At the time of this writing, it’s unclear why Shenmue 3 demands 100GB of free space for the PC version of the game. After all, other open world games require far less hard drive space, and from what we’ve seen of Shenmue 3 so far, it doesn’t appear as though the game is any more ambitious than other titles in the genre.
Furthermore, Shenmue 3 has actually been criticized in the past for having dated visuals and animations. A video released for the game last year was met with harsh criticism by the community, prompting the developers to put together a new video to prove that it is working to improve the graphics.
Considering this, it’s possible that the 100GB storage requirement for Shenmue 3 on PC isn’t final. After all, the game is not exactly at the end of its development cycle, and was recently delayed to 2019. While it’s certainly closer to release now than it ever has been before, it’s not unreasonable that the developers haven’t quite nailed down what the final specs will be for the PC version.
One also has to wonder if the 100GB storage requirement will extend to the PlayStation 4 version of the game as well. Demanding that much storage space on console is virtually unheard of, and could make downloading the game digitally a serious hassle for those who have weaker Internet connections. This seems like a major barrier to some people buying the game at all, especially as it pertains to the PS4 version, so don’t be surprised if the 100GB storage requirement changes at some point between now and release.
In the meantime, fans should have plenty of Shenmue content to look forward to that presumably won’t require such a significant chunk of their hard drive space. As it turns out, remasters of the first two Shenmue games are in development and scheduled to release later this year.
Shenmue 3 will launch in 2019 for PC and PS4.
Source: Kickstarter
