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This means you can't pass the game around to your friends or sell it afterwards, which completely ruins the purpose of physical media imo. I mostly play PC these days so this doesn't affect me, but it's a disappointing direction for console games. At least they could've used an empty disc that has proof of ownership.
I’m a huge proponent of physical media, but this is entirely unsurprising given Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda. Compared to Switch and especially Playstation, the Xbox has a much higher rate of digital game sales.
If Starfield were on PS5, it would get a disc release for sure, and Xbox would probably get one too for the sake of parity. But discs aren’t terribly important to the Xbox crowd, and that goes double for PC gamers.
Moreover, digital games are good for the publisher’s bottom line, so physical media is only going to exist as long as customers demand it. And PC and Xbox gamers simply don’t.
What I don't get is why even release a physical edition if it doesn't have the physical media.
I own a lot of digital games through Steam, but releasing a physical copy of a game that only has a key in it is just weird.
Might as well be a gift card.
yeah that's that part that sounds almost like fraud
like wtf this sounds like they are trying to sell this edition for a marked up price to ppl who thought they'd buy a physical disk. That's fraud 101: deceiving customers. On the list of scummy things it's somewhere between macrotransactions and Nigerian prince.
So you can go to the store and discover their amazing games because of course that's how people buy games nowadays. /s
how does this comment have negative 1 downvotes lol 
this is nothing to do with microsoft or xbox they did the exact same thing with 76 this isn't new to bethesda they 100% made this choice themself
What's the point of even having a console at this point? I understood when they were easier to set up then computers and cheaper than computers, but now they are just as hard and just as pricy. They had the benefit of being able to share and resell games, but even that's gone away. What's left other than exclusives and momentum?
Now that I have a Steam Deck I just don't see me ever owning another console or even gaming PC. It has one of the main advantages of consoles (a single hardware profile to support) and it's light years ahead. I have yet to find anything I want to play that I can't play.
Does it have a docker so you can play it on the tv like the Switch? Or is it strictly handheld? Sorry, I'm way out of the loop on PC gaming
It does. But any decent USB C hub will work too. It's a PC! The main downside compared to the Switch, is that the transition between handheld and TV isn't as smooth, due to the different screen aspect ratio (Steam Deck is 16:10, most TVs are 16:9). From my own experience, I usually have to restart the game for it to fill the screen properly.
Neat! Thanks for the info!
You can’t build an equivalent PC for the price of a PS5. That’s the benefit of consoles. They’re a singular spec that developers can optimize for. So they’re always going to run better than a PC that costs hundreds more.
Gamepass on my Series X plus easier couch gaming are reasons that I’ll play some games on it over my PC. Plugging a computer into a TV isn’t great because something tends to come up that requires mouse and keyboard. There are ways around it but it’s not as seamless as just plugging in a console. A Series X is still cheaper than a comparable PC now that they’re starting to stay on shelves. It’s less free as in freedom but you’ll play 4K games unlike a $500 PC (especially if you have to budget for a monitor mouse and keyboard). Discord on Xbox also slaps right now and cross play is in a significant amount of games, so you aren’t trapped to only playing games with people who own your console.
Not a defense of the starfield physical stuff, just showing that owning a console isn’t just some dumb thing normies do. I love both my computer and my console and both serve different purposes for different games.
I prefer my PS5 and Switch over my PC because I work as a helpdesk tech for a living. I am so sick of looking at computers by the time the work day is done. Like, firing up a game on my PC feels like a goddamn chore after working on PCs for 8 hours at work.
I'm a PC gamer predominately, but I can absolutely share and resell my physical discs from console -- that hasn't actually gone away. I would say for sure that the amount of fiddling that I have to do on my PC and Steamdeck sometimes, and the number of bad PC ports in the last year, are dealbreakers for people who aren't quite as enthusiastic. Maybe a bigger part of is just the "living room" aspect -- no matter how many times I've tried using an NVIDIA Shield or Steam Link or whatever, streaming from my PC to the living room is janky, at least for my purposes. (I also do a significant amount of work on my PC, which I don't want to have streamed into my living room, and I multitask like a fiend so even full-sizing a game window is a non-starter for me.) And of course, the second "living room PC" is not a concept that has caught on yet, so people with one PC will probably prioritize that for work.
Which sort of brings me to what I think is the bigger "thing," which is just mental separation. Some people don't want to play games at the same desk they work at, or even the same room they work at, and they want to be in the "relaxing" space. They don't want whatever drama is on their computer (social media, work e-mails, e-mails in general, whatever Windows bullshit is going on that day) to interact with their videogaming.
Also something Steam enthusiasts hate to hear, but it's true: Steam sales aren't what they used to be, and even though I don't buy console games, when I'm trying to price out something I would like to play, 9/10 times I can find a $20 disk on Amazon or Wal-Mart while it's full priced on Steam, because excess physical disks get their prices cut for warehouse space.
Microsoft is successfully finding ways to prevent game sharing.
Good strategy. I'm not going to share it. I'm also not going to buy a $70 game digitally.
Image Transcription: Twitter Post and Replies
Züm, @its_zum
Hey @BethesdaSupport. Will the physical standard edition of Starfield for Series X include a disc?
Bethesda Support, @BethesdaSupport
Hello! All physical editions include a code for the chosen platform. There are no physical discs.
I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too!
Nice to see the transcription group make its way over here!
No great surprise, sadly--Bethesda has been on this road for a while. One of my angriest "gamer moments" was when I bought the Skyrim PC disc from the store and brought it to my PC and I was told I had to install Steam to play it. I wasn't a Steam-user at the time, and it felt very, very bad, especially since at that time (2013), the family home did not have high-speed Internet (they did not run cables to that neighborhood) and instead we shared a cellular modem plugged into a router a friend at an IP solutions start-up hooked us up with. I had just moved back to that house and was specifically trying to find something big I could do that would not require me to be online.
I am a huge proponent of digital media because, as an anime fan, I've seen firsthand that big, important properties like Evangelion can disappear from circulation for a decade at a time if something happens to the publisher, so I would rather own what I can than have to ask a company for permission to use something I've paid for. I am generally distraught that in order to deal with my other major beef with modern gaming (lack of backwards compatibility in consoles leading to having to repurchase the same shit over and over again) I have to use digital downloads and deal with DRM.
Agreed. I hate this trend but unfortunately with leaks and corporate greed, ownership of anything is going to be rarer as time goes on. Might as well enjoy what we do get to own nowadays.
At least we still have GOG
I'm feeling less cynical actually. Online stuff is convenient as hell and if they do anything dumb there's always pirating, which is easy as ever. And fediverse based solutions too.
I dunno man seeing the fediverse finally gaining traction has me feeling optimistic and excited. Feels like internet in the 90s and 2ks
Not really surprising at this point since the disks contain an outdated version of the game but it is funny that the physical edition exists at all except to peddle some plastic extra's and a case.
What. Wtf even is it then, an empty box?? I do not support this at all. I like having physical versions of games that I really love and was totally planning on getting a physical copy of Starfield after seeing the showcase. Damn MS that's some bullshit.
Do "physical" copies cost more? How much extra money is it for the "collectors box?"
They do if they're collector's boxes. Usually the same for regular editions.
Cutting productions costs by removing physical discs... charges 10 more for game lol I wonder if the devs are getting paid more.
I've not heard of this before, what does physical edition usually mean? I would have thought that meant it was a physical edition, so just a code would be false advertising
Nowadays even with the disc you still need to either copy the game to your console's SSD and/or download the latest patch from online service, as the optical disc reader is not fast enough. But at least the physical disc is still a (roaming) key to allow you to play the game (instead of the digital key that's tied to your account).
Also obligatory https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA
This isn't the first game to do this, usually "physical edition" means you just get a box. What's inside depends on the publisher. Usually digital-only cases have a giant warning on it that there is no CD inside.
Last time I bought a physical edition of a game was fallout 4, decent game, but I waited in line until 1:30AM only to find a download code to steam inside. Not even a disk or a user manual, just a 4"x4" piece of paper with a code telling me to go to steam.
Why would I buy a console if I cannot have a disc to play my game from?
The shit that game companies have been pulling since the ps3 era have been insane.
I remember the SSX game on PS3 that had no option to play normal co op but only online (as far as i remember) and I knew what was gonna come.
You have to be online for everything, everything gets "patched" and paying 80 euros + for a game doesn't mean that it has "outstanding" quality.
Miss me with that shit.
My issue is less being able to share the game, and more on preservation/ownership of the game long term. Discless physical copies means if for any reason the server that offered the download for the game goes down, you're out of luck unless you pirate it, even if it's a game you bought on release and just want to play again ten years later.
Don't worry, Todd Howard has your back and will give you the opportunity to rebuy it on the next Xbox /s
Also Todd Howard asks that you buy one more skyrim at this time, please