A side-effect of AAA gaming: Quest 3 storage tips
UPDATEDecember 15, 2023: On launch day, Asgard's Wrath 2 requires even more storage than expected.
As AAA gaming comes to standalone VR headsets, you could find your new Meta Quest 3 quickly running low on storage.
With the Quest 3 coming in the fall, it might be wise to save up to buy the model with more storage. While most standalone VR games tend to be small, that could change if games like Asgard's Wrath 2 become hits.
I asked Meta how much space is required to hold enough content for the estimated 60 hours of gameplay in Asgard's Wrath 2. The answer was startling.
How big is a AAA VR game?
According to Meta, Asgard's Wrath 2 requires 25.55 GB of space to download and uses 21.54 GB after it's installed. That's a huge download for a standalone headset. On launch day, December 15, 2023, the game is even bigger. Sanzaru Games added more content to the game. Currently, the game require 31 GB of free space and that number might grow when the Quest 3 resolution upgrades arrive.
On a 64 GB Quest 2, that's nearly half the available space. The base Meta Quest 3 configuration includes 128 GB, which would allow only five games of this size.
If you like the idea of VR games with hours of gameplay, rich stories, and varied content, you'll want the Quest 3 model that includes more storage. Meta will have at least one other configuration available, providing at least 256 GB. Hopefully, there will be a 512 GB model, so we can have more and larger games.
Battles against imposing crustaceans are among the random encounters in Asgard's Wrath 2. | Image: Meta
Some of the largest games currently available include The Walking Dead franchise, with Chapter 1 requiring over 7 GB and Chapter 2 chewing through more than 13 GB out of your storage. Resident Evil 4 tears up nearly 9 GB.
Even now, space can feel restrictive if you have an older 64 GB Quest 1 or 2. 128 GB Quest 1 and 256 GB Quest 2 models are available, but the cheapest configuration is the most popular.
Getting more space on a Quest headset
If you're like me, you keep a library full of old favorites to play on a whim or share with others, games you're actively playing, and perhaps some fitness, meditation, and productivity apps on your headset. As a Quest Pro owner, 256 GB of space is the only option. I don't worry about installing multiple Quest games and apps. Once I started playing PC VR that changed.
After downloading Half-Life Alyx, I was stunned to see it used over 60 GB of my PC's 256 GB SSD. Suddenly, I was out of room. Adding a secondary drive to a computer is easy and relatively inexpensive, so that problem only existed for a few days.
However, the Quest only has as much storage as it ships with. The quick solution is to delete screen recordings and uninstall one or more games and apps, but you might worry about reverting to the beginning of a game.
On a Quest headset, you can uninstall some games, then reinstall them later without losing progress. Check out your Meta Cloud Backups to make sure a game is saved.
The bottom line is that avid gamers should consider buying the model with more storage if possible, so there will be room to leave several smaller VR games and apps on the headset while you work through the big titles that are coming in the future.
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