Physical Copies Of 'Gears Of War 4' Require 11 GB Day-One Patch (Updated)

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Update, 9/30/2016, 5:12 p.m. PDT: Clarified that the Xbox Play Anywhere works only on digital versions of the game.

If you’re buying the physical version of Gears of War 4, you’ll have to wait a bit longer to play the game once you insert the disc into the Xbox One. According to Coalition head Rod Fergusson, the game needs an additional 11 GB for a day one patch.

Day one patches are a common part of game releases today, but the size of the Gears of War 4 file is the issue. Depending on the available bandwidth, you might be waiting for quite some time before the game is ready to play. If you bought the title digitally, there’s no need to worry, as the game includes the patch in the full 54.6GB download. The patch couldn’t fit in the disc version as dual-layer Blu-ray discs can only hold a maximum of 50 GB of data.

Even if you bought the physical copy of the game, you could always choose to avoid the extra download time and just buy the digital version of the game on console (or PC if your build can handle the requirements). Gears of War 4 is one of the titles that falls under the Xbox Play Anywhere program, so you get the PC version if you buy the Xbox One variant and vice versa. However, the feature works only if the game is purchased digitally. The game also supports cross-play functionality, so you can join the fight with your Xbox One friends even if you’re playing it on PC.

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NameGears of War 4
TypeShooter, Action/Adventure
DeveloperThe Coalition
PublisherMicrosoft Studios
PlatformsPC, Xbox One
Where To BuyXbox StoreAmazonBest BuyTargetWalmartGameStop
Release DateOctober 11, 2016
Rexly Peñaflorida
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jasonelmore
    Dont buy physical, you wont get a Windows PC copy or a xbox one copy if you bought on pc.

    physical disc copies dont come with "Play anywhere"
    Reply
  • rayden54
    Brilliant. I hate not having broadband. And I hate having Frontier even more,
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    @rayden54, thankfully both xbox one and pc are offering pre-loads, so that gives you a few days to download it at a friends house, or at your house with that crappy dsl
    Reply
  • Mr5oh
    Good to know, guess I'll pass on this one.

    It'll be even more awesome in 10-15 years from now when you think, "I'm feeling nostalgic I'd like to play Gears of 4... Oh wait the server that hosted that 11 Gb file doesnt exist anymore."
    Reply
  • sillynilly
    15 years from now G4 will be like a MAME cabinet!
    Reply
  • synphul
    I feel your pain RAYDEN54, I don't have broadband either. With my speeds, 11gb would be around a week or more of steady downloading which is exactly why I buy games on disc. I don't understand these 'patches' or 'updates' that are so huge they defeat the purpose of buying data on physical media.

    Unfortunately for them they'll be waiting for customers like me who won't ever buy it. Won't be me waiting to download their poorly coded product. It's frustrating to me that it's become so commonplace for these massive patches the first day a game comes out. All that does is tells the community at large their product was pushed to market despite not being ready for primetime. I miss the good ol' days when it was common for a company to make a product that was ready to use and then decided to bring it to market.
    Reply
  • Remember the days when games couldn't be patched? Back then there was something called quality control. These days, it seems they just want to ship it broken, "don't worry, we'll fix it later".
    Reply
  • Khimera2000
    Wow games are creeping up in size more and more. 54 gigs for the digital with patch, then 11gigs for the patch? I'm seeing more trouble for the future of physical media if they cant push beyond that 50 gig mark, especially for the push to higher resolutions.
    Reply
  • daglesj
    I always wait a year to buy, sometimes two. They are then cheaper, you don't buy the ones that tuned out to be crap (NMS) on release day and they are usually patched by then.
    Reply
  • Kimonajane
    Thats not a patch that's a whole game and total BS. What about someone who is not connected to the net, I know few but they are out there. We should be able to sue them for this crap. They should have to recall all those diskx and destroy them as faulty and re-release disks that work.
    Reply