Alan Wake 2 is Digital-Only Partly so Remedy Can Keep Polishing Right Down to the Wire

Alan Wake 2 is going to be a digital-only release, news that’s been heavily questioned by fans, as it certainly feels like a major survival-horror title. There’s no questioning the game’s production values and it will be at least 20 hours long. If Alan Wake 2 isn’t worthy of a proper physical release, then what is? Developer Remedy Entertainment have provided a few somewhat unconvincing explanations for going not offering a physical version of the game – digital is popular now, it will help them keep the price down, ect.

Well, Alan Wake 2 creative director Sam Lake and game director Kyle Rowley provided a new explanation for the digital-only direction that’s perhaps a bit more convincing. Talking to Eurogamer, they said dropping physical allows them to polish the game right down to the wire. When you do a physical release, you have to go gold and send the code to be pressed on discs weeks or even months in advance.

"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.

As creatives obviously, by going digital-only it does allow us more time to polish the game. 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 perhaps a bit worrying that Remedy is so concerned about last-minute polish that it’s influenced their decision to release a physical edition of the game. After years of waiting, hopefully, they don’t rush this one. Anyways, here’s also hoping that once that rush is over, they consider a physical release sometime down the line. We know THQ Nordic would be happy to make it happen.

Alan Wake 2 shines its light on PC (via the Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 on October 17. You can get more details on the via Wccftech’s recent developer Q&A.

Written by Nathan Birch