For example, both Final Fantasy XVI & STALKER 2 take up 152GB & 165GB on my 2TB external SSD. I mean, why are steam games HUGE as f*ck regarding their file sizes lately? Don’t even mention CoD (200GB?!), even with the fastest internet connection: you can’t bypass patience as these things take up time. For me, it took me about 2 days to finish (pause & resume download). I’ve finished installing KCD II (Royal Edition) and that was 85GB (took up 8-12 hours with fast internet, I was binge watching a TV show on Prime Video the entire time).
They likely mean that if a game is just a few GB in size, people won’t think twice about uninstalling it since they can just quickly download it again if needed.
By making the download bigger and so the installation time longer, it disincentivizes players to do that.
Gotcha, I hadn’t considered that angle. When I’m in need of space, the largest one I’m not really playing is usually the first to go (e.g. Helldivers). Then once or is uninstalled, the large size is my disincentive to install it again.
What makes an install sticky for me is something like mods or customizations that I would have to set up again after a reinstall… which are much more prevalent in single player offline games than monetized live service chum.