop doesn't count it for the game size. It would be a 7/8/whatever GB game with a 13 GB patch, so the eshop only lists the "game" size.
 
I think the PR line about being able to play without the "patch", actually means you can play a part of the game without the patch (as in, the tutorial, or a few missions). That means the game IS playable as far as Nintendo is concerned.

And because the game without patch is 8 GB, the game is 8 GB as far as Nintendo is concerned, too.

I don't know what's going on with the "8.2 GB" thing in the european eShop tho. This would be even more stupid if they're actually using a 16 GB cart in Europe yet only filling 8.2 GB... holy shit

What if "playable without internet" means you can start the game, hit start at the title screen then the "additional data required" prompt shows up :P
 
This would be so much easier to dead with if the game didn`t have the internet required text on the box.

Yeah, there's that too.

If the 13 GB download is a patch then the eShop doesn't count it for the game size. It would be a 7/8/whatever GB game with a 13 GB patch, so the eshop only lists the "game" size.

Why wouldn't you be able to download both the game and the patch if you buy it digitally then ?
 
Why wouldn't you be able to download both the game and the patch if you buy it digitally then ?
?
What?

Let's say you buy, I don't know, Hyrule Warrirors Switch. I don't know, any game.

Let's say the game is 10 GB but it has 5 GB worth of patches.

The eShop will download the 10 GB game AND the 5 GB patch, BUT the eshop listing will show 10 GB, not 15 GB.

Do you see where I'm going? The 13 GB download is considered a patch, so the eShop doesn't count it for the game size in the listing.
 
Are the cutscenes videos, or are they in-engine?

If they are in-engine and not videos, are there any chances that all the voices in all the different languages could possibly be 13 GB in total, or is that beyond the question?

Because MAYBE, just maybe, that's what is in the 13 GB "patch".
The cutscenes are all in real time, there's a reason why the load times on the WiiU were that bad every time a new one would play. It's possible that the 13GB patch is technically the voice acting in other languages, but 13GB is a ridiculous amount for just the audio. Unless they went with uncompressed audio, which would be outright insanity.
 
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