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Alan Wake 2 creative director Sam Lake and game director Kyle Rowley have further clarified why the game is getting a digital only release.
Back in May, when we got our first proper look at Alan Wake 2, we also learned that the game would not be getting a physical release, instead opting for a digital only release. At the time, in an FAQ, it was explained that the reasoning for this is it would keep the price of the game lower, as the cost of discs and packaging would mean the game would need to be priced up across the board. Now, in an interview with Eurogamer, Lake and Rowley have expanded upon the reasoning behind the decision, saying that doing so will also give Remedy “more time to polish.”
“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,” Lake explained to Eurogamer. Rowley went on to say, “As creatives obviously, by going digital-only it does allow us more time to polish the game. Like, a significant amount 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.”
Developers getting more time to work on a game ahead of release is always a good thing (though obviously not if crunch is involved), though it’s still a bit of an odd explanation. Likely what Rowley means is that there’s more time to polish the game up ahead of the game needing to go gold, but anyway you look at it, a game not receiving a physical release is a bad thing.
Digital only releases are growing incredibly common, and while it’s a bit unclear whether it will be getting a disc release or not, it’s possible that even Starfield will technically be digital only.