Yeah it was the Ps4/Xbox 1 generation where it became mandatory. That said some games would allow you to boot the game half way through the install and use both the HDD data and Blu Ray data at the same time, this was generally pretty slow as it was still trying to install at the same time.

That is if there isn't a patch, otherwise it will just download most of it again like you said.

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klausa 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's mandatory for literally all (native) PS5/XSX games; because that means the games can rely on SSD speeds and not worry about supporting fetching data from the spinning disks.

	▲	HerbManic 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I thought as much but wasn't 100% certain.

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basch 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There's a lot of AAA games I havent tried, but why are the launch day patches Ive experienced so gigantic?

Why do games need to download textures, sounds, videos over again? I just can't understand why a 100GB game has a 60GB patch etc, other than purposeful obfuscation or complete disregard for care.

	▲	klausa 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Ironically, frequently _because of_ compression. AIUI the process of building asset packs and compressing them can mean that modifying a single texture can mean complete reshuffling of the resulting file; and that means redownloading the whole compiled "pack".