Preloading has begun for Gears of War 4 ahead of its release. Despite prior indications, there is a day one patch that you'll need to download once the game is released on Xbox One, but only if you opt for a physical copy.
In response to a question on Twitter about the size of a day one patch yesterday, Gears boss Rod Fergusson replied, "Zero--it's all there now." He has since clarified this, as it only applies to digital copies.
"To clarify--if digital, no day one patch since all 54.6 gigs are downloaded," he said in a subsequent tweet. "If physical disc then there will be 11 gig download." He didn't provide any further details about what the update does.
Should you choose to purchase a digital copy, you can begin preloading both the Xbox One and PC versions now, the latter of which is even larger, at 80 GB. Gears 4 is an Xbox __play Anywhere game, providing digital buyers with access to both versions.
Just be aware that, before you begin preloading the PC version, you'll want to make sure you have a new Windows update that can prevent you from losing download progress.