Fallout 4 PC retail has a 18.8 GB Steam download

I live in semi-rural Australia (2574, for the locals). At my best ever internet connection speed (around 600Kb/s and the miracle of it staying there for the entire duration) it would take me 9 hours to download this 19 odd gigabytes. In the real world; probably 24 hours. This is the reason I dislike Steam. It allows publishers (and developers) to pull this sort of shoddy crap. And this isn't the only game where this sort of shit has happened.

 

MGSV's retail disc was literally nothing but a Steam downloader according to people. That's hilarious.

 

And what's your (thorough) opinion on this?

 

I didn't buy MGSV, so I don't know about that. If the publisher did just release a Steam loader as a physical copy while failing to mention it wasn't a complete game, then shame on them. That's as shitty a move as Bethesda's was here.

 

Why not put the game on a cheap 32gb flash drive and ship that... I don't know if that is cheaper than 4 pressed DVDs, but it's probably close, and it could be marketed as a "collectable" Fallout 4 Flash Drive. Bethesda are morons.

 

Rhythm Method

Excellent constructive suggestion for spicing future collector editions, and would reduce the bandwidth choke point liability to verification and patchs.

Now leave the internet, the real world needs your good sense.

This flash drive special edition is the drum beat to worry the circled wagons of corporate complacency.

DELAYED sales …less sales … lost sales … no sales … ?




4too

 

Good idea! The only downside I'm aware of is that data stored on flash drive are more susceptible to environmental damage - EMP, or strong magnetic field, in comparison with those nifty holes in solid plastic disc.

 

My thoughts exactly. Why even bother to buy it in a store?

 

If you haven't used IndieBox before, a handful of the games they sold were shipped as plastic cards with USB ports on them. Plus, hell, MicroUSB drives are topping 128+ gigabytes, so why not?

 

I am one of +650,000 subscribers on the Exede Satellite (Viasat 1) with a medium grade connection to the Internet and a 25Gb per month data allowance. It is free data from 12 AM to 5 Am. Having said that, it still took 4 and a half hours to download 20Gb (5.2Gb DVD + 20Gb Steam download= 25.2Gb) to get the remaining BA2 archives + 14 BK2 video files used in the game.

Did Bethesda advertise that a 20Gb download was required if you purchased the boxed version? No, not unless you followed the "behind the scenes info" from Pete Hines Twitter feed, or followed the gaming Blogs. Unfortunately, I don't normally do that, so I was in the dark until the boxed version of the game arrived. On Amazon where I purchased the game and on the box it states: "Requires Internet Connection and Free Steam Account to Activate"

It does not state anywhere on retail distributor site descriptions or even the box itself that 80% of the game data needs to be downloaded from Steam. You can make up your own minds on that issue, but this is what one Blog had to say about it: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2...llout-4-will-still-require-a-digital-download

First, define "few". I don't have a bad Internet connection, nor am I against Steam's DRM, but I don't have fiber or cable either, so I would have happily used 4 dual layer DVDs or one dual layer Blu-ray disk. Fallout 4 is being released world-wide and that means that more than a "few" will have issues with their Internet connection unless they live in a urban area within their country.

Blu-ray technology has been commercially available since 2006. Current sales for Blu-ray are stagnant as "streaming" data has become an option for some consumers. Current tech for Blu-ray is the new 4k format. See: http://www.extremete...ard-transition�

While not many people's PC may have Blu-ray optical drives (mine does), there would be nothing amiss with just releasing a Blu-ray version for the PC and putting that in the "System Requirements" portion of the description for the game. As it stands, many PC owners are scrambling around to upgrade their PC rigs to be able to handle the game's demanding graphic requirements, that is, if they wish to play it on the "ultra" settings. This behavior is not new for PC owners as we have been doing it for over 25 years now, that is, upgrading or building new PC rigs to handle the latest game titles. FYI: a dual layer Blu-ray disk can hold 50Gb of data. Quad layer or 4x Blu-ray disks can hold 128Gb of data.

As for Physical copies of games being phased out? By who? The software developers and publishers? or the consumers? And which game titles are sold as a boxed physical copy that only contains a small portion of the data required to run the game? I can tell you the answer to that: One.

Digital download only versions for AAA title games is a long way off for the simple reason that the market is consumer driven, not based on what is technically or economically feasible or cheapest for the publisher.
In 2010: http://kotaku.com/5447954/most-people-are-still-buying-boxed-copies-of-games
In 2014: http://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/news/PSVita/Study-reveals-most-people-still-buy-boxed-games/2022

I did like the idea of a USB version, ... that sounded cool.

 

And I'm in Canada. No high speed internet. I tether my PC through my phone, sharing my phone's data plan - which is painfully slow and has a 15 GB monthly limit. Anything above that costs hundreds of dollars.
I have the steam client installed, for some steam games I bought ages ago, which usually starts in offline mode.

There's no way I'm downloading 20+ GB of game. If I can't get the whole base game on a DVD for my PC, I'm not buying it.