There's been a lot of talk lately about physical video game releases, with the likes of Remedy not even bothering to print Alan Wake 2 discs. But when games do get physical releases, especially in collector's edition form, another problem arises - scalpers.
Whether it be the the latest PS5 consoles or the special editions of Starfield, scalpers are always there to ruin your fine by hoovering up the hottest gaming products. Now, in a new initiative, THQ Nordic is going to be fuelling the scalping fire.
According to a blog post on the THQ Nordic website, all games that are published by the company going forward will be produced in limited quantities. It's tempting to think that this only applies to unique editions of titles, but this also applies to all standards boxed copies too.
Some of these copies will be sent to the THQ Nordic store in Vienna, some will be destined for their online store for general purchase, and some will be sent to the Embracer Group Archives.
The blog post shows a case study of this complicated system with Jagged Alliance 3. It will have a 2500 total serialised physical copies released, only 999 of which will be available to an international audience via its online store (the majority of units being in German language).
It's easy to see, then, how scalpers can target these limited runs and have a field day. Even if checks and balances are put in place by THQ Nordic and they limit it to one copy per customer, copies are going to quickly start appearing on eBay at vastly inflated prices.
I hate to say it, but I think we're witnessing the death of physical games. What am I going to do with all that shelf space?