I honestly don't get the reasoning behind it. From what I've heard, Wolfenstein shipped on four disks. Fallout 4, arguably their biggest release since Skyrim, only got one.

Just makes no real sense at all.

It makes sense if one doesn't want to release a physical version, and can later cite poor physical sales of the last one as an excuse to stop making physical versions.

I agree that game companies could [should] sell on USB drives... even music albums are being released on them.

*It would not surprise if game companies could use a custom firmware on the drives, perhaps one that accepts a password in order to access (not decrypt) the contained files. They could have a second key for decryption... technically ~probably even wipe the drive for too many wrong guesses, or have it phone home for permission to release the files ~every time. Even have it be the security dongle; and the game not run if it's not plugged into the PC.

*Not that I'd like the limits, or approve... But it is surprising they don't do it yet.

Na, worm gets it. The harsh truth of it is that the world isn't going to wait or cater to you. It sounds mean, but I'm just being honest. Companies try to find the most cost effective way to reach the most people, and putting games on Blu-rays for machines that overwhelmingly have good connection speeds isn't one. I am sorry for your situation - it truly svcks, but you should really view it as the norm for games going forward.

Yeah sure ok, if that means catering to me. Just wait 10 years from now and see if physical media is still sold on discs. Watch you will see software still copied on discs and sold.

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/World_Of_Warcraft_2030.jpg

I don't understand what that's supposed to mean?

Its going to take me weeks if not months to download the rest of this game .

The game was already pirated on launch...like EVERY modern game.

2 hours? you are a lucky one ... I have a slow connection , I bought the game to be able toplay soon ... Instead I have to wait 8 hours and already waited for 4 ...

This is madness !

I understand why people are so upset with the download, I am too as it is a bit ridiculous but it is a huge game and even a DVD 9 would not hold it. There would have been at least 4-6 discs needed to put it out fully physically, then a lot of people would have complained about that. I am sure Bethesda could have come up with a better solution though. They never lied about it they just neglected to tell anyone. Also guys this is not just the game download it is also the day-one patch to fix some really bad bugs. This is PC gaming my friends, it is better that console gaming but consoles are more convenient. PC gets way more benefits but it also takes much more upkeep than a console. I really feel bad for those with bad internet connections, I have a good one (30mb down/10mb up) but it's still taking ages (2 hours so far and only 71%). Maybe next time Bethesda should go for full disclosure!

I mean they did release this information

My download will be done in about a day and 8 hours. Remember my name when you [censored]es complain about having to wait for like two hours or whatever.

I feel your pain. When I get the physical copy I'm quite sure it will take a week or so to download the rest of it on my internet connection. Still with DSL. But I know that is due to where I live and I made a choice to live where I do. It also takes me 2 hours to drive to the nearest grocery store and 30 minutes to drive to the nearest gas station. Yep, takes me about a quarter tank of gas to go buy gas.

But really, I've learned there is good and bad about where I live and I take the good with the bad and try not to let it get to me. I really can't expect the world and technology to slow down because of where I choose to live. And since I love where I live I must deal with slow internet, long trips to the grocery and gas stations. No running to the store because I forgot to buy butter and no instant gratification download speed to meet my instant gratification needs.

Sometimes I must wait. And while I wait, I tend to get a lot done. Patience Grasshopper.

As others have already stated the piracy argument is a load of [censored].

I'll be lucky to get to play this today (launch day) as my Pip-boy Edition is being delivered between 15:23 and 16:23 (DPD give very exact delivery windows lol). So by the time I install the 5Gb from the DVD, then download the further required 19Gb from Steam it will be knocking on stupid o'clock. Thanks Bethesda

At least I'll have my Pip-boy to look at this evening

Edit: Like Summer I have achieved a lot today whilst waiting, cleaned the house top to bottom. Which is a good thing as housework will not be getting down for a while after today

and this is why I stick to my console and haven't played a new PC game in years. It's not because this doesn't happen on the console, it does. I still have to download alot of the game on the console however I don't have to worry about the Rootkit/bloatware called Steam.

Unfortunately the days of have the game fully on the game disc has passed us by.

That's not an argument.

GTA V came on 7 dvds.

And it still costed 60.

What? The physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is 100% Digital Rights Management (DRM) free.

Have you ever heard of or tried gog.com at all?

A whole 2 hours? Cry me a river, this was known weeks ago. Plenty of info was known on this.

If you were going to cry data cap I'll give you that if you live in a country where squirrels power of the Internet. But the fact that you crying over two hours has lost your credibility.

From what I've seen, only on Twitter and via Gamespot. Nothing on the official site and they also never mentioned the size of the additional download. Tut tut Bethesda.

Where's the plenty of info? All I can see is this: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-4-pc-discs-dont-contain-full-data-partial-/1100-6431658/which doesn't tell you the download size.

oh come on man, what were people expecting? Seriously....Look at AAA title game sizes these days. Was the OP expecting a game at 10 gigs? OP has zero room to talk really. 2 hours to download?

oh and btw.....http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Fallout-4-Install-Size-Revealed-88547.html that pretty much says how big we're looking at a month ago. And it's actually 3 gigs less but you get the idea. Helps to google the proper question....Again if the poor guy was living in a 3rd world country I'd give him a pass but not really as he has to wait a poor 2 hours....

(first of all sorry for my poor english)

It is not a matter of patience , but of honesty towards the customer!

If you buy the physical version of a game you expect to find at least 90% not only 20% and 20GB to download!

For me download 20GB means to occupy all the bandwidth of the connection for at least 12 hours! (with obvious discomfort)

And the saddest thing is that we try to justify this absurd choice instead of writing simply "forgive us we were wrong".

Really irritated this morning. I took today off from work. It is now 10 minutes 'til 10 a.m., and Steam says the download will take another 18-1/2 hours.

Good luck! I hope you don't get any nasty surprises like a bsod or some other issue. I once had a bsod when I was downloading a patch that took me 7hrs to complete; had to redownload the patch all over again because for some reason Steam couldn't saved my progression.

Same here. If I can′t get the games on disc (complete + paper manual) I′ll never buy another game unless it′s some small I don′t really care much about.

*goes back to playing Oblivion, Fallout 3, Morrowind and Arena*