Early Access games arrive at retail with boxed release for Planetary Annihilation

Kickstarted strategy title Planetary Annihilation is now available to buy at GAME – despite the fact it’s still in development.

The SKU was spotted by Reddit but can also be seen on GAME’s website, where both the final game and the Early Access version can be had for 39.99. That’s 10 more than the Steam price, although it does include some extra content.

"At Uber we’ve been trying really hard to innovate on business models during the entire development of Planetary Annihilation," the game’s director Jon Mavor told Game Informer.

"We had planned to do a retail release all along and the early access box came about as part of our experimental attitude. Since early access works so well, our partners at Nordic thought that it would be worth trying an early access retail edition and we agreed it was a cool idea."

When asked about releasing an unfinished game at retail, he added: "The real question is, why not? After all, they are getting the same game, just earlier. It’s a changing world and we hope to continue trying out new and innovative ways to make games."

Steam users are likely fairly versed in the sometimes controversial ways of Early Access, but can the same be expected of High Street consumers?

Planetary Annihilation was successfully Kickstarted in September 2012 after it raised $2,229,344 – more than double its $900,000 funding goal.