Even if you buy the physical copy, you will still will need a steam account to install and play

http://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-4-will-require-a-steam-download-even-if-you-buy-it-on-disc/

I'm buying it on Steam, so this is no problem for me.

Of course this would happen ZeniMax Media Inc. and Bethesda Softworks have been using Steam exclusively to sell their PC versions of video games since 2009 with Rouge Trooper I think was the name of the video game.

I'm waiting for ZeniMax Media Inc. and Bethesda Softworks to sell the PC version of Fallout 4 on gog.com, even if I have to wait 10 years.

This month marks 2 years and 1 month since I stopped purchasing PC versions of video games from Steam and exclusively purchasing PC versions of video games from gog.com.

Well unless you count the indie video games that are sold on both gog.com and Steam, then April 2015 is when I 100% stopped purchasing video games from Steam.

I am too but this is a problem for people that have data caps.I am wondering if it's the same for consoles as well. This topic has come up a few times in the past week so i figured id post this.

Doubt it, as both consoles uses blue ray discs, which can easily store the game's size.

Nope not for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One versions of Fallout 4, unless there is a day one patch(es).

I have a 300GB data cap every month. Those 300GB's get used up fast to.

This affects me in no way whatsoever! It's a complete outrage. From now on, I'll be buying ALL of Bethesda's games as usual.

Rant over...

If I had purchased the physical copy i'd be a little upset because you may receive it days after release only to find out you have to download the rest of the game and wait even longer.

I see your point, and I was just messing about. I can see that this is actually a big issue for a lot of people. Hope Bethesda comes up with some kind of workaround for anyone who is affected

Didn't the past few games have a relatively large Day 1 patch as well?

Hopefully it won't be too big.

According to the article the reason why games are not on bluray like consoles is because of piracy.

Eh no, the reason they use steam is piracy, the lack of blue ray for pc version is because there simply isn't a wide spread use of blue ray among pc owners.

"This is not unreasonable, or even unusual. Most major game releases these days require hefty launch-day patches anyway, and as Hines pointed out, the console versions of the game will be on Blu-ray discs, which can store 25GB per layer, while the PC version will be on DVDs that hold just 4.7GB. But when pressed about why PC games in general are so often restricted this way, he offered a simple, one-word answer: "Piracy."'

And by restriction they ment Internet connection.

I'm pretty sure it's been well-established for some time that Steam was required for the pc version, just like it was for Skyrim. Plus everywhere that you buy it seems to mention that it requires an internet connection and free Steam account to activate, so this really isn't new information but it's not a bad idea to clarify.

I believe Hines is saying piracy is the reason due to the fact that it's easier to pirate on pc, and it makes it harder when not all of the files are going to be on the disc since my guess is that we'll all be downloading a large chunk of the game despite using the disc. The funny thing, though, is that they seem to be under the illusion that this will hinder those that crack the games to distribute them to pirates...it won't much, I'm sure it'll get pirated pretty quickly. The people it does hinder, however, are the paying customers -- namely those who want to install it all off discs and/or who have slow/data capped internet limitations.

Well, the hefty day one download is at least for the main game instead of some ridiculous day one patch. Bethesda's modular workflow not only means their games are relatively low on filesize, but their patches are especially smaller since, if they have to edit/replace any assets, they only have to do it for a few small files instead of one big file.

It still svcks for anyone with a terrible connection or a data cap, but I'm not sure what Bethesda can do short of packaging the game on half a dozen DVDs... which can't be cost-effective for manufacturing or packaging. (wasn't Daggerfall shipped on a ton of floppy disks, though? That must have been a nightmare)

That shouldn't be a problem. My FOT is 3 cds. Blank DVDs are cheap. I also have a capped internet, so if I have to download the majority of the game, it may take me over a month to do it, when my data rolls over. However, this is why I also have a PS4 and I am getting that version of the game, because if I have to download it to my PC, I will have to wait until the end of Nov to start and finish it in start of December. Not really what I want to do, so I hope they shipping at least 3 dvds of game data.

Slightly off topic..

Seriously, what the hell is the point of data caps? They make sense if one uses mobile internet but not if one uses traditional landline (cable/DSL/whatever) connections. For ***** sake, it's 2015! Why are there still data caps?

The piracy excuse is getting old. The problem here is Hines is not saying "how much" will have to be downloaded and I'm guessing his silence is the answer( MGSV anyone.) Do you think pirates care how much has to be downloaded? How do you think they actually pirate games? They.......download them. So an inconvenience to paying customers is so that Hines gets to think he is somehow hindering day one pirating.

Its pretty common sense that disc or no disc you would still have to have a steam account as you do with 99% of other games. I really don't think anyone who was planning on buying the game is shocked by that obvious fact.

Scummy and greedy companies, monopolies that want all the money they can get, so they can either charge data overage charges or have higher data caps that some people would have to upgrade to. It's nasty.

It svcks, trust me. If I had any other option, I would switch to something else, but I have no other option. This doesn't effect me on GoG, because I can download games to my phone(I have unlimited data on my phone), and transfer the files from my phone to my PC. GoG usually breaks up games into chunks, making this a fairly easy thing to do.

As far as I can tell, this is not the case with Steam, and you can't download the game in chunks. Maybe you can though, but I think I only have about 15-20 gigs available space on my phone, so I couldn't download the entire thing in one go.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! I was talking about this matter about a week or two ago and I said that it was too early for Beth to adopt what the STUPID ASSES at Konami and Warner Bro were doing, and that if Beth DRM aspirations becomes more developed, then we could see this method in the future. And now my nightmare has been realized. It is always a pain in the ass to download 5+GB with my weak internet speed. For godsakes.

And this so called Hines, thinks because of piracy? Well, guess what Mr. Hines? This will create more pirates. Do these stupid asses in the video game industry think that everybody has blazing internet speeds and great cap?

Boy, talking about keeping this a secret until now. Thanks God I didn't freaking pre-order it. No wonder this lacky was keeping this a secret otherwise he could have hindered the pre-sales and upsetting some of the pc crowd.

If you have unlimited mobile data, you could look into tethering: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tethering-use-mobile-internet-pcor http://www.howtogeek.com/213329/how-to-share-your-smartphones-internet-connection-hotspots-and-tethering-explained (these are two of many tutorials you could check out). Just make sure your mobile data carrier allows it, otherwise you could get in trouble, especially if you abuse it.

I am sure Beth people are not so ignorant about cracking and i bet Pete was actually talking about pirating F4 before launch day. It is so popular game and probably a lot of effort would be put into cracking it pre-release. To avoid that, the easiest way is to not ship the whole game. I am sure they know that it will be cracked within few days... because, crackers have had a lot of practice cracking steam games... plus the popularity of the game... i could bet somone will be working on crack for 24 hours straight!