Buried amidst all of the other information in the most recent Final Fantasy XIV fan festival was the way that its boxed expansion releases were changing. Specifically, they weren’t going to exist any longer. While there would be a collector’s edition box for the expansion, it’s just a box of stuff with a digital code; all of the actual upgrades would be in digital format, and essentially the physical CE was just a box full of goodies.
While there are definitely benefits to this particular approach, it also makes me a little bit sad. I honestly have always liked having physical boxes for MMOs, liked pawing through the various things associated with these releases, and having something on my shelf to display as a little demonstration of a game that I’ve purchased. Then again, most of the genre is already dominated by free-to-play titles without box purchases to begin with, and even I had moved on from buying physical boxes myself. So while I might miss them a bit, I also recognize that even I had left them behind.
What about you? Do you miss having boxed MMO purchases?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
