Despite gamers protesting Sony and Rockstar Games’ moves away from physical discs, another developer seems ready to join them. Phantom Blade Zero, the upcoming Sekiro-like from Chinese developer Soulframe and published by PlayStation, has opened its digital-only preorder. Apparently, they have racked up an impressive amount of sales from it. While no doubt the team deserves this success, it could also pave the way for the industry to move toward a physical-less future.
“The preorders for Phantom Blade Zero have been running for five days, and the preorder results have far exceeded expectations. For this, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the friends who support Phantom Blade Zero!” wrote developer Soulframe on Chinese social media Bilibili just before the August State of Play showcase, translated through Google Translate. He added that the team promises to launch an ‘excellent product’ for all the fans.
However, this reveal comes at an unfortunate time. Neither PlayStation nor Soulframe has officially announced that Phantom Blade Zero will be released physically, even though the digital preorders have opened and attracted plenty of buzz and sales. This situation might mirror GTA 6‘s preorders reaching ‘unprecedented and astonishing’ levels, according to publisher Take-Two. Furthermore, apparently most people preordered the $100 special edition, despite the game being confirmed for a digital-only release. All physical boxes of GTA 6 sold in retailers will contain only download codes.
On one hand, this could be seen as a precedent for developers to ditch physical sales entirely. And a pretty handy justification for Sony’s plan to stop physical disc production in 2028. On the other hand, Asian retailer PlayAsia said its preorders will also be sold physically with a disc. Again, though, this is not an official confirmation from the developer and might not even apply to all regions.
In the preorder announcement, Soulframe also pointed out famous martial artist Donnie Yen’s involvement with the game. However, he promised that this won’t be a simple celebrity cameo. “I want to reiterate that this collaboration is not yet another instance of ‘a celebrity endorsing a game for commercial purposes’,” he wrote.
Donnie Yen did the motion capture and is said to have personally completed the English voice acting for the main character, Mó Yuan. He then ‘invited’ popular Chinese actor Chen Hao and director and stuntman Yan Hua to help with the game’s dialogue as well as fight choreography.
“In our collaboration with Donnie, we have also continuously improved ourselves. […] the team has fully absorbed Donnie’s interpretation of Chinese Kung Fu,” explained Soulframe. “They have worked tirelessly for over a thousand days and nights to design and produce many unique and impressive game action sequences that we are proud of.”
For now, Phantom Blade Zero‘s preorder success is certainly encouraging, but the physical release question remains unanswered. If anything, all of these might prove that gamers are still happy to open their wallets — even when the disc is nowhere to be found.
