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Xbox One X comes hand in hand with massive downloads

Want to play Gears of War 4 in 4K? Brace yourself for 103GB.

If you plan on downloading games onto your fancy new Xbox One X, be ready for some truly gargantuan file sizes.

Like watching paint dry.

I've been downloading games on our office Xbox One X for a couple of weeks now, and some of the sizes for games I've seen are truly eye-watering.

Fuelled by 4K Xbox One X updates, game downloads on Microsoft's new console push - and sometimes exceed - 100GB.

The Coalition's Gears of War 4, for example, weighs in at a whopping 103GB.

343's Halo 5 is a 98.26GB without its 4K update, which adds another 15.10GB on top.

Turn 10's racing game Forza 7 is 95.65GB.

Remedy's Quantum Break is a 83.7GB download. If you want to download the optional TV show that can be a part of the game, you're looking at an extra 75.61GB. Ouch.

That's our Xbox One X pretty much full now.

Now, many of these games were already pretty big on the bog standard Xbox One. Halo 5 for example, has always been a hefty file size. But those who plan to buy an Xbox One X and want to re-download games they already own that now have Xbox One X enhancement updates, or buy new games for the first time, should brace themselves.

Then there's the storage issue. The Xbox One X comes with 1TB of storage. You're looking at nine or so games before you fill up your console. Then it's external hard-drive time.

Of course, with native 4K gaming now an established reality on console, game file sizes will only get bigger and bigger.