After watching the Quick Look for Dying Light, and seeing a few streams pop up on twitch, Dying Light managed to peak my interest. Between the neat looking parkour elements, and the RPG style infrastructure, (and also being a fan of Dead Island), I decided to look into how much this game was going to set me back in the UK, which it was due to launch tomorrow (28/01/15).

Much to my surprise, it will be available digitally for the full eye-watering price of £55 (£70 including the DLC package), but we Brits (and the rest of Europe, Asia and Africa) will not be able to pick up a physical copy from a store front until Feb 27. To put into context, you can normally pick up launch titles from Amazon UK for £40-£45 at a push. The difference might not sound much, but it certainly is when you are on a restrictive budget (wife, kids, mortgage etc)

Techland have commented and effectively passed blame and responsibility over to Warner Bros for the mistake:

"The publishing and distribution of the game is not handled by us. Once we at Techland know more about how the release of the game will be coordinated, we will immediately inform everyone."

Credit http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-19-dying-light-physical-release-delayed

What I don't understand is why there is no way to purchase a Digital Code from the likes of Amazon UK for the 'reasonable retail price' of £40-£45? I have seen US Digital Codes on Amazon.com, so I don't know why UK retailers haven't cottoned on to this as an alternative.

I love the idea of digitally purchasing games and content from the Sony Store (or Xbox Marketplace), as it means the game is playable without the need to dig out a CD when you want a quick blast. However, the stores are always massively overpriced by comparison to the physical copy.

Has this kind of thing happened before?

Are Techland / Warner Bros in danger of setting a new trend? I'm thinking along the lines of Day One Patches becoming the norm...

To some credit, Techland have stated today that all pre-ordered physical copies purchased in these territories will all come with access to the two DLC packs.

I guess that's me waiting over 4 weeks to get in on this game then... sigh

Any danger of @vinny getting his download finished before then?!

I thought this was about not being able to download the game despite having bought the digital version on PSN. A few of my friends were freaking out tonight because apparently there's a mix up of buying the regular game gives access to DLC from the Season Pass and buying a Season Pass essentially gives you the base game. It's kinda hilarious watching from the outside. Anyway, looks like somebody screwed up.

@hurricanehaines: Are you talking about console download prices?

Sony and MS can't set the digital download price of new titles lower than what a brick and mortar store (Gamestop) will charge for them. I know it sucks, but as long as the consoles need physical retail stores to sell their hardware and the software for that hardware, they're at the mercy of keeping those companies happy by not undercutting them.

The whole digital first and physical later release for this game is an oddity. I guess they could've delayed the digital version by the same amount of time but I don't really see a point in doing that.

I've read that the development team was working on the game up until release. That was from the twitter account of the guy handling the PR for this game. That's why review codes weren't sent out until yesterday. I imagine the physical version that is being sold in stores in North America will have to download a huge patch before being played. I'm not sure why they pushed the retail version back to February in Europe.

So, the PC version looks to be a bit rough, certainly a lot rougher than the console versions...

I'm both confused and astonished by a few things here. First of all, are you saying that the "regular" edition doesn't exist digitally? Only the one with DLC? Because that's effing crazy IMO. Also, from what you are saying it sounds like it's the norm in the UK for digital to cost more then retail. Is that true? If so then once again mind blown and WTF?

Bought a physical copy this morning and had to download a 1.6 gig update right away, though large update files on day one seems to be par for the course these days.

It has been a weird launch, but I got the game for US$19,99.

So I am happy.

I was considering getting the game for £55, but cannot bare to finish the transaction. I'm able to buy it, but good lord it's allot for a single game.

Yeah i heard it was a 'manufacturing' issue for the worldwide print and release... You can buy stuff on amazon.com from the EU. Get your code then add it to a USA PSN account on your Ps4 then boot it up on your normal EU account. Works fine on other games i've done it for like Jack box party pack which was never released here. If you really want to go through that! They've said that theyre giving away 2 lots of DLC for the late release... so just wait till then i guess for free DLC... .

It is shitty though..

@thethingaboutmachines: I had a very similar experience, I ended up buying it though because I had £40 already on my account and it had been sitting there since Christmas. I know my logic is extremely flawed but it makes me feel like I only spent £15 on the game.

If you're considering the PC version, I think you should wait for a major patch. From what I have read this morning, the PC port quality is terrible. SLI doesn't appear to work at all, and people with 780 Ti's are reporting 40-50 fps indoors and then sub-20 fps outdoors on high settings. Yikes.

Thanks Techland!

@thethingaboutmachines: Don't do it!! It's not worth it!

Nvidia posted a performance guide that's worth a look. FYI using the default GFE settings for my 770 the game is in the 40s outside but varies a lot of course. I get 60 indoors. I made one change and that's to enable vsync. I don't know how anyone can play without vsync. When I have time to go through the guide I am sure I can get it better. Their Far Cry 4 guide was very helpful. I also run from an SSD which I am sure helps texture loading, although I have no idea if that only happens at loading screens or more often.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/dying-light-graphics-and-performance-guide

I was going to pass the free DLC off as a mini season pass, but that's too insane. I guess, I'll wait for the physical copies to come out. I hear shopto are giving away free soundtrack and steelbook if you buy from them.

@philipduck: Not good eh? I'm one of the few that enjoyed Dead Island, so i can't picture disliking this. Haha, I remember kicking a beach ball and it kicked my game. I'm still annoyed that they removed the cool analog fighting style though.

It looks like the games detail draw distance is the killer, 100% really does seem to mean 100% which would certainly murder any current hardware under DX11.

I cracked and went to buy the game for £55. Not sure if I'm lucky or unlucky because it was pulled from the UK store and will be back on the 30th of Feb.

Yeah, I have a fairly good PC with a GTX 980. I put all the specs on Medium and I'm still only getting around 40-50fps outside, and not much better indoors.

I'm trying to figure out why I even built this PC since all the games lately seem to run like shit.

@jsnyder82: What are you doing, buying a bunch of Ubisoft games?

@mb:

*Facepalms* Damn, that's my problem!

The UK release situation with this game is poor and I hope that it doesn't set any kind of precedent in terms of retail strategy.

Basically, on release day, the game was only available as a digital download for approximately £15 (~$20) more than the box copy which is releasing a month after the digital download.

There were also no reviews available anywhere for the game because review code only got sent out at the last minute.

Whatever the reasons are for the distribution/release delay (and they may well be legit reasons), it left the consumer with a crappy set of options, i.e. a co-op game on sale via digital download without day-one reviews and no method to purchase a refundable/re-saleable copy should the game turn out be awful.

I didn't pre-order and I haven't purchased the game yet as £55 is too much when the normal retail price is £40. The early reviews are mixed but I am still intrigued by the game. I suppose that this market situation-created delay will at least mean that by the time I actually have the option to purchase the game I will have plenty of information to make a choice as to whether I actually want to do so.

I am so pissed off about this. I really want to play this game, I really dug Dead Island but £55!? FUCK OFF. I am not a big fan of WB as a publisher as it is but this is a new low for them.

Wow sucks for you guys, there were tons of offers and deals for it if you knew where to look in the US. I got it for 40 plain old US dollars. If you liked Dead Island it is a must buy, and it is worth looking at for everyone. I didn't even like Dead Island and I like this game because it fixes Dead Islands biggest problem, lack of mobility and slow player movement.

I got the game for £9 thanks to a voucher, so for what I paid the game is pretty great. But yeah, console digital prices are, and always have been, a huge fucking joke. I dunno if they still do, but EA used to charge upwards of £60 for Fifa. That's somewhere between $90 and $105 (I don't know specifically as I dunno how the dollar is doing atm, last I checked we got about $1.7 to the pound.)

I'm in the UK and in the exact same position as the OP. I purchased a $60 xbox gift card off the US Amazon site. Then after changing my xbox settings was able to use it to buy digitally from the US Xbox store.

Saved about £15.

Not sure of the legalities, but no way I'm paying £55 for any game.

I did pay £65 for Snes version of Street fighter 2 turbo back in the day though. ;-)

@james_hayward: Talking about shitty release situation the game will apparently no release in Germany. The game promotion in the PSN store is now missing and you can now only buy the Austrian version at Amazon which kills any reasonable way to get DLC. And the response by Techland/Warner Bros? Not saying anything ... wow