Nordic Games seem to have decided to try an experiment with their Planetary Annihilation game. They’ve decided to offer a proper boxed, hard-copy of the game on Amazon. This is the same version of the game that is currently on Steam Early Access. In other words – this is not the finished game that is being sold here.

The boxed version won’t actually be released until June 20^th, but it is open to pre-orders costing £39.99, which is a tenner more than it costs on Steam right now. It will of course be updated like the digital copy, both requiring an Internet connection to receive them. So why is Nordic offering a hard-copy of a game that isn’t finished yet?

We think of it as an alternative to the typical pre-order, where you usually get cosmetic DLCs, skins and stuff like that, instead of actual gameplay,” Nordic said in an interview, adding that they wanted to try out this idea for themselves to see how many people would be interested in buying the boxed game. They’re also including a piece of content exclusive to this version, a playable in-game commander supplied by Uber Entertainment.

Planetary Annihilation is currently in what Nordic have called its ‘gamma’ phase. It is a big update but still not a final version, just a phase in the development as they continue to update the game in the ‘next few months and weeks’. This could mean that picking up the game even a month or two after its release could mean a sizeable download before the game is even playable.

Guess we’ll see how well this experiment will work out for Nordic and their game. What do you think? Is offering what is essentially a ‘beta’ game for full price something you are okay with or do you think ‘Early Access’ is beginning to go too far now?