Physical edition of Starfield may not include disc

Another bad move for physical protection, Bethesda’s coming soon starry sky Apparently there won’t be a physical release.

Earlier today, as spotted by Wario64, a Twitter user asked the official Bethesda Support Twitter account if the “Physical Standard Edition of the Starfield X-Series” would include a disc, to which the support account replied: “Hello! All physical editions include a Platform selected by code. No physical disc.” The Bethesda support tweet has now been deleted. This practice of releasing physical boxes containing code is relatively common for boxed releases of indie games, but hasn’t happened much in the AAA space so far.

Starfield, the newest and easily the biggest game, has confirmed that it won’t be releasing on disc of any kind. Earlier this year, Remedy announced that Alan Wake 2 would only be available digitally, apparently to keep the game’s cost down. And it looks like Dragonfly will also be a digital-only release, at least in the West. But it’s clearly undeniable that Starfield is the most famous of them all. Aside from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Bethesda’s latest game is easily the biggest hit of the year.

As the Bethesda support staff noted in the tweet, “all physical editions include a code,” which means the $300 fancy Constellation Edition will also include a code in the box.

Considering that the tweet has since been deleted, it’s entirely possible that some form of miscommunication occurred, although with the growing trend toward digital-only versions, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be surprising if that was the case. Best to keep an eye on the official Bethesda social media channels for further updates.

Starfield launches September 6th on Xbox Series X/S and PC.