Remedy further explains Alan Wake 2 digital only release, says it allows “more time to polish”

alan stele 2 Creative Director Sam Lake and Game Director Kyle Rowley have further clarified why the game will only be released digitally.

Back in May, when we first saw Alan Wake 2, we also learned that the game would not have a physical release, instead opting for a digital release. At the time, in a FAQ, it was explained that the reason for this is that it would keep the price of the game lower, as the cost of discs and packaging would mean that the game would have to go up in price across the board. Now, in an interview with eurogamerLake and Rowley have expanded on the reasoning behind the decision, saying doing so will also give Remedy “more time to polish.”

“Yeah, it’s digital only, and coming up with this idea, both from Remedy’s and Epic’s perspective, that’s our current thinking. I felt like it made sense for this, and the timing seemed right,” Lake explained to Eurogamer. Rowley went on to say, “Obviously, as creatives, going digital-only gives us more time to polish the game. A significant number of weeks, in fact. Because otherwise, the game that goes on the disc obviously has to be playable without a patch.

“We didn’t want to release something that we weren’t basically proud of, and that we didn’t want players to play. So we hope that this way we can give you a better version of the game.”

Developers having more time to work on a game before release is always a good thing (although obviously not if it’s a crisis), although it’s still a bit of an odd explanation. Probably what Rowley means is that there’s more time to polish the game before the game needs to go gold, but any way you look at it, a game that doesn’t get a physical release is a bad thing.

Digital-only releases are becoming incredibly common, and while it’s unclear whether or not it will release on disc, it’s possible that even Starfield is technically digital-only.