Why do video game console discs now require installation, when we could just put them in and play instantly before? Why did PC discs always require installation

Question

Title

In: 678

Answer 1

Same reason you unpack your stuff when moving into a new house: Modern discs have a lot of data compressed very tightly. So back in the day game could read data quickly enogh for what they needed to do straight from the disc, because there was less data to move in general, and less time spent on decompressing it. Now there is more data, partialy because it is better compressed, because decompression doesnt have to be fast, and once decompressed data can be loaded from the ssd very quickly.PCs always have a lot of storage for the era they are used in, so more data (read – more complex/graphically advanced game) can be put on a disc, because it would not need to decompress in real time.