Bloodstained aims for a Staggered Content Release!

Well sure, they'll get the DLC digitally either way, but that's not really the point, I think. The point is that if their disk is shipped alongside the initial wave of content then the disk won't have the rest of the game's content. Many people who ordered the disk did so because they want a complete, physical copy of the game that doesn't require any additional updating. It's not like DLC released later on can be added to the disk. If the disk ships before all additional content is completed then the disk will only contain that base content for the entirety of it's lifespan.

Of course, if the disks won't be shipped until all of the staggered-releases are complete then the disk-based copies would contain the game in its entirety. I could be wrong, but I think that is what many disk-based backers are wanting. It would mean having to wait longer for their physical products, but at least it would be complete. Otherwise, there's no real point to owning a Bloodstained disk beyond keepsake/collector value. The disk itself would be little more than a voucher for an online download, as many disk-based games are at this point.

a lot of it is nostalgia and collector badges of honor, there are some who live in parts of the world that have no/shit internet and unfortunately a good portion of those people likely live in areas with sketchy postal systems too, and the biggest argument beyond those is server lifespan, if ms decides to dissolve its xbox branch because reasons, what happens to the servers hosting the marketplace? are they required to spend money keeping the servers up for x years? or does it instantly shut down with a message of "fuck you console weebs, pc master race ftw lulz!" and you cant redownload your digital games if your hard drive goes bad or gets stolen or wiped?

there are good points to be brought up for the continuation of physical media and good points for going all digital, id just prefer actual discussion and what ifs to people drawing lines in the sand on either side of the grand canyon, who knows we might think of some interesting solutions

To be honest, there is no perfect storage method and even physical copies have their risks

You're certainly right about whole games being unavailable if you rely solely on digital distribution. I agree with you 100% on the risks you mentioned Jango but we also have to consider the flip side.

CDs can be broken, scratched, stolen, put away and so on and then rendered unusable. What then?

As far as not being able to download updates in the future to coincide with the base copy of the game. I have a work around that. One thing I like to do is create a copy or backup of updates/dlc and put them in a flash drive (USB memory/SD cards/whatever) and stash it in one of my hidden compartments I have in the room along with a sheet of paper telling what files is in what card. I've been doing this with my Xbox 360, PS4 and PC. It's not perfect if the data becomes corrupted but it's better than nothing and that brings back to my original phrase.

Nothing is risk free.

my one absolute point against going full digital is drm and the poster child for horrible drm isnt the always online checks or the must insert disc, its the wiiu and to a lesser extent the n/3/ds

the wiiu is an absolute nightmare to back up, not only is nearly everything locked down so you cant back anything up, offloading saves to a usb stick is both id locked, hard drive locked, AND console locked, so if you back up your saves to a usb stick and your hd fails, you cant load your backed up saves because the hard drive is different, if your console dies, you cant load your backed up saves because the console id is different, you HAVE to go through nintendos save transfer tool which means theres a lot of scenarios where youre straight fucked, and the n/3/ds is the same way except that it does save stuf to the sd chip so even if the system dies there are ways to transfer most content to a new system

the wii was much MUCH better because you could back up most saves to it and transfer to another system with the same id loaded onto it, with a couple exceptions like ssbb, in combatting "people copying games", nintendo went from a simple system that worked most of the time to this horrible mess of the wiiu, can you imagine if the wiiu became the standard for drm over ps4 or xbone where i can plug my external into it, download my profile, and just start playing? >_<

on a side note, really wish pc games had a standardized spot they always saved data to, right now theres my docs, inside the game folder, roaming data, local data, spot you can choose, and random spot on hdd @_@

why i think moving back to carts is the future, flash based storage could be built in such a way that if an update was put out the system could place the update in a partition on the cart as opposed to on the hdd, so a single cart could have 3-4 partitions, one for the rom, one for the updates, one for any dlc (with an id checksum to prevent copying), and one for  the save files, which means youeject your cart, take it to another persons house, you load your profile onto the system, pop the cart in and play, when youre done you take your cart with you, quick simple and easy and it means the bulk of the hdd can be kept free for digital games and processing

I hope they release like Shovel Knight which held back the physical version until the expansion was complete.

From Yacht Clubs website.

"The final few steps of the Plague of Shadows content took a little longer than expected, but it was important to us that this update to be on the disc/cart right out of the box! Unfortunately that meant we had to push back the date just a little a bit"

You must have missed that bit
yachtclubgames.com/2015/10/retail-update/

I am aware of whats going with Shovel Knight. I just thought it was nice they delayed it for the content that was in development at the time. If people don't want that for Bloodstained thats fine too, we all want to play the game.

I'm not saying the situation with Bloodstained is the same. Just that that there was a conscious decision to delay Shovel Knight when they didn't have to and nobody asked them to. I probably wasn't clear enough in first post. There is nothing wrong with wanting a delayed physical release for Bloodstained, MANY would share this view.

well, making sure the main game is epic has been the goal of iga and team from day 1, doubly so since a very well made and solid main game will provide a very solid basis for all the extra modes as those modes are essentially remixes of the main game content, the only mode that wont pull directly from the main game assets is the pixel prequel, and the fact theyre using ue4 means that except for wiiu and vita (which is why armature is handling the port there, to take that console development hurdle off the main teams shoulders) the difference in development between versions is negligible, ue4 does the heavy lifting when it compiles to different platforms

so it comes down to a discussion every game development process has, what can iga and team and publisher agree is the best timeframe possible to make sure that the main game is the best it can be without going past the point of diminishing returns and where that point is, since this game has never been promised as a 'COMING HOLIDAY 2016 TO A GAME STORE NEAR YOU!' weve already avoided the publisher pitfall of 'do we delay and miss that easy payday or do we push for holiday 2016 and work 12-16hr days up until the day of release to get out a day one patch?', one thing that will work in their favor is a good portion of the 'wouldnt it be cool if...' ideas that normally show up halfway into development (looking at you zelda wunx) were evaluated back during the ks campaign so feature creep will be minimal, iga and people with him have had to develop on a very tight schedule and budget before so they have experienced 'eternal crunch time of the sleepless mind' and know what that entails so they know a heavy focus on proper planning early on will help to avoid that, and all this means that the 2-3 year 'throwaway' portion of development was done before the ks finished ^_^

the biggest difference here is we are getting a window into these discussions as they happen, which is extremely rare in an industry that often puts up multiple walls and filters and ndas between itself and the consumer and tries to lock down any info until its processed and packaged into something that talks without saying anything (looking at you nx)