The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomnow reigns supreme as the first-party Nintendo game with the largest file size. Nintendo released the second official trailer forTears of the Kingdomduring its February 8 Nintendo Direct presentation. The highly anticipated follow-up toBreath of the Wildwill have a $70 price point.
As fidelity increases and open worlds become bigger and more detailed, file sizes have risen along with them. WhileTears of the Kingdomdoesn’t excessively eat up disk space like more recentCall of Dutytitles, likeCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warwhich is an astounding 250 GB, the fact that even Nintendo is pushing boundaries for file sizes within the context of its first-party offerings is notable.
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Soon after Nintendo revealed the second trailer forTears of the Kingdomas the closing act of its Nintendo Direct, its eShop listing went live with all the game’s relevant technical details, including supported play modes, supported languages, and its ESRB rating. One of those details was its file size, which clocks in at 18.2 GB. This standsTears of the Kingdomhead-and-shoulders above any other first-party Nintendo games but doesn’t make it the game with the biggest file size in the eShop. That distinction goes toNBA 2K21and its 41.6 GB download.
A majority of Nintendo’s first-party offerings released on the Switch fall somewhere in the range of 2 to 6 GB.Pokemon Legends: Arceusis a pseudo-open world gamethat was only released in January 2022, and has a file size of 6.1 GB. ButBreath of the Wildand nowTears to the Kingdomare significantly larger, more detailed games that are truly open world. As a point of comparison,Breath of the Wildused to hold the title of Nintendo’s largest first-party game file size, coming in at 14.4 GB. There’s no telling what that extra four gigs comprises, but recent file size increases can usually be attributed to 4K textures on in-game assets and large audio files, especially for fully voiced characters.
The only other first-party Nintendo titles to come close toTears of the Kingdom’s 18.2 GB file size areXenoblade Chronicles 3andFire Emblem Engage, which come in at 14.38 and 12.65 GB, respectively. Paired with theaforementioned price hike to $70, it seems Nintendo is subtly hinting at a larger open world stuffed with more content thanBreath of the Wild. This can also be interpreted from the trailers that have been released so far, which show off a ground-level open world of a similar scope toBreath of the Wild, but the gameplay areas now expanding into the sky.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomlaunches May 12 for Nintendo Switch.
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Source:Nintendo eShop
