Marvel Rivals Set to Shrink Significantly in Major New Update

A persistent drawback of modern live-service games is their immense storage footprint. While manageable at launch, continuous patches and expansions inevitably cause file sizes to swell over time. Fortunately, NetEase Games is actively tackling this exact dilemma in the next major update for Marvel Rivals.

Scheduled to launch on August 7, Season 9.5 of the popular hero shooter brings plenty of anticipated attractions, headlined by a fresh collection of swimsuit attire and the introduction of The Hood as the roster’s newest combatant. Yet, amidst the flashier additions, a subtle technical enhancement is poised to win over the community. During a recent Season 9.5 developer broadcast, NetEase revealed that the forthcoming patch introduces a comprehensive restructuring of the game’s texture compression methods—accomplishing this feat “without sacrificing a single pixel of visual fidelity.”

At present, Marvel Rivals demands roughly 73 GB on consoles and approximately 100 GB on desktop hardware. Season 9.5 is set to trim 15 GB from the console installations while shaving off a remarkable 40 GB on PC. This represents a substantial relief for console users and nearly a 50% decrease for PC gamers—an impressive feat at a time when hard drive capacity is exceptionally valuable. When the hero shooter debuted in 2024, it occupied about 40 GB on consoles and 70 GB on PC. Consequently, this texture optimization initiative successfully returns both editions to their original launch dimensions, or even leaner in the case of personal computers.

The sole catch accompanying this massive optimization is that downloading Season 9.5 will require a heavier data transfer than a standard patch, as the system must entirely rebuild the game’s asset architecture. While this might cause a brief delay for eager fans wanting immediate access to the new content, the long-term benefit of a significantly lighter installation is well worth the temporary inconvenience.

The demonic mobster enters the fight in season 9.5

Source: Polygon