Red Dead Redemption 2 to start arriving on consoles this week ahead of full release date

Players are likely to want to pre-load the game given the huge amount of space it will take up

Red Dead Redemption will start arriving on consoles this week, as players are given the opportunity to download the game before they actually play it.

It will be locked until the release date, on 26 October. But pre-loading in this way means that it is fully downloaded by the time that important day arrives, rather than spending the first few hours with the game just watching a progress bar.

And there's going to be plenty of waiting: the game is a full 90GB. It is so large that it will take up two discs when bought in the physical edition, and the digital one will probably take many hours to arrive.

It isn't clear why the game is so large. But developers – and early reviewers including those at The Independent – have said that the game includes a vast amount of possible experiences and a huge world, all of which is entirely playable at 4K.

The opportunity to pre-load the game will go live on Friday at midday eastern time, or 5pm in the UK. There'll then be a full week of time during which it can be downloaded and not played.

Pre-loading is done by heading to the store, where the game should be available, and choosing to download it.

The full version of the game won't arrive until November, when the online version drops, according to developer Rockstar. It will initially be in a public beta and developers advised when they announced that released that there will "inevitably be some turbulence at launch".

The game can be pre-ordered on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 now. Buying on PS4 gets content early and access to some extra features inside of the online version.