Quickie: Digital Distribution Done Right (Almost)

If you haven’t mail-ordered Starcraft 2 yet, chances are that you will be standing in a smelly game store on July 27th to get it. (You do plan on getting it, right?) If you don’t wish to leave your house or simply don’t want to waste time with installing and all that jazz, the newest offer at the Blizzard store might be for you. You can download the client now and then simply buy and activate it at 10 am on that Tuesday. Chances are you’ll be playing way before those of us who went for boxed copies.

Now, I don’t care too much about getting Starcraft II immediately (I’ll probably even have to wait a couple of days for delivery.) but if this was an MMO I’d be all over it. No lengthy installs, maybe even patches already applied and downloaded – sounds good to me. The one thing I don’t understand is that boxed copy owners can’t use the same service. Why can’t I  download the game and then simply apply my boxed copy code to my battle.net account on release day? Seems like an unnecessary hurdle to put in the way of those who still buy retail.