The official Panzer Dragoon: Remake Twitter account has tweeted another poll, this time asking Panzer Dragoon fans if they’d like to see a physical edition for the remake. Curiously, the poll only gives people the option between “S**t up and take my money” and “I’m so broke…”, which kind of suggests they already know the answer. It might be surprising that the question needs to be asked in the first place, but the truth is that digital games are becoming more and more popular. This has long been true for the PC market where digital sales dominate the market, but this year also market the first time digital sales have overtaken physical on Sony’s PS4. Even Nintendo reported that their digital sales earnings have almost doubled in the fiscal year ending March, 2019 and exceeded 100 billion yen for the first time ever, with the share of digital sales growing from 17.3% to 24.8%.
Nonetheless, there’s still a demand for physical games. In recent times, publishers and distributors like Limited Run Games and iam8bit have specialized in teaming up with smaller/indie game studios to offer a limited amount of physical copies of their games, which would otherwise be available as digital only. This introduces its own problems with scalpers trying to buy as many copies of the limited run as possible, only to sell them on eBay later at a far higher price (not dissimilar from what happened to Panzer Dragoon Saga). Hopefully, if Panzer Dragoon: Remake (which is indeed the game’s official name) does get a physical release, it’ll offer enough copies to satisfy the demand!