Ninja Theory has finally shared more details about the hotly anticipated Hellblade II.
Announced all the way back at The Game Awards in 2019 right with the reveal of the Series X itself the game will be out on Xbox Series S|X and PC on May 21st 2024 and will also be a day-one GamePass title.
The game will be a short experience it will cost £50 instead of the now usual £70 but that’s where the good news ends.
In a blow for game ownership and preservation Hellblade II will not be getting a physical release and is following in Alan Wake II’s footsteps and going digital-only.
Developer Ninja Theory claims the lack of physical release gives them the freedom to charge less for the game however there are plenty of physical games that release at the £50 price point.
The lower price is because the game is short and they know customers will not pay premium price for a short game.
The digital only release of a first party Xbox game does give the rumoured digital only Series X mid-gen update more credibility though as more first party Xbox games may chose to skip the physical market.
Not that most people that play it will buy it anyway as it will be on GamePass from day one.
Are you still planning on buying Hellblade II now it’s won’t be getting a disc release?
It was bad enough that I own the first game on PlayStation 4 and its sequel is an Xbox exclusive but for me no physical version means the game is a hard pass which a shame as I enjoyed the first game very much.
You’re right, it’s not functionally different in a lot of cases, however many people who want physical media are aware of the limitations. The difference is that physical media is much more perceptible as true ownership than digital as it is much more tangible than digital to touch. Some people just want that tactile experience. For others it might be a convenience thing due to internet. And for some it might be a collectors experience; completing a collection or having unique/rare items.
It all allows for how people choose to own their purchase, and how they experience it.
I understand your sentiments, but here's the crux of the problem:
The majority of all physical disk are really just download licenses. They don't actually amount to anything more than a game key you buy on a card. Why? Because the majority of games can't even fit on a single disk to begin with. Unless disk technology has changed significantly since blue-ray (I don't keep up with it), even the largest disk only hold about 25gb of data. That means you'd need technically 6 blue-ray disk just to install Starfield... now think about that on a supply-chain level. Games would cost even more than ever if they had to fit the entire games worth of data in the box.
They'd save more money selling USB drives with the game art slapped onto them. In fact, if we think about the future of physical media, it isn't CDs, it's game cartridges. The Switch is ahead of the game on this. The problem though, is that even if that is doable, there's the very real fact that releasing physical media cost money, and these days, that is an un-necessary cost. The only reason all of these indie developers are thriving is because they can readily release their games without worrying about physical release. We're in a golden age of indie video game development and its entirely driven by digital downloads.
So instead of worrying about physical releases, what we should be focusing on is DRM-free media. You can get DRM-free games on GOG.com, for example. It's always better to buy your game there instead of on Steam for this reason. DRM-free is essentially the ownership you're looking for.
I'm sure most people aren't oblivious to that fact, but doesn't detract from the fact that people still want to own physical media and feel ownership over that.
25GB is for a single layer blu-ray. Blu-ray discs can have 4 layers, so we're looking at 100gb. I don't know about XBox but I suspect they're the same in that they're able to read quad-layer blu-ray discs. Even the PS4 was capable of dual-later, 50gb blu-rays. PS5 can take and utilise that space even more with Kraken compression to get even more on a disc.
They already do, this is why games like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are coming on 2-discs. I'm not sure what your understanding is of game storage is.
Nothing will get around that, and people will continue embrace indie titles where they can, physical medium or not.
There is no reason we can't focus on both. No amount of digital, DRM-free media is going give that same sense of ownership for people who want physical media. This is the same as why, even though DRM-free alternatives are available, physical media in the audio space took off again after such a lull during the mp3 and streaming boom. But on the same note, just like the audio space, some other people will always want the convenience of digital.