Indie games publisher Super Rare Games has announced it will be launching Super Rare Mixtape Vol. 1, a curated collection of different indie games on PC available in physical format.
There’s no denying that digital gaming collections are a tad convenient. Your library stays with you across different hardware, you don’t have to get up to change discs, and thanks to features such as Xbox’s Quick Resume you can even have multiple games running at once.
But the prospect of an all-digital future does raise some concerns too. The ethics of game ownership and preservation are called into question when services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now increase in popularity. Even Hideo Kojima himself has weighed into the debate.
Thankfully, we have companies such as Super Rare and Limited Run which are keeping the sensation of owning a physical gaming collection alive. Super Rare’s first Mixtape is working with indie developers to bring their games to PC on a physical release.
a dream come true for preservation
There are 30 games (and six demos) in the collection, each one varying in genre from FPS games to platformers, visual novels and even quick experimental ideas. The idea behind the release is it’ll give these creators the attention they deserve, but more importantly, will allow the games to be preserved in such a way that cannot be done digitally.
GameByte spoke to Super Rare’s Ryan Brown, who spearheaded the project, to learn more about the collection:
“Even when talking about indie games, titles from this micro-indie scene have effectively never been given proper attention by publishers, or even players. To say the Super Rare Mixtape is a dream project is really underselling how much this means to me – I have literally wanted to do this since I was a teenager and I cannot believe it’s happening. Fingers crossed there’s an audience for this, because myself and the team here would really love to create more volumes in the future to physically preserve a lot of great, unique, underrated indie gems.”
I think what I love the most about this collection is it literally takes the form of a cassette tape. Albeit not one you pop in a walkman but rather connect to your PC via USB. Having primarily been a PC gamer, it’s been a while since I actually added something to my physical games library. I’m excited to see how this turns out!
The Super Rare Vol. 1 Mixtape goes on sale this Thursday, August 19th, and is currently limited to 1,000 copies. This limit could, of course, possibly be increased depending on demand.
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Featured Image Credit: Super Rare Games