Upcoming mid-tier physical releases

For a hot minute we were at a place where the mid-tier of games vanished and we were left with 60$ AAA games and 5$ indie games. Over the last couple of years indie games have grown in scope and become so numerous that it's nearly impossible for indie developers to find success on the digital frontier. Poured 5 years of your life into creating a game? Enjoy watching it appear on the front page of Steam for 20 minutes before vanishing into obscurity.

Perhaps for this reason, indie devs have started turning to publishers to have their games put out on physical media, effectively bringing back the mid-tier genre of games, released at mid-tier prices.

As a collector, I am absolutely stoked about this development. Here is a bunch of new and upcoming games announced for physical release on consoles.

I'll add more as I discover them

List items

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  FAST Racing Neo

  The "nobody wanted to make F-Zero so we did it ourselves" racing game on the Wii U is getting a physical release under the label eShop Selects. Published by Nintendo, that pretty much makes it F-Zero right?

• 

  SteamWorld Collection

  Similarly, the SteamWorld Collection, consisting of SteamWorld Heist and SteamWorld Dig will also appear on Wii U under the eShop Selects moniker, but this collection will also be available on disc for PlayStation 4.

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  Space Hulk

  A company called Funbox Media is putting out three of the many recent and upcoming Warhammer 40.000 games on PlayStation 4. These are Space Hulk, Space Hulk: Ascension and the mobile F2P game Warhammer 40.000: Deathwatch. That last game relies on micro transactions on mobile, but with a physical 45£ release on PlayStation 4, I wonder if that stuff will be taken out?

• 

  Zenith

  THQ was famous for being the last bastion of mid-tier games and as Nordic Games are re-branding themselves as THQ Nordic, they are heading back into that with a couple of interesting games. Zenith is one of them, being a fantasy ARPG that relies on humor, rather than the self-serious drama we are used to seeing from these sorts of games. Coming out for PS4

• 

  Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny

  This might sound like a fake name someone came up with for a game that appears in an episode of CSI where some role playing dudes kill each other in real life, but it IS actually a real game. Very traditional first person RPG that switches into top down strategy when you go into combat. This comes out for both PS4 and Xbox One.

• 

  Mount & Blade: Warband

  A pretty old PC game by now, but it's set to come out on disc for both PS4 and Xbox One. It's the sorta game where you can truly go anywhere and do anything in stark contrast to big AAA games that promise that and then still have the same linear experience across the board.

• 

  Assault Suit Leynos

  Blessed be Rising Star Games. In the previous generation they were the ones to localize the 360 Cave SHMUPS on physical disc for the west and now they are putting out Assault Suit Leynos for PlayStation 4. A gem well worth picking up!

• 

  Lumo

  Isometric puzzle platformer for PlayStation 4 and Vita, which personally reminds me of Solstice on the NES. This is the sorta game you'd just expect to get shoved into the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games bundle as a filler, but it's actually getting a real physical release. Nice!

• 

  Aragami

  You wouldn't expect a low-poly Tenchu-like to get a physical release, but Aragami is coming out on disc for PlayStation 4, Windows and Mac.

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  Earth's Dawn

  Another Rising Star Game localization. This is a side-scrolling Devil May Cry-style brawler. Very stylish looking!

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  Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today

  Not my cup of tea, because I don't like these sorts of games unless they are funny, but this seems to be a highly-rated point and click adventure game. It's been on iOS, Steam and as now heading to PS4 as an actual disc-based release.

• 

  Lucius

  Become a satanic child hitman in this horror game (quicklook on the site).

  This might actually be Lucius 2, since that is the game that got a PEGI rating last year, but it's a product simply titled "Lucius" that appears on online stores around the net. Maybe they got a collection of one and two brewing? Coming out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Wii U.

• 

  Cartoon Network

  Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers is a sidescrolling brawler with all your favorite characters, like Clarence and Steven. You'd think this would just be a throwaway thing to appear on digital only, but there's a pretty inexpensive physical copy coming for both PS4 and the Xbox One. This game is getting published by "Maximum Games" who has a few other titles that borders on shovelware-lookin', so I won't bother listing them here.

• 

  Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

  This game is already out across multiple platforms, but a physical 3DS version is hitting the streets very soon. Something to tide us over while we wait for "½ Genie Hero"

• 

  Slain!

  The not-so-excellent-at-release-but-really-neat-after-they-fixed-it indie game Slain is also getting a physical release on PS4.

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  This Is the Police

  Police simulation comes to the PS4 on a physical disc in March 2017