"Free" wouldn't have saved Concord. They had basically no interest in the game from the time it was revealed, and the open beta player numbers supported that. Putting a price tag on the game was an attempt to bleed out less profusely.
Most paid games don't have a physical release because it adds costs these days, it's surprising they have physical copies.
Is it just a free disc that tells the hardware to download it? Or some kind of collector's edition with extra stuff?
But give it a try, quick play is quick play and you won't get a good team comp, but I got to silver in ranked and people know what they're doing most of the time. You won't always get two tanks, but two heals and a tank is the worst I've seen.