Highlights

  • A massive update of up to 243GB has surprised and frustrated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players on Xbox, causing confusion in the community.
  • Players report unexpected and huge update sizes, ranging from 65GB to over 240GB, surpassing the already large file size of the game.
  • Speculations have arisen about the causes of the update issue, with players discussing potential reinstallation triggers and the need for improvements in the update deployment process.

Some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players on Xbox were surprised by a massive update, reaching 243GB in some cases. Players on Xbox were left scratching their heads with this colossal update, causing bewilderment and frustration among the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 community.

Modern Warfare 3, the final installment in the rebooted Modern Warfare trilogy, faced both praise and criticism. The game has arguably the series-worst campaign but features a great multiplayer and a fair Zombies mode. One of the many aspects that caught players' attention was the massive file size of Modern Warfare 3, surpassing 200GB on consoles and PC. Regardless of players having to download such a big game, they now find themselves grappling with an enormous file size to download.

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Some players have reported a substantial size difference between the expected and actual update sizes. Reddit users V3nd3l and Vivid-Tip7510 shared their experiences, with V3nd3l mentioning a 190GB update on Xbox, and Vivid-Tip7510 facing an update that originally started at 21GB. However, due to an error, they had to restart their Xbox, and upon resuming, the update turned out to be 190GB. Other players chimed in, with some reporting updates exceeding 240GB, far surpassing the size of Modern Warfare 3.

Some other players mention updates of 65GB on their Xbox One, while others spoke about having a regular file size update but experiencing a stuck-on "Checking for update" screen for 10 minutes. Most of the players experiencing this expressed yet another frustration with Modern Warfare 3, stating things like, “243.39GB on XBSX, there goes 25% of my month's worth of internet bandwidth/data allotment in one update.“

Players attempting to understand this massive update speculated on potential causes. A player theory suggested that interrupting the update process, especially through console restarts, triggers an entire reinstallation of Modern Warfare 3 with all its content. Another player supported the theory, noting that they encountered a similar problem with the previous update. They had to restart the console and ended up having to download the entire game once again. When faced with the current update, they opted to wait, even after it became stuck on "Checking for update," for approximately 45 minutes before the update finally commenced, requiring only 35GBs.

This prompted a debate within the community about the update's functionality and the need for improvements in the update deployment process instead of just continuing to push out updates that break the installation. Players' frustration seems understandable since they have been dealing with massive updates since before Modern Warfare 3 was even released. The confusion surrounding this update adds another layer to the numerous criticisms that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has faced since its release and poses a new challenge for developers to address.