Planetary Annihilation will be the first Early Access game to be sold in stores

Planetary Annihilation, Uber Entertainment's spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, is the first Early Access game to be available for purchase at retail stores in the UK.

Store shelf space is usually reserved for finished games, bringing an Early Access game, which is unfinished by definition, to the masses through retail channels, is a bold move.

The move has sparked a conversation on Reddit, with several people debating its viability and even whether or not the move is honest on the part of the developers.

The game is clearly labelled as Early Access. Though one might argue that not everyone knows what the term Early Access means outside of hardcore gaming sites.

Game director Jon Mavor was asked by GameInformer about the studio's decision to release at retail, he said, "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.

"At Uber we've been trying really hard to innovate on business models during the entire development of [Planetary Annihilation]. 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."

Are you with or against making Early Access games available for purchase at retail stores?

Thanks, PC Gamer.