You may have noticed that Xseed has been releasing more titles as digital downloads. Corpse Party and Sumioni: Demon Arts were only released on PlayStation Network in North America.
Unchained Blades, a dungeon crawler with art from a hodgepodge of anime artists, will be a digital only as well and even though Way of the Samurai 4 will get a retail release in Europe it will be a PSN game here.
“We still have physical releases on the horizon, so we haven’t gone 100% digital-only just yet… but we’ve been saying for months now that we’re headed in a digital direction, and that the majority of our future titles will be digital-only,” Tom Lipschultz, Localization Specialist, explained on Xseed’s message board. “We’re truly sorry if this upsets any of you, but it’s our only choice. Yes, even for [Way of the Samurai 4]. It’s digital-only or nothing.”
As a niche publisher, it’s a gamble to print a ton of copies just to see them sit on shelves. Perhaps, even more problematic is some retailers aren’t even interested in stocking smaller games. If the only option to localize a game like Corpse Party is to release it as a download, is that really so bad? And one of the plus sides of Xseed’s digital push is they’re on Steam now and have two of Falcom’s PC games lined up. Ys: The Oath in Felghana is available now and Ys Origin is coming soon.
The Last Story is one of Xseed’s announced package titles and if you want a physical copy of Way of the Samurai 4 you could import it from Rising Star Games who are pressing it on a Blu-ray for Europe.
