You may have had the feeling lately that the games you've been buying and playing didn't quite get finished when they were shoved out onto store shelves. Well, a lot of them weren't done baking.


We're a few years into a new console hardware cycle, one that promised to make games on the PS4, Wii U and Xbox One bigger and more immersive than ever. But, all too often, what happens after getting a much-anticipated release home is seeing a prompt to download a crucial bundle of code necessary to make the game run the way it's supposed to. It happened a whole bunch of times last year.

The list below runs down 24 AAA games—out of a field of about 70—released on Xbox One, Wii U and PS4 that got significant software updates 24 hours after release. Some of these patches quashed lingering bugs or tweaked multiplayer functionality, while others added extra content. We've tried to catalog the size and purpose of these day-one patches when that information was available. Some times, we weren't able to track down how many megabytes—or, in some cases, gigabytes—each patch weighed in at. All of them are part of a growing trend of eleventh-hour maintenance that seems to suggest that big game titles aren't coming to players in their optimal state.


Titanfall - March 11

Size: 840MB

Contents: No official patch notes

Infamous: Second Son - March 21

Size: 300MB

Contents: 19 new missions

Trials Fusion - April 16

The Last of Us Remastered - July 29

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition - August 19

The Sims 4 - September 2

Destiny - September 9


FIFA 15 - September 23

Size: N/A

Contents: Bugfixes

Hyrule Warriors - September 26

Size: N/A

Contents: "a new mode, a new weapon, and the option to select your own music while playing the game."


Forza Horizon 2 - September 30

Size: 400MB

Contents: No official patch notes


Alien: Isolation - October 7

Size: 400MB

Contents: Bugfixes

Driveclub - October 7

Size: 135MB

Contents: Bugfixes and one extra car

The Evil Within - October 14

Size: 7.5GB on Xbox One

Contents: Performance improvements and bugfixes

NBA Live 15 - October 28

Sunset Overdrive - October 28

Size: 300MB

Contents: No official patch notes

WWE 2K15 - October 28


Assassin's Creed Unity - November 11

Size: 900MB

Contents: Bugfixes

Halo: The Master Chief Collection - November 11

Dragon Age: Inquisition - November 18

Size: 120MB

Contents: Performance improvements and bugfixes

Far Cry 4 - November 18

Size: 575MB

Contents: Bugfixes

Grand Theft Auto V - November 18

LittleBigPlanet 3 - November 18

Size: N/A

Contents: Bugfixes


Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - November 21

The Crew - December 2