Posted on November 1, 2013, Mike Sharkey Buyer Beware: Battlefield 4 Will Not Work on 4GB Xbox 360 S (UPDATE 3)

Update, 10:34 a.m. PDT, Nov. 1: In response to Game Front’s questions about potentially allowing Battlefield 4 to install to a USB 2.0 drive in the same way that Call of Duty: Ghosts can, an EA spokesman said he “can’t comment on what other companies are doing as we’re not exactly the same game.” At the moment, it’s unclear if DICE might be able to or willing to patch Battlefield 4 in the future. We’ll keep an eye on this story and update it accordingly, should anything change.

In the meantime, while Game Front asked about the potential for refunds on Battlefield 4 to owners of the Xbox 360 Slim 4GB consoles, EA has not addressed that question. That means the only solution is to purchase a hard drive for your Xbox 360 Slim if you want to play Battlefield 4. You can find them just about anywhere, but a good place to start checking is Amazon. We’d suggest sticking with the official Microsoft versions, however, unless you’re feeling adventurous and willing to gamble on a larger (or smaller) unofficial hard drive.

Update, 11:02 a.m. PDT, Oct. 31: Game Front has independently verified that retail copies of Battlefield 4 on Xbox 360 include a warning on the back of the box that notifies players of the requirement of a hard drive for the game to work, as Electronic Arts noted in a statement to Game Front (see an image we took of the back of the box here). Although EA has not officially confirmed it, it now seems unlikely the publisher will offer refunds to players who purchased Battlefield 4 either without realizing it required a hard drive, or without realizing that the 4GB storage in the Xbox 360 Slim is not, in fact, a hard drive itself.

There may yet be some kind of workaround for the Battlefield 4 install problem if you do happen to own the 4GB Xbox 360, however, as indicated by news surrounding Call of Duty: Ghosts. According to a report from Polygon, Ghosts also requires an install to run its single-player campaign — 3GB worth, in fact. That install can’t be done to the Xbox 360′s 4GB flash memory drive, but it can be installed to a USB 2.0 drive, effectively allowing CoD players to make the install on a much cheaper USB drive instead of purchasing a hard drive for their Xbox 360.

Also, unlike Battlefield, players can opt out of the Ghosts install. Opting out means that Ghosts’ campaign won’t work for those players, but they can still play multiplayer with no issues, the report states.

We’ve reached out to Electronic Arts to find out definitively if refunds will or won’t be offered, and to find out if any workarounds to the install issue might be forthcoming in future updates.

Update, 1:46 p.m. PDT: Electronic Arts returned Game Front’s request for comment, saying that the publisher “communicated the required installation and HDD space requirement to the public a few weeks ago,” and pointed to a few instances in which that was the case — specifically, a Tweet from the official Battlefield Twitter account, an EA support page, and a forum post:

Prepare 4 Battle! Make sure you have the required HDD space to run #BF4 on your X360: http://t.co/oIi8ZxYlEW

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) October 15, 2013

According to a later tweet, the issue is Battlefield 4′s high-resolution texture pack, which needs to be installed on an Xbox 360 hard drive in order for the game to run. Battlefield 3 had a similar issue, although players could still access the game, just without high-res textures (making it significantly less pleasant visually).

The link in the tweet above points to the EA support page that informed players of the necessity of a 2GB hard drive installation on Xbox 360 versions of Battlefield 4. That post was updated on Oct. 29 to also include information that the install would not work on the Xbox 360 4GB storage. An earlier version of the page shows what it looked like before the addition.

The Battlelog forum post, found here, also notes the install but doesn’t call out the act that the 4GB storage won’t work.

In EA’s defense, however, this is not the first time such a problem has occurred, but the scale has been smaller. For instance, you couldn’t play Halo: Reach’s co-op on the 4GB Xbox 360 because the machine doesn’t recognize the 4GB storage device as a hard drive. Since the 4GB storage is not, in fact, a hard drive, you can’t install Battlefield 4′s data to it. However, just what the level of knowledge is on this issue for Xbox 360 4GB owners is tough to say, and it seems that many had no idea there would be a hard drive issue at all.

We’re reached out to EA for clarification on the comments, and to find out if any restitution will be made for players who bought Battlefield 4 but can’t play it on the 4GB model Xbox 360.

Original story:

We received a handful of reports from Xbox 360 gamers yesterday who couldn’t figure out why Battlefield 4 wouldn’t work on their console. EA Support has offered clarification, and it’s bad news for 4GB Xbox 360 Slim owners.

Battlefield 4 features a mandatory 2GB install on Xbox 360 (14GB if you want the game to actually run how it was designed). That 2GB must be installed on the HDD, which creates huge issues for those of you with the 4GB version of the Xbox 360 S. That’s because that model features flash memory, not a hard drive, and as EA Support confirms: “Battlefield 4 cannot be installed and played on a 4GB internal flash drive.”

Here’s the full statement from EA:

The first time you start your game, regardless of which disc you use, you will be asked to perform a required installation of 2 GB worth of game content to your hard drive.
Note, the above-required and below-additional installations can only be installed on Xbox 360 hard disk drives (emphasis ours), and cannot be installed to USB drives, or other alternative storage devices. Battlefield 4 cannot be installed and played on a 4GB internal flash drive.

You will have the option to accept the 2GB install or quit. Quitting will return you to the Xbox dashboard, and you will not be able to play Battlefield 4.

Inexplicably, EA first noted Battlefield 4 will not run on the 4GB Xbox 360 S yesterday, the day BF4 launched and well after many owners of that particular model console had already purchased the game. That’s unforgivable.

We’ve contacted EA for further comment and clarification and will update this post with any response.