Starfield is one of 2023’s most anticipated titles, and it seems like it will only be playable as a downloadable game.
In a now-deleted tweet from Bethesda’s Support account, the company said that “there are no physical discs” for the space-faring epic from the makers of Skyrim, saying that “all physical editions include a code for the chosen platform.”
Wario64 reported the news this morning, and the replies to their tweet were filled with some very unhappy gamers, many of whom claim that this potential decision is aimed at steering players toward an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Related: Todd Howard confident Starfield will be a ‘modder’s paradise’
But now that the tweet has been deleted, it begs the question of whether or not there will be a disc edition after all. With the discourse around the news, Bethesda or Microsoft may be forced to make a statement soon to either confirm or deny it.
If it’s true, it’s not all that surprising. The move toward digital-only releases has been ongoing for the past few years. Both Sony and Microsoft offer editions of their consoles that don’t have a disc drive, so the future is looking more and more disc-less as time goes on.
But many gamers still prefer physical ownership of games they purchase, so this potential decision may end up having a big impact on some and their decision on whether or not they will be purchasing Bethesda’s next big game.
Related: Major PC releases like Starfield are making one big change to system requirements
Starfield is set to release on Sept. 6 on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Update on June 26 at 1:15pm CT: Bethesda’s website for Starfield now clarifies that a physical disc will be “included with physical purchases of Xbox Standard Edition” and that a game code will be included “with physical purchases on PC Standard edition.”
