When Battlefield 3 came out two years ago, there was a hefty HD texture installation recommendation. That was a mere 1.5 GB of data, though. Battlefield 4 is asking for just a little bit more.

The title will ship on two discs (one for multiplayer and one for single player). A new EA blog post details how much space you'll need (and want) for the optimal experience.

When you put in either disc, you'll be prompted to install 2 GB of mandatory game content. Additionally, for the best multiplayer experience, you'll want to have 6.6 GB of free space. For single-player, you'll need to clear out 5.8 GB. 

EA strongly recommends installing the optional 12.4 GB of content for the best experience.

[Source: EA]

Our Take
If you think these installation sizes are big, just wait until next-gen. PS4 and Xbox One installations could be three or four times as much as this, and that's just at launch. Imagine how these will grow over the cycle. Suddenly those 500 GB hard drives don't seem so big.