Hello, new guy here...

[Unwise]

I dunno - Combat Mission was orginally only available on-line, but after word-of-mouth and positive reviews drove the demand through the roof, it made its way to the retail shelves.

That said, an actual box is a fairly big investment - though I suspect the manual wasn't cheap - and Shrapnel might not be willing to take the plunge, resoning that the wave of new players from the reviews might have reached its peak anyway.

[Targa]

Yeah, I imagine it's a balancing act trying to figure out cost effectiveness with boxing and distribution. Also, there are some very bad things that happen to game developers (are you reading this, coders?) I have seen many cases where a couple (or a few) people developed a game, it became a hit, and they made a deal with a "big outfit" for their next sequel. Well, that changes the whole scenario. Now they get "pay advances" to keep food on the table while they develop the game, and the big company reaps most of the profits. Then, later on, the big company decides that the "ideas aren't fresh enough anymore", or "your current ideas aren't in line with what we're looking for", and effectively shutdown the small developer who has come to rely on them for food-money. Thief series (Looking Glass Studios ruined/shutdown by Eidos), Descent series (Interplay...Outrage/Ion Storm...Descent 4 was scrapped and you never saw another game from these guys), just to name a couple. It's a case of "Big fish eat little fish"...happens all the time.

So....stick to working in your garage and making quality games, and don't let a big publisher get their hooks into your flesh.