Declaring war on your data cap

[Update: Activision published a new article today with some additional specs, although it seems like the primary purpose was to address the 175GB hullabaloo. Activision walked back the 175GB requirement by saying that's "the storage space we recommend players keep available in order to download the post-launch content we'll be bringing to Modern Warfare. At launch, the initial download will be smaller."]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the biggest game of the year. Best-selling? Maybe eventually because Call of Duty is always a heavy hitter. (Right now, NPD points to Mortal Kombat 11 as moving the most units.) But in terms of taking up space, Modern Warfare will be unrivaled.

Activision recently revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's minimum and recommended PC specs, and one requirement sticks out like a sore thumb: It's a 175GB install. We're still at the point where a game taking up 100GB qualifies as absolutely giant, so Modern Warfare nearly doubling that is staggering.

There's a chance this is a misprint, a la the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order specs from yesterday. Xbox lists the digital edition at 100MB (which is obviously incorrect); PlayStation doesn't specify any file size.

If it's accurate, the 175GB can likely be chalked up to any number of things: ultra high-resolution textures, huge maps, CGI cutscenes, a bunch of language options, and a general lack of compression. This isn't even the first eye-popping install size today; Red Dead Redemption 2 needs 150GB. Your hard drive gently weeps.

Here are the minimum and recommended PC specs for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare:

Minimum specs:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or Windows 10

CPU: Intel Core i3-4340, AMD FX-6300

GPU: Nvidia GTX 670/1650, AMD Radeon HD 7950

RAM: 8GB

DirectX: 12.0

HDD: 175GB

Recommended specs:

OS: 64-bit Windows 10

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K, AMD Ryzen 1600X

GPU: Nvidia GTX 970/1660, AMD Radeon R9 390/RX 580

RAM: 12GB

DirectX: 12.0

HDD: 175GB

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [battle.net]