On Monday, developer Remedy confirmed that Alan Wake 2 will be digital only because it will give the developer more time. This news comes from Twitter user, Wario64, who released a tweet Monday, quoting a Eurogamer article saying that Alan Wake 2 will be a digital-only released game since it gives the Remedy more time.
According to Eurogamer’s article, this is not the first time we knew that the game was going to be released digitally, and they point to Alan Wake 2‘s FAQ page on the game’s official website. On the game’s FAQ page, the game is revealed to be digital only. Remedy explains this saying, “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… 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.” Remedy also explains that keeping Alan Wake 2 digital only helps keep the cost of the game down and that there is no plans for a physical release.
In the Eurogamer article, Alan Wake 2’s game Director, Kyle Rowley says in an interview at Summer Games Fest with Eurogamer,
“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.”
This news of Remedy offering no physical option for their game is concerning for game collectors, game preservationists and game preservation as a whole. Recent examples of game preservation issues include the closure of the Nintendo 3DS eShop, making it impossible to buy 3DS directly though Nintendo and ownership concerns.
Earlier on Sunday, a tweet by user Grummz said that Starfield will be downloadable only, linking to now-deleted tweet from DiscussionFilm. Grummz replyed later saying that their tweet was false. Backing up his response, Wario64 tweets out Monday that Bethesda clarifies a physical option for Starfield on their website. Bethesda says on the pre-order page, “Game disc included with physical purchases of Xbox Standard Edition. Game code included with physical purchases on PC Standard edition.”
Alan Wake 2 launches October 17th.