GSC explains why Stalker 2's mod SDK takes up 700GB of storage space

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl's mod software was just released onto the Epic Games Store with a massive 700GB file size. Predictably, this drew attention and grabbed headlines, but the explanation is pretty ordinary.

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Mods are a big part of PC gaming and can be powerful to elongate a game's lifespan--heavily-modded titles like Skyrim still thrive today nearly 14 years after release. Developers also like to release these tools to see what unique creations the community can cook up, but these programs can be pretty spec-intensive and demanding. The mod tools are, after all, creating a dev environment for gamers to experiment with.

That's the case with Stalker 2's new Zone Kit, which clocks in at an astronomical 700GB. GSC has a simple explanation for the size: the Zone Kit uses uncompressed assets. So gamers are getting raw access to full resolution textures and assets that were used to build Stalker 2. The devs also say that this is just phase 1 of the ZoneKit SDK, and updates will come in the future, including one that potentially shrinks the file size.

"The size of the mod kit is a result of the in-game assets being uncompressed for the mod makers. It's a big game, and the assets are many, resulting in a considerable size of the download," GSC Game World told PC Gamer.

"The Zone Kit is currently in phase one, so we'll explore the opportunities to optimize its size (if possible) in the future."

That's not the end of the storage requirements, though. To even see how their creations affected the game world and actually play in the game, users will also have to download the full version of Stalker 2, which clocks in at 160GB. So that's a total of 860GB altogether--I hope you have a dedicated SSD handy.

Creators are impressed with the Zone Kit so far, but it's still a work in progress with some issues and bugs.