"pre-load unfinished stuff on the disc" Unfinished content doesn't have areas completely blocked off in the game for it along with names, descriptions, level requirements, etc. "I bet there are tons of weapons and armor pieces, shaders and NPCs and such tucked away on the disc that were "finished" but not part of events or areas that are finished." Actually, that is called cheating the consumer out of something they have already paid for. If I was running a fast food restaurant and you ordered a meal for $7 but I only game you the burger and said the fries would be extra would you still be this happy about it? " they can still modify the items/areas/missions later with a patch if needed, but they ship as much as they can fit on the disc up front so you have fewer multi-GB patches down the road since, despite how it appears, lots of gamers still have crappy internet connections." They don't care if gamers have bad internet. Remember the "deal with it" guy? If these places cared companies like Microsoft wouldn't have day one patches for games like Halo MCC that amounts to over 20 GB instead of just making a second disc.