Windows’ new modular game downloads could save your storage drive

PC gaming via the Microsoft Store can be a pain: game updates can lag, and mod support may be limited. But Microsoft is testing at least one small improvement: modular downloads of games via the Microsoft Store.

The new update, being tested for now in the Canary Channel, appears in Windows Insider Build 27888, which launched today alongside support for the MIDI 2.0 specification.

Some games, like the recent Call of Duty games, ship with multiple game modes: a campaign, multiplayer, and so on. And with game developers trying to support both cutting-edge and older systems, there may also be texture packs that provide the highest quality for the newest hardware. But if you have an older, 2020-esque PC, the last thing you might want are ultra-high-quality textures jamming up your hard drive and straining your broadband data cap — you can’t run them anyway!

What Microsoft is testing are better ways to control those downloads, so that you can choose which components of the game to download yourself. “Once your game is installed, you can return to its product page, click the new Manage button, and modify what components are installed,” Microsoft adds.

Sure, many prefer gaming via Steam instead. As they say, though, it’s a small tweak, but a welcome one — especially for those who still get Microsoft’s Game Pass games. And for those of us who doggedly refuse to shell out an additional fee for unlimited data, it can save us money, too.