Take a stand, Frictional

[Nospheratu]

He is almost nine now, high time to get mature for this little stinker.

In my opinion and considering he wanted "Mario kart" instead, i'd say don't do it.
Just like disturbing movies like Saw & Hostel are not meant for 9 year olds, I think neither is Amnesia. The psychological stuff inside made my head spin and I'm grown up; i'd hate to think what that game would do to an unsuspecting nine year old

Other than that, the USB stick in a yelly brain replica is a great idea

[Frontcannon]

The torture scenes are completely inappropiate for a nine-year old, the sounds of that guy being sawed in half.. I'd have gotten nightmares for months if I was 9 at that time D:

[strunz]

Ahemm...

I see you folks seem to appreciate a good joke when you hear one, don't you?
I was only kidding, you see. Of course my brother is not nine years of age. He is six. And when he was four, I forced him to play Doom 3 from the beginnig to its very end in one night. And for he wouldn't miss any detail, I glued his eyeballs to the screen.
For the people who still think I am serious - I am not. I won't let my bro play Amnesia. I would donate that to myself.

But to get back to my original intention: I think by leaving out the option of a physical copy, you also leave out a massive section of customers. If you look around you will not only find a large number of people who emphasise the existence of a retail version (the traditionals and the collectors), but even a larger group who would not even know about a game if it wasn't physical. Many never search beyond their known terrain such as amazon for example, and on amazon you won't find a download only game. You renounce a lot of money if you exclude the retail option completely.

I do not think the future will be download only, at least not the near future. The vast majority of new games is still published on CD and DVD, so this cannot be an appropriate argument these days. If I got that right, Frictional seems to have maid some bad experiences with publishers (or one publisher) regarding Penumbra, because they think they may have been financially cheated. Well, even if this is the case: I think there are other publishers than this one which would be interested and which would act in a better way. And if they do not want to share their profits with a publisher at all, I would keep the download only strategy till the boom phase of Amnesia ceases, and then, still, sign a deal with a publisher (maybe low budget) to skim the unutilised resources. Also if you don't get every cent of the profit - you still make money you would not have otherwise.

[Frontcannon]

In that case, sorry for the minor spoiler.

[Irontech]

I applaud Frictional for what they have done on such a slim budget, however...

How about a compromise to bridge the gap between a physical-deliver world and the download world?

Download/Gift Cards would provide a physical representation of the product, thus giving people something to gift-wrap or collect. Such an item could easily be marketed through outlets such as Amazon. Perhaps I'm being naïve, but I would think that there is very little overhead in the gift-card processing market and it would get Frictional the continued and improved exposure they deserve.

I, for instance, am planning to buy a copy of Amnesia as a gift for my wife for Christmas, and am dreading the awkwardness of wrapping up a homemade representation of a product. I'm from a generation shortly before the "Millennials" and I despise the impersonal feeling of giving a virtual item as a gift. The biggest difference between me and the average consumer like me is that I will give in to such a situation easier than some. If I had something like a retail download card, I'd be much more comfortable with either wrapping it (maybe I'd even wrap it up with a copy of her favorite horror movie) or putting it in a Christmas card.

Also, frankly, if I hadn't originally bought Penumbra (then Black Plague) at a retail store, I would not have ever stumbled across Amnesia (I became enough of a fan of Frictional that I kept checking to see if they were releasing a new game). Just imagine how many people never saw Penumbra/Black Plague and don't know anything about Frictional.

I love the work Frictional does and really want to see their great gaming work get the recognition it deserves, but I'm afraid they'll fade away like so many American Alternative music bands did in the 80's and 90's because of lack of cost-effective retail channels. Let's all make sure that doesn't happen!

In the meantime, I'm going to wait a few weeks to make my purchase, just until I can come up with my own way to package it.

[PvtLastClass]

This game would not have a lot going for it in a boxed copy.
-Independent
-PC only
-Too scary for most players
-Not heavily advertised

Honestly, they'd lose more money than they'd make. It's been obvious places like GameStop have been cleaning out their PC sections entirely. I heavily doubt Wal-Mart (the big one for game distribution) would give shelf space to it (they could put Black Ops in that shelf space =D! )
There are creative ways of giving it as a gift, and I think those are your best bet. I remember for my birthday last year, my parents printed out a big picture of the Batman: Arkham Asylum cover, and put the Steam logo on it; after a moment, it was pretty obvious what they were inferring.