Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is finally coming to the PlayStation 5, but a recent revelation about the game’s port has somewhat dampened the excitement. While there are no major issues with the game that will make it unplayable, there is one frustration with the PS5 release that seems like it could have been easily avoided. That said, there are some practical reasons for the PS5 release having this problem, and even with that, the port is ultimately still a positive thing even if it could have been handled better.

Any fan of Indiana Jones, or treasure-hunting games like Uncharted, will find a lot to love in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The puzzles are fun, and the game forces you to do a lot of the work for yourself, making it more rewarding than some similar games I’ve played. Troy Baker’s spot-on performance as Indy is almost enough reason alone to play the game. In general, the game coming to PS5 should be celebrated, and it’s nice to see Microsoft moving away from console exclusivity, but I wish they reconsidered how they handled one aspect of the port.

Indiana Jones’ PS5 Disc Comes With A 100 GB Download

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle’s Disc Only Has 25 GBs On It

As reported by Push Square, the game disc for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle only contains 25 GBs of the game’s total 125 GBs. So, even if you’re buying a physical copy of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for PS5, you’re still going to be saddled with a 100 GB download. Having such a big download necessary just to launch the game somewhat defeats the purpose of buying a physical copy in the first place, and makes it seem almost worth just getting the digital copy to avoid needing the disc at all.

Some players also prefer to buy physical game discs so they know the game will still work, even when online servers for a given system shut down. While Push Square points out that this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, it does mean that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game discs will eventually be useless. With the two main reasons for buying a game disc being convenience and preservation, and with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s disc offering neither, it’s only physical media collectors who will get anything out of this release.

Although it is somewhat frustrating that Microsoft wouldn’t make Indiana Jones and the Great Circle playable off the disc, there is a reason behind that. PlayStation game discs can’t hold the entire game. While Microsoft’s solution is still an imperfect way to handle the issue, it’s at least forgivable that the entire game isn’t on the disc.

Why Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Wouldn’t Fit On A Disc

PlayStation 5 Discs Can Only Hold 100 GBs

Discs for the PlayStation 5 can only hold up to 100 GBs on them. This means that there was no world in which we got a single PS5 disc for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, given that the game is simply too big to fit. However, that doesn’t mean there were no other options for Microsoft to consider before releasing a game disc with only a fifth of the actual game on it.

Games like Cyberpunk 2077 have been released on two separate discs, one specifically for installation, and the other used as a traditional game disc. This seems like a more elegant solution than sticking players with a massive download, despite having bought a physical copy of the game. It would also keep the game playable for longer in the future, though again this likely won’t be an issue anytime soon. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this decision is that, even if the game didn’t fit entirely on the disc, there’s no reason to only include so little of it.

More Of The Game Should’ve Still Been Included On The Blu-Ray Disc

A PS5 Disc Might Not Be Able To Hold 125 GBs, But It Can Hold More Than 25

If a PS5 disc can hold 100 GBs, I see no reason why Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s PS5 disc only has 25 GBs of the game on it. If the disc had the full 100 GBs on it, players would only need to download the remaining 25 GBs, which would be much quicker and far less frustrating. Honestly, with so many games having day one updates now, I might not even question having a 25 GB download when booting up a new game. Honestly, given the numbers, it feels almost like a mistake was made in the planning stages.

It could very well be a coincidence, but it seems strange to me that the amount of the game on the disc and the amount needed to be downloaded are the exact inverse of what they should be. It’s almost as though there was some miscommunication behind the scenes and the numbers were accidentally flipped. I’m not saying this type of oversight happened – I have no idea or evidence – but it would at least be understandable. I would be more forgiving of the PS5 release’s massive download if it was a mistake rather than intentional.

Now, I’m sure people at Microsoft know more than I do about how much of a game can go on a disc, and maybe there was some issue with filling the disc’s entire 100 GB storage, but I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t at least include more than 25 GBs on it. I would be interested to see if Microsoft gives their reasoning behind this decision, because as of now, I’m not sure where they were coming from. Still, if you haven’t played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle yet, I still think it’s worth picking up.

While a massive download is going to be a bummer for anyone who ordered a disc thinking it would help them get playing faster, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is worth it. Microsoft’s frustrating decision will quickly be forgotten once you start your adventure, and get sucked into the game. That said, if you haven’t already pre-ordered a copy, I might recommend just picking up the digital version. As for Microsoft, I’d rather they just include a game code in the box in the future if the disc is going to be more of a hassle than a convenience.