Spyro Reignited Trilogy physical edition requires download for second and third games

Alongside his penchant for headbutting sheep, Spyro is probably most famous for his bright purple hue. Today, however, some Spyro fans are seeing red, as news has emerged that only the first game will be playable without a download on the physical edition of Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

The change was spotted by the ever sharp-eyed Wario64, who took a closer look at the small print in the new box art for the games. There, a message at the bottom, reads: "requires content download". Fans then discovered this sentence had also materialised on the official Spyro website next to the photos of the Xbox and PlayStation editions.

Players have taken issue with the obligatory download for several reasons. As highlighted by Reddit user NauseousPenguin, this ties the games to a "storefront's DRM" - meaning when the Spyro Reignited Trilogy servers are eventually shut down, the games could be unplayable from newly-installed physical copies. Others pointed out this could obviously be a problem for players without internet, and those with metered connections.

The Spyro fanbase quickly began demanding answers from Activision. From a statement made to Gameinformer, it seems the publisher views the downloads as a minor issue. Activision stated: "As with most games today, downloading an update after purchase is quite common. The language on packaging and on the web is to let players know the requirements for Spyro Reignited Trilogy."

It seems likely the developer, Toys for Bob, needed extra time to work on the game beyond the deadline for physical release. Thus, a day-one patch would be a way to give the developer a few more weeks to finish its work. We're guessing the update in question must be fairly hefty, however, as clearly the two games are unplayable without it. But just how badly is the developer running behind schedule? And is it really fair for players to be given an incomplete physical copy instead of delaying the release?