I wonder if anyone else is as concerned with this... even reaching out to EA tech support has yielded nothing in terms of information or results.
Does having a disk reduce time necessary to download the game? If so, that’s an even bigger incentive to get the physical version.
Do the perks of the Gold and Ultimate editions still become purchasable at a later date? For example, if I bought standard and bought the perks of ultimate (mainly the battle pass), would I still be paying roughly the same amount?
A disc for Xbox is basically a license key to download the game (Xbox requires an Internet connection, because of this), so it won't save you much time, really. On PS, the disc usually has some code to copy, but the majority of the game still has to be DLed, along with updates and tweeks that have been put into the game code since the disc was manufactured.
Normally brick and mortar shops like Gamestop will just sell standard editions of the game -- If they do end up allowing you to pre-order Gold or Ultimate you'd actually just be buying Standard and getting some sort of code in the box/via email/on your receipt for you to punch in on your platform of choice.
While that's a viable option, I highly recommend just sticking with Standard and buying any upgrades directly from the online store -- EA doesn't have the smoothest track record when it comes to extra goodie entitlements...
