As the video game industry continues to move towards an all-digital future, and as people have started learning what that means--we are trading ownership for convenience--it feels like there's a growing awareness that, whether it be in the name of preservation or just being able to say you own something, maybe we should keep buying physical copies of video games after all.
While this includes just buying a disc from your local retailer, companies like Limited Run have seen a space in the market for this growing appetite and begun offering proper boxed game experiences. Now Lost In Cult, a company better known for its lovely books and magazines, have too.
I'm writing about this not because it's something we got in a press release--we get a lot of that, even though this is very much not a website that does that stuff!--but because I think this is genuinely a very cool thing, as not only are they going overboard in terms of the packaging, but they also have a very cool philosophy behind re-releasing games in a box in 2025.
Lost In Cult say that every game that they release--and the initial run includes Immortality, The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow and the wonderful Thank Goodness You're Here--is being run by DoesItPlay?, "a group that tests physical releases to determine their playability for the future", and that all the material they're creating, from posters to booklets, is being shared with "multiple museums and archive groups".
I dig it! You can read more about the release schedule and specifics of each game at their site.
