Well I also don't see why I would even pre-order the game at this point. Skyrim and prior games I bought the physical copy and wanted it waiting at the store for me so I pre-ordered. But I've bought a dozen games since then through STEAM and haven't had any issues with them, so unless there's some GotY edition with something I want I'll just be getting the game through STEAM, and if I'm getting it through STEAM and there is no 'pre-order' bonus of any kind ... then why bother. I'll just wait until the game is released and buy it. Maybe even wait a few days to see the initial reviews and wait for them to fix day one bugs and such. I mean really there is no hurry to even buy the game anymore and certainly not any un-named DLC.

What google is doing is more then likely reselling fiber from another ISP. The same thing that small phone providers do which is basically resell ATT/Verizon services. . If a city already has a charter with cable company xyz and a phone provider I doubt they'd let Google come in and charter and run there own fiber infrastructure

Season pass is just a way of getting us to buy the dlc at a form of bulk discount and save maybe 10 dollars on 1 of the 4 or 5 dlc they will release, and the people who want to play the game later on will get a GoTY version, as seen with other titles or an ultimate edition what ever they want to call their bundles with dlc and the game all in 1 package.

For the people who like me have pre-ordered the game, we can either save the 10 dollars and go for the season pass or pay the price for each dlc that comes along if we want the specific dlc, we have the freedom of choice no one is demanding people buy the different versions or items on sale.

I know i will end up buying the dlc anyway since i like this franchise everything from the first fallout demo i played back in the day in 1997 and the carnage i could do in that game, to the newer games and the overall fps change we got, loved it all once i got accustomed to the changes, and some nice dlc changes that were added with the NV stuff added more to the game, so might be some changes with the fallout 4 game with the dlc when we get that later on.

Off topic:

Actually, Google is spending the money to install fiber-optic cable, in an effort to promote the idea that people should have real high-speed internet. It pushes the telecom monopolies to get on with upgrading their service and infrastructure to compete, or give up the business that they've traditionally taken for granted.

We save $10 according to BGS. They also considered the DLC content in Skyrim to be $40, which I believe is overvaluing what we received. The problem as it stands is we have no idea how many DLCs we will receive? Five mini DLCs like Fallout 3? Two moderate DLCs and one cosmetic DLC like Skyrim? One expansion, one moderate DLC, and several cosmetic DLCs like Oblivion? BGS has not shown any consistency, other than they admitted the more frequent, smaller DLCs of Fallout 3 were not well-received.

The other issue is they leave it up in the air suggesting they might do "more than $40 worth of DLC and season pass owners will still get the content." That means we could get more DLC if they feel like it? Again, the issue is we are putting down $30 on promises that BGS may or may not keep. There is no guarantee we are going to get $40 worth of content or that we will even enjoy it. If we had least had a number of DLCs and a basic idea of what they would entail, it would give consumers a better picture of what to expect.

Again, I've already suggested that many games aren't even doing GotY editions anymore. It's a dying practice with most going towards season passes and then others occasionally doing HD remasters of older titles. Definitive editions were a fad that happened for games that came at the end of the console cycle and wanted to also be available on new gen consoles.

While this is a smart and profitable move on Google's part, it will only benefit the big cities, which is where fiber-optic cables are largely being installed. As I've stated earlier, the telecom companies have little interest in building a web that would cover sparsely populated areas in desolate locations. The investment wouldn't be returned by the revenue they would generate. The problem is the US is too big and there are far too many locations where there just aren't a lot of people. Being in Alaska is especially difficult considering it's not even a part of continental US, but rather connected to Canada. With the way big business works and their lobbying in Congress, any kind of substantial change in internet speeds for much of the country will be slow compared to the rest of the developed world.

I think the issue many are suggesting here is that the GotY edition is being made almost entirely for those with poor internet. To be quite honest, I think that's a bunch of nonsense. GotY editions only exist as a means of trying to obtain any last minute scraps of money that were not received with the original release of that title. To be frank, I don't think many in the gaming industry care about these specific demographics, because it's not their target area. The internet became a huge deal for gaming at the turn of the century with innovations such as Xbox LIVE and Steam. Since then, game corporations have fully embraced the idea of digital distribution because it means more money for them and less costs. Every major publisher has its own digital retail service and Microsoft and Sony have also followed suit.

I don't believe physical copies will disappear anytime soon, as the backlash with the X1 made it abundantly clear many still are wary of digital ownership. However, my point still stands that a season pass bundle still accomplishes the same thing a GotY edition does. The difference is one is purely digital and the other is usually a physical copy. Again, season passes have become the norm. At some point, Bethesda Softworks will follow suit like the rest of the major publishers. They do not generate the kinds of revenue that EA, Ubisoft, or Activision does, and these publishers by large never release GotY editions anymore.

If the biggest publishing giants in the industry have little interest in making all their content available for folks in more desolate areas, why do you think Bethesda Softworks is any different? The recent acquisition of all these game studios and even its own press conference at E3 shows Bethesda Softworks wants to join the big kids club with Sony, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Activision. If there was a lot of money to be made in rural areas, you'd see all the major publishers making GotY editions around the clock.

Its the same kinda situation in Canada. The majority of the population lives in the southern bits that have high population density and have great internet, especially in recent years. Myself I haven't bought a boxed copy of a game since 2009. But as you get further north into the northern bits of the Southern provinces or the vast expanses of the northern territories settlements are small, few, and far between. Internet there is terrible, mostly because the majority have satellite. And that's not even getting into the various other problems that come from having a western/first world economy in one of the most remote places on earth. Games on disks will always exist up there I think, much like your home in Alaska. Whereas down south in the high density southern Canada and CONUS buying PC games on disk have already gone the way of the dodo for a lot of people.

Of course with console games still being bought on disk in large numbers here I think disk media is still going to be around for a long time, even if those same game stores rarely stock PC games.

0% chance this is happening.

Seem to be able to find quite a few definitive versions with just a quick search on steam store in regards to triple A titles:

Sleeping dogs with a lot of cheap dlc in the offer of their definitive version

Batman Arkham city and asylum in GoTY versions

That is just a few of the games but the ones i know for sure since i played all 3 games.

And 1 with just cause 1 and 2 and all dlc for just cause 2 in a just cause complete collection

Middle earth: shadow of mordor GoTY.

But i see your point about what are we going to get with this gamble of a season pass thing, we do not know and again it is your own choice if you feel a need to get that or buy them individually 1 at a time if any at all, I have due to convenience and the main idea i plan on getting all the dlc anyway, so i have plans for getting the season pass, since i have pre ordered the game to get a hard-copy of the game, and i plan on playing it from launch date, I do not plan on having to wait just so i can wait for a long period of time to get a GoTY version of Fallout 4 or what ever they end up calling that complete collection.

The last couple of dlc i have gotten with my Fallout 3 and NV games have been good, Fallout 3 had Broken Steel and Anchorage loved both those and the back story they provided or extra content, NV dlc the Old world blues and dead money enjoyed both of them.

Have no doubt they will add stuff i will like to Fallout 4, heck even the Skyrim dlc i liked dragonborn and dawnguard though it was getting old the guards always going on about the dawnguard until you took the quests for the vampire hunters.

It depends. The figures for rural folk are around 50%.

They're talking about price. Dawnguard and Dragonborn were $20 each, Hearthfire was $5. $45 worth of DLC right there. IIRC each Fallout 3 addon cost $10, so you have $50 value there.

Whether or not you consider the addons worth their price is a different matter entirely and the reason why some of us prefer to wait until we see what's actually being offered.

Actually, Rage had three pieces of DLC, Wasteland Sewer Missions, Anarchy Edition, and The Scorchers.

If you go to buy it on Steam now (or Amazon, looks like), there's just two items. Rage, and The Scorchers listed as a DLC under it. I think the sewer missions/anarchy edition were just folded into the base game.

...ah, just looked at the wiki. "Anarchy Edition" was originally the pre-order bonus (an armor, a couple weapons, a car). And the Sewers DLC was the "bought a new copy rather than used" bonus. Looking at Steam discussions, the Sewers are auto-included, and you can access the Anarchy stuff with an .ini tweak. Turns out that I had them because I bought a boxed copy of Anarchy from Amazon (they printed so many of them that, even years later you could get a "pre-order bonus" copy of the game for $10. )

No idea how it is on PSN or the Xbox store.

Off topic, but our local government-owned but self-funding electrical utility did something awesome. They serve the entire county and thus have the problem that many rural utilities have - meter readers are expensive and carry liability. Rather than installing cellular equipment to substitute a smaller recurring cost, they chose to make a larger investment and get a second income stream by installing a full fiber network which in addition to carrying real-time metering and grid loads also allow them to sell telephone and cable TV. Thus every single residence and business in Hamilton County has access to gigabit Internet - for homes, $70 per month. (Thus Chattanooga proclaiming itself the Gig City.). They funded this with bonds and the information section is self-funding, and since the EPB (Electric Power Board) is self-funding the private sector isn't competing with government. They are competiting with an entity that doesn't need to make a profit, but that is true of any coop and the profit motive is keeping Comcast and AT&T profitable while still serving people not economically profitable to serve for profit. I think this type of action should be much more widespread.

This line of discussion is far from "off topic" since there are still a large number of people world wide who would never buy the game at all if not for being able to get boxed copies. And yes, people maybe should have "high speed internet" and many would have it if it were available to them. There are still many, many who have no access to internet that is capable of downloading large digital files and Google won't be installing it either to most places still without it.

I didn't see anyone say the GoTY edition is made "entirely" for those with poor internet however I do think that it does weigh into the decision to stop making them all together. Because currently that would be a lot of sales just gone. Digital distribution is awesome but it does limit sells because even it only 15% of the world doesn't have internet capable of getting digital copies, that is a very, very large number of people with money to buy and wanting it. Demographics always plays a part in a companies decisions of how to distribute their products. The more accessible a product, the larger the margin of profit. If it were only an additional 1 million sells, that would be well worth making it available in hard disc.

On PSN and XBL the Wasteland Sewer Missions, The Anarchy Edition, and The Scorchers are separate DLCs. All reasonably priced I might add.

No one explicitly stated that is the purpose of a GotY edition, but the nature of the thread has almost certainly gone that direction. My point is even though poor internet areas are clearly a factor in this equation, the big publishers in the industry don't seem to care either way because those areas don't offer enough of a money interest. Honestly, I think the simple fact is a majority of gamers don't even get DLC half the time. Thus, publishers like EA, Ubisoft, and Activision just don't support a means to make all DLC available besides through an online service.

With a season pass, publishers can get more money and guarantee gamers will get all the DLC. In the end, it justfies making DLC and these corporations see immediate gratification for the investment. Again, I think there is an assumption here that "15% of the world" would want all of this DLC and plays video games to start. Certainly a portion of that would, but the major companies in the industry don't seem to believe it's that big of a demographic. Perhaps Bethesda Softworks will continue to invest in GotY titles, but they have shown as of late a tendency to copy their competitors more and more.

I'd rather buy a GOTY edition than a cut content pass.

At least the nowadays GOTY edition would represent the completed game.

I live in north Eastern Alberta and my Internet has a limit of 100GB of month so I buy most games disk as installing one game (average size these days is roughly 30gb) can often use over a quarter of my Internet so buying everything digital is just not feasible. As it is for me to patch a lot of games I have to haul my PC and PS4 to a buddy's house (he has unlimited) so I don't use up all my Internet.