Activision explains Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's up to 200GB+ file sizes

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is almost upon us (its campaign early access is upon us for those eager enough to have pre-ordered the game), and system requirements are pointing to an absolutely behemoth install size of more than 200GB in some cases come its full launch next Friday, 10th November – and Activision has now moved to explain what’s going on.

In a statement shared on social media, the publisher blamed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s potentially massive hard drive footprint on an “increased amount of content available Day 1”, which includes open world Zombies, support for items being carried forward from Modern Warfare 2, plus map files for the current the Call of Duty: Warzone.

The good news for anyone staring at their dwindling gigabytes like they’re modelling for Munch’s The Scream is that Modern Warfare 3 appears to offer a decent amount of control over exactly which bits are and are not installed. “You can manage your Call of Duty files in the ‘manage files’ section of the COD HQ launcher menu,” Activision notes. “This includes the ability to uninstall specific content you are not actively playing.”