HELLDIVERS 2 Introduces Beta That Reduces Install Size By Over 130GB

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HELLDIVERS 2 has easily been one of the best multiplayer games to release recently. It's so much fun working with friends to fight off tons of alien beasts charging at us and completing objectives. It's a joy, and although I wish it ran better on the Steam Deck, a lot of people still enjoy playing it this way so much so that it is usually on the top 20 most-played lists each month. However, a brand new beta is being tested that should actually be helpful for the Steam Deck, in one way.

Developer Arrowhead has just announced that the game is getting a new beta, which reduces the game's size by over 130GB, bringing the total space it takes up down from 154GB to 23GB. This is something the team had announced they were going to be doing previously, but thanks to Nixxes Software, they were able to achieve it earlier than expected.

This was done by completely deduplicating the game's data. This was initially done to reduce loading times for older storage types, like HDDs, but it resulted in massive file size increases. Now, the duplication is over and done, and while there may be a few extra seconds to loading times now, the size being this low is incredible.

As of right now, you can opt into the "slim" beta by going to the game's properties on Steam and selecting the prod_slim beta. Once done, the game will download the patch and make the necessary changes. This won't inherently make the game run better on the Steam Deck, but it does free up a ton of space, which is amazing in its own right.

HELLDIVERS 2 is on sale for $39.99 and is rated Playable due to needing a community controller configuration, needing to manually set graphics settings for optimal play, and small in-game text.

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