eli5: How do games that have existed for years (example: skyrim anniversary) receive massive download content that adds quests, items, maps not crash?

Question

How in the world do games that are that old run with new content without getting too glitchy? Is this trial and error that developers work on? Are certain games unique that slapping on content is as easy as a puzzle?

In: 4

Answer 1

Because the game is only thinking about what you’re currently doing. And you’re still just walking around dungeons or mountains.
It has more info stored but isn’t using it currently. It’s only when it can’t handle thinking about too much at once that it says aight imma head out, like a waiter carrying too many plates and dropping them. The number of plates they have in storage doesn’t matter because they’re stable and safely stored away.