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Remedy Entertainment announced last month, via a FAQ, that it plans to keep Alan Wake 2 exclusive to digital platforms for an October 17 (this year) release, with no consideration given to customers demanding physical copies. Eurogamer questioned the game's creative director Sam Lake, and director Kyle Rowley at Summer Games Fest (earlier this month)—the site's reporter demanded a more detailed explanation regarding the long-anticipated sequel's eschewing of physical media. Lake responded first: "Yeah, it is digital only, and kind of coming to this idea, both from Remedy and Epic's perspective, that's our current thinking. It just felt it makes sense for this, and the timing felt right." His colleague, Rowley added further insight: "As creatives obviously, by going digital-only it does allow us more time to polish the game. Like, a significant number of weeks actually. Because otherwise, the game that goes on the disc, obviously it has to be playable without a patch. We didn't want to release something that we weren't proud of basically, and that we didn't want players to play. So hopefully this way we can give you a better version of the game."
The gaming community has debated at length about the temporary nature of digital releases—termination of online services and changes in ownership rights have resulted in certain titles becoming completely inaccessible to players/fans. Preservationists have fought hard for the continued release of physical media, but some publishers have resorted to bundling a download code in a disc-less retail box. Remedy Entertainment's FAQ proposes that digital platforms provide a more cost effective option for customers: "There are many reasons for this. For one, a large number of players have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft's Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only...Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99...Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game - we do not think this would make for a great experience either."
A string of ritualistic murders have brought FBI agent and profiler Saga Anderson and her partner and fellow agent Alex Casey to the small town of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. The gameplay in this video takes place early in the game. Saga's investigation has turned into a nightmare after finding pages of a horror story that start to come true, perhaps written by a certain missing writer.
The nightmare becomes real as Saga finds herself at Cauldron Lake, outside of Bright Falls, trying to track down and stop the murder victim who has come back from the dead and turned into a monster. This gameplay clip was shown for the first time at Summer Game Fest, June 2023.
Alan Wake 2 comes out October 17th 2023 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the Epic Games Store. For more information visit: https://alanwake.com
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
The gaming community has debated at length about the temporary nature of digital releases—termination of online services and changes in ownership rights have resulted in certain titles becoming completely inaccessible to players/fans. Preservationists have fought hard for the continued release of physical media, but some publishers have resorted to bundling a download code in a disc-less retail box. Remedy Entertainment's FAQ proposes that digital platforms provide a more cost effective option for customers: "There are many reasons for this. For one, a large number of players have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft's Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only...Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99...Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game - we do not think this would make for a great experience either."
A string of ritualistic murders have brought FBI agent and profiler Saga Anderson and her partner and fellow agent Alex Casey to the small town of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. The gameplay in this video takes place early in the game. Saga's investigation has turned into a nightmare after finding pages of a horror story that start to come true, perhaps written by a certain missing writer.
The nightmare becomes real as Saga finds herself at Cauldron Lake, outside of Bright Falls, trying to track down and stop the murder victim who has come back from the dead and turned into a monster. This gameplay clip was shown for the first time at Summer Game Fest, June 2023.
Alan Wake 2 comes out October 17th 2023 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the Epic Games Store. For more information visit: https://alanwake.com
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
From a environmental standpoint physical copies are just e-waste as you still need to download tons of patches to make games playable (esp. for online games). The only positive I can see is if you want something for display, like a steelbook edition.
But as game licences are tied to accounts it would be a major task for the gaming platforms. They would also need some safety features to protect users from game transfers in case your account gets hijacked. Some stolen ingame items is something you can swallow, but plundering of your gaming library would be pure nightmare.
