*they're. Sorry, couldn't resist.

But I agree. Without getting into the drm issue, the least they could have done was provide the vast majority of the data and only make us download 1 gb or less.

I buy physical for a few reasons, including supporting my local store. But with the way I keep needing to download the majority of the game, and the fact that games tend not to come with full physical manuals I will make more and more digital purchases. This means more international transactions and currency conversion. At least gog has the dollar for dollar deal.

as im still waiting on my copy to arrive how big of a download are we talking bout?

*You're

i feel you one hundred persent! 19 gigs is a tiny bit too much

Another victim here.

I have been complaining about this sleight of hand since I bought the "physical disk version", and only then discovered that I would have to download 23GB!!

Like many thousands of others who bought this, my internet is crap. Why on earth would I have bought it if I knew that I would still have to download the whole damn game?

My main complaint is that the whole thing is done in an underhand way. There is no warning on any of the sites selling this, Amazon Gamestop etc. There is no large warning on the box. That if you buy the disk version to avoid the huge download, That you will still have to download the huge download!!

Nor any warning that you will get the game later than everyone else. Or that You will not be able to pre download like everyone else.

The piracy excuse is bogus. 3 disks would cost a few cents more. But they could have added that to the price, rather than have thousands of people who feel they have been duped.

They could have encrypted the master with 256bit AES or better, and not provided the keys except through Steam on day of release.

(And for the money they will be making on the game, they could have included three DVDs.)

^ 100% This. Adding extra DVD discs is not that expensive.

There's a BIG difference between storing sensitive data on detachable, external storage devices and selling a virtual product to consumers. One is done such that said sensitive data isn't left on PCs or has to travel through the internet. Video games. movies and TV though? We're going digital. It svcks since a lot of the US is still rural areas with no high speed at all, and a lot of places that do have high speed have abysmally low and out of touch bandwidth caps.

Were not going 100% digital though. Not even 10 years from now. Just wait 10 years and see if I'm correct or wrong.

if I'm wrong, well then I'm wrong.

This is how I wish the Fallout 4 box looked like: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/feKg4GdsrYc/maxresdefault.jpg

If you bother to release a physical version, do it to please your customers, not to annoy them.

I'm yet to find 1 (ONE) physical edition buyer who is happy that he/she has to download 80% of the game.

Me too as well.

Haha Im glad you got it. I was baiting lolz

That's false. The Steam preload data was unencrypted and on the net as as soon as preload started. Having all the data on discs would not have had any effect.

And yes, why even bother releasing a physical disc if majority game has to be downloaded anyway? Might as well just honestly say that it must be downloaded.


The full download size from Steam was 24GB. DVD holds 4.7GB, so expect around 19GB.

I agree, not only does it provide the whole (or almost) game on the disk, but also looks great, like a collectible. The fans who prefer boxed versions care about presentation too. I doubt the production cost was so much bigger, and if it was, I would gladly pay more for a proper boxed edition.

I have to say I was very impressed with Rockstar for the physical edition of Grand Theft Auto V. Still needed a 5GB patch if you wanted to play it with your PC connected to the internet because of the lack of option to launch the game without installing updates, but still, at least they showed willing by releasing most of the data on the discs.

I personally ordered the physical edition of Fallout 4 more as a collectors thing (I like having all my games on my bookshelf) and my internet is good enough to buy digitally if I so desire, therefore the mandatory download isn't a problem for me in reality, I'm still not impressed at how Bethesda have gone about this physical release. I've had many years of living in a poor internet area. If I was still living there I wouldn't be able to play Fallout 4. My heart really goes out to all those who bought the physical edition due to their connectivity situation.

I miss the days of having an actual "Boxed" full game.. I too was fooled by wanting the physical copy because my internet isnt the fastest.

I shouldve just preordered the steam digital version and got the DOTA 2 Announcer pack with it.

Instead i got a essentially useless phyiscal disc with a 5 cent dvd case.

Ah, that reminds me of the days when Windows installations came in a dozen floppy disks
I still wonder, why aren't PC games sold on USB flash drives? They could easily hold any game.

Heh heh. Yeah, sorry, I'm not actually a grammar nazi, really. I just love the irony too much to resist sometimes

Windows 10 retail ships on a usb flash drive, it's awesome. Maybe the game distribution for PC will just skip the bluray straight to the usb drive, maybe it's more expensive than discs but they can balance costs from the reduction of the box size.

Yeah, this was definitely my last retail from Bethesda (my last one was Skyrim btw. ^^).

But I gotta admit...the consistency in driving away retail customers is remarkable with Bethesda!

On the one hand we have this cheaply produced Pip Boy edition that is a shame in light of other collectors editions. Look at developers like CDPR and their CE of The Witcher 3. There is no comparison with the F4 CE. It's a huge disappointment, overprized and the leaflet for the Season Pass in the package is a slap in the face of any loyal customer who actually paid the prize for this CE...because it's only advertising!

Anyway, I did not buy the CE, just watched some unboxing videos and read some opinions about it. Clearly, that makes me unfit to really critisize it. What I did get however is the steelbok edition. You probably think there's no way to bork this, right?

Wrong! First off, like all retail customers, I'm damned to download the missing 19 gigs of gamefiles. This has nothing to do with copy protection, a couple of (hundred) megabytes would've done this. This is lazyness and greed, for not putting multiple DVDs in the case. Funny thing: The dvd case can only hold one disk, the steelcase has room for more...

Oh, the steelcase: So it comes empty with the normal retail version in DVD casing. I moved the disk into the steelcase, then tried to do the same with the documents (poster, handbook, season-pass...advertising)...doesn't fit. Case it not high enough. They chose the BluRay format for the case but the documents are shaped to fit inside a taller DVD case. WTF?

How much fail is possible? Redefined by Bethesda Game Studios! Fine, I got it. I'll get your next game as cheap as possible from a (legit) game key retailer, that's for sure.

They even make them on cardboard, for the bean-counters.
http://www.gizmag.com/gigs2go-paper-usb-drive/26890/

This is what bothers me. I have relatively fast internet and no data caps, so I don't mind going digital. But what Bethesda did here, for me it's false advertising. They might have as well given us an empty box with just a key redeemable on Steam (as they did with Dawnguard, didn't see the point of that either).

I wish they were honest and transparent about their decisions.

Sadly, I have to agree with all you said. I am a gamer, a Bethesda fan and a collector, and up until Fallout 3 I was pretty satisfied with their boxed versions. Morrowind and especially Oblivion were compact and good bang for the buck. Fallout 3's lunchbox was great too. Skyrim... hmm, a little too big and bombastic and plasticky for my taste, but still had that redeeming awesome big artbook. The Pip-Boy edition doesn't inspire me enough, too gimmicky, hollow plastic full of empty air. I would have prefered a statue, an artbook, or more importantly, an illustrated lore book. Making of dvd, map, developer diary... anything that resembles a well thought CE. Instead they prefer to spread all the goodies in 10 bundles all over the internet, if you want soundtrack get this edition, if you want franchise lore book get the other one, if you want map buy the guide, if you want the art of Fallout 4 buy it separately, and so on... yeah, I'll spend $300 and get 7 copies of the same game just to assembly a proper collector's edition myself

Luckily there are still game publishers who care about the game collectors. This is the leaked (not yet announced) CE for Dark Souls 3: cloth map, A4 hardcover artbook, etc... http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Dark-Souls-III-EU-PE_11-09-15.jpg

Disposable USB drive. That's a new one for me

I got already burned once by hype, so I stopped pre-ordering.

Guess now I will stop buying the physical copy at full price as well.

Seriously, there were plenty of (legal) sales and offers for the digital copy I could've chosen, but I decided to buy the physical copy and pay the extra premium to avoid having to download the whole game. This is not the way to treat your fans/customers.

Edit: I should clarify that I'm not particularly angry about this. It just feels like by choosing to buy a retail copy at full-price, thus supporting both Bethesda and the retailers, I get penalized for it.