May seem like a dumb question, but I live in Australia. Downloading a game takes a while, and I bought the Pip-Boy Edition, so I won't be able to preload the game. If the disc is just a Steam download, I won't be able to play for at least 8 hours, and I know a few big PC games have released physical discs with no actual game on it.

What yo're referring to is called DRM. and i can most assuredly say, yes there will be a game on the disc. Especially the pip boy edition. You wont have to download anything from the internet unless there's a patch. And i'm pretty sure there wont have to be a day one patch.

Are you sure? MGS5 wasn't on the disc.

Doesn't make sense to print a disc and stick it in the box, if there's going to be nothing on it. They'd save more money by just sticking in a card with the download/reg code on it.

Yet it happens.

yea the physical editions come with a disc

you still may need to download a patch though

If you get a disc then I can't imagine the install wouldn't be in there.

Now, you may have to download a patch of course.

But I've never heard of a disc coming with just the unlock to download a game.

If a game requires Steam to run, you may have to put in the activation code, though - and once that's in you can (optionally) download it as well. (I've got phyiscal copies of games that I've never put the disc in my computer - I just activate and download it.)

I wonder if previously you've accidentally chosen to download from Steam instead of installing from disc?

http://www.pcgamer.com/metal-gear-solid-5-disc-seems-to-only-contain-steam-installer/

Huh. Well, I haven't installed from disc in years so that's news to me. We may know more when Bethesda releases the PC specs.

...you know, I wonder if part of the issue is that, now, both consoles have Blu-Ray drives. So the games can fit on one disc. But many PCs with an optical drive are probably still DVD. So it would take a stack of discs, not just one. (someone in the comments on that MGS article mentioned that GTA5 came on 7 discs)

I wonder what would annoy PC users more - getting a disc with just an install code on it, or getting a Blu-Ray and a note saying "upgrade your drive, bro!" /ponder

I had this issue with Skyrim. I have it on disk, however when I went to install the game it loaded from STEAM instead of off the disk. I popped in the disk and the install started, but it downloaded from STEAM, which did take some time as it was the whole game not just some day-one patch. I never could figure out how to get it to install from the disk. Once the PC figured the game was on STEAM that's the only place it wanted to install from.

On PC there hasn't ever been proper incentive to transition physical distrubution to Blu-Ray. Digital distribution is also dominating the market now anyway.

Consoles however are also used as a media center, thus including Blu-Ray drive is a nobrainer.

The physical PC version does indeed come on discs. However it is still Steamworks game and will need internet connection for activation. Day 1 patch is pretty much guaranteed and also reminder: physical version does not contain entire game. A small portion has to be downloaded anyway (main executable at least).

I remember people having that bug when Skyrim first came out - several big threads about it, on the Steam & Beth forums. Mine installed off the disc (and I've never re-installed it since).

I too had no issues installing Skyrim from the disc. At the time I also had abysmal internet connection so installation issues would've caused massive headaches.

That is a really good question. I pre-ordered the game from Amazon.com (I know.. not the first place you'd think to order it from but they throw in a 'free' perk-tree poster). I am assuming that I will be getting the disc copy of the game on release day. If they sent me just a code to use with steam I'd be a little frustrated. It would be much quicker to just install and play the game (and then register it with steam) than download the entire thing from the steam servers.

I wonder.. if you install from disc and register on steam can you still Verify the Integrity of the Game Catch? Might solve everyone's problems if it were possible..

Cheers.

They announced the perk poster for all pre-orders, I think.

And yeah - installed from disc or downloaded, all the usual Steam functions are there once the game's on your hard drive.

I remember that as well. It was possible to install Skyrim off the disc, but I had to Google to get the https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5357-FSQM-0382 for doing so.

Thanks. If FO4 gives me the same issue I have a work around then.

Apparently the game will be around 30 gigabytes, at least according to Xbox.com. GTA5 was around 50 gigabytes, and that came on 7 discs. I honestly can't remember the last time I had to install something from multiple discs.

Oh well, need that Pip-Boy.