No Physical Copies of Shadowbringers PC for NA?

[Joven]

So I was looking around on the official Shadowbringers page and decided that I would go ahead and preorder the expansion. I clicked on the store link which brought me to the Square Enix store and the listings for preorders of the PC digital, PC physical, Mac and PS4 versions. I selected the physical PC version listed at €34.99 and went to check out.

After signing into my SE account I was ready to complete my order when I noticed there was no listing for United States on the shipping list. I backed out of the page and switched over to NA store and found that the only offerings it had was for the PC digital, Mac and PS4.

Is there a physical PC copy available to preorder for North America or is it digital only? If I have to I'll preorder it digitally, but I really want the disc version because I have all of them on disc starting with A Realm Reborn and I really like the box arts.

[Joven]

I even checked Amazon and all they have listed is the PS4 version.

[Joven]

/bump

Does anyone have any info on this?

[Yasminou]

There is no physical version for NA. Also, it is not the right subforum, this is for localization issues, as translations in the game. Here is a link to Amazon UK for the PC/DVD version. Beware the included code will be useless for you as I guess your account is NA while the code will be EU.

[Joven]

There is no physical version for NA. Also, it is not the right subforum, this is for localization issues, as translations in the game. Here is a link to Amazon UK for the PC/DVD version. Beware the included code will be useless for you as I guess your account is NA while the code will be EU.

Thanks for the info. I just figured this was a localization problem because it's a disparity between regions i.e. why is one region getting a physical release while the other isn't?

That really sucks. What made them decide that? So that means that if I order the EU version then I can't activate it?

Man, SE, I love this game, but not enough to buy it twice. Why you gotta do me this way?

[Rongway]

Thanks for the info. I just figured this was a localization problem because it's a disparity between regions i.e. why is one region getting a physical release while the other isn't?

That really sucks. What made them decide that? So that means that if I order the EU version then I can't activate it?

Man, SE, I love this game, but not enough to buy it twice. Why you gotta do me this way?

As much as some of us love having something to collect, it's probably not enough to justify the production costs of a physical version. Especially when you don't actually need anything to play the expansion except for the 20-some digit code. The game will have to be updated online at first and subsequent runs, so any software on the disc will be obsolete before it even gets installed, and we don't package games with comprehensive instruction manuals anymore, with all the info online. For people who really want something to collect, they make CEs that are all about the fancy extras that we can put on our shelves.

[Joven]

As much as some of us love having something to collect, it's probably not enough to justify the production costs of a physical version. Especially when you don't actually need anything to play the expansion except for the 20-some digit code. The game will have to be updated online at first and subsequent runs, so any software on the disc will be obsolete before it even gets installed, and we don't package games with comprehensive instruction manuals anymore, with all the info online. For people who really want something to collect, they make CEs that are all about the fancy extras that we can put on our shelves.

Then why did they have a physical release for A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and Stormblood in NA? It doesn't make any sense why they would suddenly not have a non CE disc copy and only in one region at that. It's all fine an dandy to say it's due to costs, but that doesn't alter the fact that they have that option available on the EU market, so if cost was a factor then it should be digital across the board.

[Rongway]

That they made physical copies of previous expansions in the past doesn't matter. Things change. Maybe they reviewed recent trends in North American gaming and decided it wouldn't be worth it. Maybe SE Inc, the NA company, just didn't want to. SE has subsidiary companies for each region; they don't all have to make the same publishing decisions if they don't think it'll be worth it for their region.

[Joven]

As I've said though, they've already got the discs for the EU market. All they would need is an activation key for NA users, which they already have with the digital version. It's not like they have to ship mass quantities to retailers or anything like that as most people would either order it online or digitally.