UPDATE: The Bethesda website for Starfield pre-orders offered this concise explanation all along:
“Starfield Standard Edition is included with Xbox Game Pass. Game disc included with physical purchases of Xbox Standard Edition. Game code included with physical purchases on PC Standard edition.”
It seems that this was on the website even before this controversy started, driving home how terribly Bethesda handled communication between themselves and consumers. You can read the whole story about it, in its original form, below.
There seems to have been some miscommunication that happened in and out of Bethesda when it comes to the matter of Starfield being available on physical discs.
The mess started yesterday when Bethesda Support’s Twitter account, responding to an inquiry, claimed that all physical editions of Starfield will only come with codes for the specified platform. The account deliberately stated that there are no physical discs.
However, that tweet has been deleted, raising the whole issue into question.
As reported by Ovogaming, the Bethesda’s Spanish language Support account gave a different answer. According to them the special Collector’s Edition will only come with a code, but the Standard Edition of the game will have the game on disc.
Ovogaming also noted that physical game rental service GameFly has Starfield listed on their website. To put it simply, GameFly would not be able to commit to offering Starfield on their service if they were not able to provide a copy of the game at all.
While Bethesda is causing headaches for consumers with their mixed messaging, the reason this is an issue at all goes beyond Starfield.
We have been seeing the game platform companies shift their relationship to physical media. If the Xbox 360 would once carry a game that had to be played on five discs, today, the game’s publishers would be more inclined to sell games digitally, even if the game can fit in on a disc just fine.
The situation isn’t helped by the changed relation that game platforms have to physical media. If the PlayStation 2 once sold itself as a home entertainment platform thanks to its ability to play DVD movies as well as audio CDs, today such features are no longer effective selling points. Music, movies, TV shows have all made the shift to digital, even on streaming platforms.
While games don’t quite work on streaming for most players yet, digital downloads have become more popular, and lucrative for the platform holders.
So far we have only see Square Enix commit to bringing a current generation game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, on two discs. Nintendo themselves have been good on the promise of releasing their games complete on cartridge for the Nintendo Switch, but the prevailing market practice now is that many discs don’t even have the game on them. They merely function as installers, for games you still have to download online. Afterwards, they become a form of physical DRM, as they are required in the drive to play the game.
If Microsoft and Bethesda can bring a version of Starfield on disc, they should clarify that for the sake of the consumers. As it stands, it does seem that that will be the case, even without Bethesda’s clear clarification.
Starfield will be released on September 6, 2023, on Xbox Series X|S and Windows via Steam. It will also be Day One on Game Pass.
