Digital distribution and, more specifically, the ever-increasing number of digital storefronts as well as the success of Steam as a platform, gave rise to the vibrant and varied indiegaming landscape we've got today. A similar success would be inconceivable if it was tied to retail releases, which now seem to be a thing of the past for most indie and mid-tier titles - retail is the domain of AAA blockbusters, firmly in the hands of big publishers. Meanwhile, niche products have mostly gone digital, and a lot of them thrive this way. However, this doesn't mean that indie games have completely departed the retail space. There are a few companies still trying to brave the increasingly harsher market conditions.

I talked to Gregor Ebert (Headup Games), Hans van Brakel (Soedesco), and Josh Fairhurst (Limited Run Games) about their approach to retail publishing. Both Headup Games and Soedesco pursue traditional brick and mortar distribution for PC and consoles, respectively, and also act as digital distributors and publishers. Limited Run Games, on the other hand, carved out a niche by producing small quantities of acclaimed console games and exclusively selling these boxed versions online, targeting an even smaller customer subset: collectors of limited retail editions.
Since the viability of retail sales in a world that is increasingly turning towards digital distribution is certainly an issue, I wanted to know how these publishers perceive their role on the market. ...