Alan Wake 2 is digital-only because it gives Remedy "more time to polish"
As we learned in May, from an FAQ provided by developer Remedy, Alan Wake 2 will only have a digital release when it launches on October 17th later this year, with «no plans» for a physical release on disc at the time.
This has naturally sparked some concern among certain fans, with digital-only downloads posing issues for both game preservation, as shown by the closure of the Nintendo 3DS eShop in March this year, as well as ownership rights, exemplified by the infamously de-listed survival horror spinoff PT.
Speaking to Eurogamer at Summer Games Fest earlier this month, Alan Wake 2's creative director Sam Lake and game director Kyle Rowley gave us a little more detail on the reasoning behind going digital-only, explaining that, actually, it was to allow Remedy more time to polish the game to an acceptable level — something publisher Epic Games had also been on board with.
«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, before Rowley gave a little more detail.
«As creatives obviously, by going digital-only it does allow us more time to polish the game,» Rowley said. «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.»
It's a slightly different reason for the one given in the original FAQ, which claimed that keeping to digital would help to keep the price of the game down.
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