Halo 4 is going to be huge. I'm not talking about critical success or sales or anything like that. No, I'm talking about memory storage. In order to play the online multiplayer portion of Master Chief's next outing, players will have to free up at least 8 GB of space.


There are whole games taht don't require 8 gigabytes of space. The word comes from Microsoft itself, on this tips page for the upcoming 343 Industries game:

At a minimum, you'll need at least an 8GB USB Flash Drive or an Xbox 360 Hard Drive to play Multiplayer mode in Halo 4. For an optimal experience playing with an Xbox 360 Hard Drive is highly recommended.


That means that people who purchased the lower-priced 4GB Xbox 360 will have to figure out some method for extra storage. Of course, Microsoft takes the opportunity to try and upsell folks to their overpriced Xbox branded USB sticks, but any ol' USB storage solution will work as long as it's been reformatted to work with the console.

I don't remember any of the Bungie-developed Halos mandating a certain amount of space to get multiplayer up and running. Maybe this requirement has something to do with caching data for all that episodic content that's been promised for Halo 4? Or this could be an opportunity for Microsoft to start building buzz for the inevitable Halo 4 game+console bundle that will probably launch this fall.

(Thanks, tipster Richard!)

Optimizing Your Multiplayer and Campaign Mode

Experiences in Halo 4 [Xbox.com, via IGN]