That's wrong

I assume that it simply is not profitable. It's a pure business decision and one that is actually reasonable, as much as I hate it myself. As @AndreaColombo has pointed out I also think it has to do with maintaining the patches. There were quite a lot of problems with maintaining the patches for PoE 1 backer DVD, while at the same time players with a backer DVD are relatively few in comparison to GoG and Steam players. So it does make sense. And as much as it may make sense I simply hate this decision. *sigh* The question is, if - in a few years - when all the patching will have been done, if Obsidian would then be ready to sell actual game discs. They can still put the game on the disc though, even if it's not DRM free like last time you can still have a proper game disc. Sure they might save some money on not printing the game, but my guess is that they are going to get a pretty big backlash at release if all they are giving people is a steam installer. I don't frequent these forums very often and had I not seen a message on fig about this thread I never would have known about this issue, but my guess is that there is quite a few people out there that will have no idea about it until they actually receive their "game disc". It's almost better not to have a disc in the box at all, because getting a disc with a steam installer feels more like they are mocking you then anything else. Only thing that's missing on that disc is a sound-file that plays Nelson's 'HAA-HAA'.

Actually there are more then 1750 physical tier backers. So that's slightly above 10% of all backers that are getting a not so physical copy of the game. I really hope they are going to change this, or at least let us get a proper game disc after the game has had it's initial patching done. I wasn't counting the higher tiers, whether that was fair or not I don't know, but I would expect many collectors not to open the box and those higher tiers do explicitly say they include a digital copy as opposed to the two lower tiers that say they don't. I don't think that 1750 or 300 really matters when it comes to the reasoning as to why it's just a steam installer though, either way they'd have to have separate installers etc for patches for people who have (1) already paid and (2) are likely to be considerably less than 1% of total sales; plus complaints about not having physical copies of expansions and the like. I'd suspect that process was a pain in the arse last time and they want to avoid it this time. *well, theoretically and per description. The physical tier descriptions are a bit of a mess, if not outright misleading, I agree. A steam installer with (presumably) a code is a digital copy of the game rather than a physical one, by any sensible measure. Sure the higher tiers also gets a digital copy, but they are still physical tier, and sure most higher tier backers might not open their box but that doesn't mean that what they are getting in the box is unimportant. Then you might just as well just send them an empty box, why even bother putting anything in it if they aren't going to open it? The thing is that they could just put the PoE2 steam or gog installation files on the disc. Meaning that there never will be a need for different patchers and installers, everything is going through steam or gog.

There are less than 300 physical tier backers. Presumably they don't want to have to do a separate patching branch with separate installers for only a few hundred people and would prefer it to be handled through GOG or satan instead. Actually there are more then 1750 physical tier backers. So that's slightly above 10% of all backers that are getting a not so physical copy of the game. I really hope they are going to change this, or at least let us get a proper game disc after the game has had it's initial patching done. And why are you calling it a physical edition of the game when it's clearly the complete opposite? It's a box with a digital copy and not a physical copy. "A disc of the game" that's just a steam installer is NOT a disc of the game, it's a disc of the steam installer and nothing else. Edit: I just realized that the only difference between the Physical box tier and the Premium digital tier is the fact that you pay 14$ more for getting a steam installer, meaning you are charging people money for something that's free.