Guild Wars 2

Will PoF be available on a hard copy (DVD)?

I was sure I asked about this but do you think I can find that post now?

It would be a nice option to have a DVD/BD “version” but I suspect it may run into problems internationally for box set release. It would, however, alleviate frustration when your DDL drops out with one file to go…

For me, not answering the question about the expansion going retail prevents me from taking the decision to buy it.

If I knew officially that the expansion is not going to be released in a box, I would had already pre-ordered it.

Not confirmed either way but it is unlikely. Box copies are expensive and can mean a raise in price to compensate. The industry for boxed retail is shrinking as digital is becoming more popular, cheaper to supply and more environmentally friendly. Companies similar to Anet are unlikely to lose enough sales to justify the cost as well.

Like most companies Anet rarely announces what they’re not doing. But I think we can safely assume from the fact that they haven’t announced a hard copy and no one has been able to find one for sale anywhere (there have been several threads about this already) that they aren’t doing one.

With both the original release and HoT the physical release options and approved retailers were announced at the same time digital pre-purchase started (with HoT there was a delay of about a week before it was possible to pre-purchase from 3rd party retailers, but they still announced that it would be possible and listed retailers in the original announcement.)

If I remember correctly Anet has now taken over publishing from NCSoft, so maybe they decided producing boxed copies was too expensive for the benefits it provides.

The FAQ of Path of Fire says;

Q: Will Path of Fire only be available digitally, or will there be a boxed edition as well?

A: Path of Fire is available primarily as a digital download. Please visit our official site for a full list of the available editions and exclusive bonus items, or click here to find other official retailers.

So no boxed version

Bummer. Thanks for the replies all

For one thing its too big, I’ve heard estimates for 50GB installed which means its almost as big as Core+HoT, about 20GB or so. To include the Core game, HoT, and PoF all in one bundle along with the installer and supplementary materials would need at least six dual-layer DVDs which would get very expensive.

A BD could just about cover 50gig, 25 per layer. Failing that, we could use 5.25 inch floppy discs.

Or, at perhaps at a little extra cost, a USB thumb drive.

Yolanda Hardass.8045:

Will PoF be available on a hard copy (DVD)?

Anet is going downhill, HoT didn’t sell close as match as they thought so no retail this time.

Shortage.5427:

Yolanda Hardass.8045:

Will PoF be available on a hard copy (DVD)?

Anet is going downhill, HoT didn’t sell close as match as they thought so no retail this time.

Selling retail boxes of a PC game in 2017 is like being Amish. Sure, some people do it, but it’s no longer the norm to wear wool pants and ride around in a buggy everywhere.

How HoT did has no bearing on the fact that it is a terrible business decision to sell boxes in 2017.

Cars exist, you can park the horse now.

mtpelion.4562:

Shortage.5427:

Yolanda Hardass.8045:

Will PoF be available on a hard copy (DVD)?

Anet is going downhill, HoT didn’t sell close as match as they thought so no retail this time.

Selling retail boxes of a PC game in 2017 is like being Amish. Sure, some people do it, but it’s no longer the norm to wear wool pants and ride around in a buggy everywhere.

How HoT did has no bearing on the fact that it is a terrible business decision to sell boxes in 2017.

Cars exist, you can park the horse now.

Haha, ikr, not only a PC game, but one that is soley played online.

BTW, that 50Gb being bandied around above is for the entire game, core, HoT and PoF.

Even if you got a hard copy that installed 50gb of data…

Day 1 patch would probably be 20-40gb to dowload in order to replace most that came with the disc.

Honestly, I want a box copy because I miss the days when games came with gorgeously illustrated lore manuals, like the original Guild Wars.

Of course, I understand why most games nowadays are purely digital releases. I just mourn for the past lol.

Didn’t Heart of Thorns’ physical copy just include a Serial Code and site address for download? All one received was the DVD case with slip of paper inside, I believe. And a printed insert for the cover.

Glenstorm.4059:

Honestly, I want a box copy because I miss the days when games came with gorgeously illustrated lore manuals, like the original Guild Wars.

Of course, I understand why most games nowadays are purely digital releases. I just mourn for the past lol.

The Civ2 manual was book-size, lol. Anet should make a printed copy of the GW2 wiki just for fun.

Flatley.1620:

I was sure I asked about this but do you think I can find that post now?

It would be a nice option to have a DVD/BD “version” but I suspect it may run into problems internationally for box set release. It would, however, alleviate frustration when your DDL drops out with one file to go…

Thats irrelevant considering Day 1 patches on single offline player games are the norm; and how this is an online game where updates are almost weekly. Anyone remember the Day 1 patch for the game? I wanna say over 2GB, but I’m not sure how much of that was carried from head start build and beta builds. Yeah there “one file to go”….. but was that file something identical to what was on the disk? Or was that file part of the day 1 patch?

The problem is physical disks are expensive to distribute compared to digital distribution, and the data on it often weeks or months out of date by the time consumers actually get it in their hands.

For people who complain about data caps and bandwidth limits…. take into perspective that in an age were netflix, steam, sports streaming and Yotube is at the center of our entertainment consumption, for many ISPs to fall so woefully behind on infrastructure support is almost culturally oppressive. To keep referring to physical disks as “viable alternatives”, when the software they contain can’t even be used on its own, or often shipped with the intent to fix later, is using it as excuse to avoid dealing with the much bigger, more immediate issue of internet performance.