CoD: Modern Warfare/Warzone Season 5 Update Is Big, But PS4 Pre-Loading Is Live

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone are set for a big week, as the much-anticipated Season 5 update is due to arrive very soon. And at least on PS4, you don't have to wait to get the substantial update downloading. [Update: We also now know some of what to expect, as the CoD Season 5 trailer opens the stadium at long last.]

Writing on Twitter, production director Paul Haile has now warned fans to expect yet another "big" update in terms of the file size. As with previous updates, the file size will be large, but the patch also contains back-end configurations that actually decrease the overall file size of the game. This happens through "optimization" of the game's asset packs, Hiele said.

"This means the download will be big, but the overall size of the game will actually shrink on your consoles after you download the patch, even though we're adding a bunch of new content for the season," he said. Hiele went on to say that it remains a "priority" for Infinity Ward to reduce the overall size of Modern Warfare and Warzone. However, this is a tricky task, Hiele said. "We'll continue to work on this and keep pushing space reductions out with future updates," he explained.

Call of Duty Season 5 Update Pre-Loading Begins

Users on PS4 have reported that a large update--just over 36 GB for us here at GameSpot--has been released for the PS4 edition of the game, but it can't be installed just yet. According to Charlie Intel, it appears that will have to wait until August 4 at 11 PM PT (2 AM ET / 7 AM BST / 4 PM AET on August 5). Still, for those with slower internet connections, this comes as a welcome development--these types of updates can't typically be pre-loaded. This should help to ensure that more players are ready to go as soon as Season 5 launches, and it may help to prevent having a huge number of people downloading the update once the season does go live.

There is no exact launch date yet for Season 5, but it is confirmed to release sometime this week--based on the update timing, it appears that will happen late on August 4 or early on August 5. It will introduce a new Operator, Battle Pass, and more--the full contents of the patch will be announced soon.