Fortnite: Epic Games optimizes the PC version of the game to make it 60GB smaller
This new update brings the game version to v14.40 along with some impressive optimizations behind the scenes. Let’s take a closer look at the optimizations that Epic made here.
Epic Games, the game developer behind the popular Battle Royale game, Fortnite just released a new update for the game. This new update brings the game version to v14.40 along with some impressive optimizations behind the scenes. Looking closely, the company reduced the required drive or SSD space from about 90GB to about 30GB. The company shared details around this development on its official Twitter account attributing it to “optimizations”. However, existing players do need to download a large patch (about 27GB) to make use of these optimizations. Let’s take a closer look at the optimizations that Epic made on Fortnite to achieve such a smaller size here.
Fortnite for PC trims fat; goes from about 100GB to just below 30GB
This size optimization announcement came around the same time when Activision rolled out new uninstall options for Warzone. For some context, these uninstall options came about after an outcry on the internet regarding the install size for Call of Duty: Warzone. As a result, the game developer rolled out new uninstall options to help players remove the sections that they don’t use. Moving back to Fortnite, Epic Games did not share details about the kind of optimizations that they made. However, looking at the download size, it looks like the players need to re-download the entire (smaller version of the) game to replace the existing files. It is also interesting to note that Epic did not announce any technical details around the reductions in the size.
Please note the patch size will be larger than normal on PC (approx. 27 GB). This is to make optimizations on PC resulting in a massively reduced Fortnite file size (over 60 GB smaller), smaller downloads for future patches, and improved loading performance.
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) October 20, 2020
Though, Epic did tease the future of updates for Fortnite in the coming months if not years. As per the tease, Fortnite players will note “smaller downloads” for updates, and patches. The reduced size will also affect the loading times for the game in the future. Furthermore, the company did not address this size change in the detailed changelog on the official Fortnite website.
Some of the other changes this update brings include bug fixes in gameplay, islands, prefabs, and more. Epic Games also fixed some device-specific bug fixes along with the “matchmaking portals” in the creative. You can check all the details about these changes on the official blog post on the Fortnite website.