Returnal is now available for pre-loading, and doing so has revealed that the game weighs in at 56.1 GB.
Players who have pre-ordered Returnal are now able to pre-load the game onto their system, a week before the game launches on April 30. Better yet, it's been revealed that Returnal is 56 GB, which makes it easily Housemarque's biggest game yet.
If you've never pre-ordered a game digitally before, you might not have had the chance to pre-load, but it essentially allows you to download a title before it officially releases so that you can play the whole game from midnight. Before this digital players were at a bit of a disadvantage as they'd have to start downloading the game when others might already have a disk copy.
Returnal being 56 GB spells good news for players looking forward to the game, as it is much bigger in size than anything the developer has previously done. For comparison's sake, Housemarque's last game Matterfall was 4 GB. Resogun, arguably Housemarque's most well-known game, came in at 3.4 GB, so it should speak to Returnal's expanded size and scope that it's almost 10x bigger. It's actually even bigger in size than Spider-Man Miles Morales, which clocked in at 38 GB when it launched.
Of course, a game can't always be defined by its download size but it does go some way to telling how long a game can be. In the case of Returnal, it's a roguelike adventure that aims to be massively replayable, so it makes sense that it would be such a big title. We got a chance to preview Returnal where we said that it, "mixes different genres and inspirations around the idea of a triple-A roguelike".
In recent PlayStation news, The Last of Us Part 2 became the first game to receive 300 Game of the Year awards, making it the most awarded game of all time. Sony's Jim Ryan has also said that they have asked suppliers to help increase PS5 stock production this year, so they should become a bit easier to find.