The physical retail PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain doesn't contain any of the game's files or assets.
Twitter user graphμre was the first to discover and report that The Phantom Pain boxed PC version ships with nothing but the basic Steam installer and asks the user to download the entire 50GB game when it is released at midnight EST, September 1st.
Contents on disc for the physical retail PC version of #MGSVTPP:
- Steam installer (8.78 MB)
And... nothing else. pic.twitter.com/TcFskpSZ8O
— graphμre | グラフ (@graphure) August 30, 2015
This is not the first time a publisher uses Steam installer as a form of protection; but it is difficult to justify why the disc didn't include the game files, forcing users to download 50GB of assets instead of a few hundreds of megabytes of mandatory updates when needed.
The Phantom Pain is a single player experience with optional micro transactions support.