The catch here is that it’s a limited run. You can only get a CD-ROM of your public repository between July 2 and July 6, 2026, and supplies are limited. The first 1,000 eligible submissions will receive one copy, and you can only apply for one per person via GitHub’s form. Notably, there’s no talk of payment on the form, which could imply GitHub are sending these out for free. It seems like eligible users will have to sign up to find out for themselves.
To be fair the days when a game was “released” and that was that are also pretty much long gone. Big studios now rely on being able to patch bugs after release.