The Cost of Digital: WTF?

Klandathu

Rookie
Why are digital copies of games not less expensive than physical copies? Because I think they should be. There is no need to sell the game wholesale to retailers and no overhead costs to have the games manufactured and shipped to stores.

Other than greed, is there a reason publishers don't knock like five or ten bucks off the price of their digital sales? It could be a potential weapon in their war against the secondhand market if nothing else.
 
Klandathu said:
Why are digital copies of games not less expensive than physical copies? Because I think they should be. There is no need to sell the game wholesale to retailers and no overhead costs to have the games manufactured and shipped to stores.

Other than greed, is there a reason publishers don't knock like five or ten bucks off the price of their digital sales? It could be a potential weapon in their war against the secondhand market if nothing else.

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The reason behind it is, people get comfortable with the price. $59.99, $19.99, these are the cost of games, so generally when people see the same prices online, they think nothing of it, and publishers can keep the same number on there, because it's easy to get away with. Until lately, it seems.
 
Well, I have nothing to contribute to other than what Longo said about buying physical for consoles and digital on PC.
 
Yeah, it's a bit cheeky. But a little warming at the same time. Because as soon as they lower the prices for digital downloads, games discs will probably become obsolete much quicker than expected.
I'm such an old man - the digital age can fuck itself.
 
Simply put it's the concept of supply an demand. As long as the market can support a price, it will remain unchanged. Supply in digital is more or less endless for an individual title so as long as consumers pay the current price point it will remain. PC on the other hand is also combatting piracy to a larger extent and a lower price point and higher sale frequency helps with that.
 
I've noticed here in Australia, games online through say, the PSN store are more expensive than physical copies.

Actually no, not entirely correct... but for new release titles it's definitely so.

The Last of Us was $79 AUD in JB Hi-Fi, mean while on the PSN The Last of Us was either $89 or quite possibly $99.
 
Master_Craig said:
I've noticed here in Australia, games online through say, the PSN store are more expensive than physical copies.

Actually no, not entirely correct... but for new release titles it's definitely so.
No, that is 100% correct. The digital copies are ALWAYS more expensive than the physical down here.

Good example is 3DS. $69 on the eshop or $59 on ebay for a superior copy (protip: Class 4 SD cards are fucking useless, Nintendo). The PS3 and 360 are even more ridiculous, often with you able to drive to a shop, buy the game and then drive home and even after all that petrol use, still end up saving money.


And yet they wonder why digital distribution hasn't taken off yet. The twits.
 
UghRochester said:
Well, I have nothing to contribute to other than what Longo said about buying physical for consoles and digital on PC.
I don't even remember what it was I said.

Either way, the reason is because you are buying the license to play, which it's expensive due to the high development costs. The cost of making a physical copy and distributing it is probably not much more than the cost of bandwidth for each download. So they pocket the extra change from it.

Not even a bigger scam than microtransactions or pre-orders.
 
The only games I buy from digital download is Steam games. When Steam games are on sale, they're always cheaper than regular retail here in Australia. I think.

I never buy games digitally though from PSN, but now that I've got Playstation Plus I may consider it.
 
I've been gone for a long time and I come back, look at two topics, and find that nothing has changed. What's even better is that this one topic embodies everything I remember about GR!

1. Ugh will post whether or not he has something to say.
2. Ugh will acknowledge he doesn't have anything new to say.
3. madster will some how come across as an obnoxious know it all even if he's agreeing with someone else.
4. Longo will usually say at least one or two things I don't agree with but do it in a completely reasonable way.
5. Australia will inexplicably be used as a primary example.

My two cents:

I've always been opposed to the switch to digital we've been seeing recently. It reduces ownership for the individual and increases power for the corporation. If we come to rely on the cloud for our content it means we can no longer play single player content when the wifi fails or the servers go down for maintenance or are killed entirely because the game's too old to support. If we save all our data to hard drives we run the risk of losing everything if the hard drive fails vs one game if a disk is damaged. As for the price, it comes down to people paying for either physical copies or digital. If the game's wanted enough it'll sell in one form or the other and publishers don't really care which one we go for. Of course if we buy the digital version it does make them more money; they don't have to pay for packaging or distribution so the change goes in their pocket. Unfortunately I think a lot of people are voting with their wallet the wrong way so all publishers are hearing is that the public is willing to pay the same price for 1s and 0s in the ether as they are for plastic in their hands.

Also, I've resurrected a two month old topic from the bottom of the front page! How GR is that?!
 
maca2kx said:
I've been gone for a long time and I come back, look at two topics, and find that nothing has changed. What's even better is that this one topic embodies everything I remember about GR!

1. Ugh will post whether or not he has something to say.
2. Ugh will acknowledge he doesn't have anything new to say.
I disagree with you about GR changing. I'm not a Padawan learner anymore.
 
Im pretty sure Steam and other platforms take a percentage of sales for their services. I'm ok with steam and the developer getting more money. Plus all those steam sales!
 
Bretimus_v2 said:
Simply put it's the concept of supply an demand. As long as the market can support a price, it will remain unchanged. Supply in digital is more or less endless for an individual title so as long as consumers pay the current price point it will remain. PC on the other hand is also combatting piracy to a larger extent and a lower price point and higher sale frequency helps with that.

This. And they can. You're paying in part for convenience. Purchasing a digital download is much more convenient than driving to the local store, dealing with some rude Gamestop associate trying to sell you on something you don't need (poorly I might add) and paying $10 less. We will pay for convenience as has been proven.
 
Sourdeez said:
Im pretty sure Steam and other platforms take a percentage of sales for their services. I'm ok with steam and the developer getting more money. Plus all those steam sales!
The developer tends to not get the money. The publisher does.
 
Lethean said:
Bretimus_v2 said:
Simply put it's the concept of supply an demand. As long as the market can support a price, it will remain unchanged. Supply in digital is more or less endless for an individual title so as long as consumers pay the current price point it will remain. PC on the other hand is also combatting piracy to a larger extent and a lower price point and higher sale frequency helps with that.

This. And they can. You're paying in part for convenience. Purchasing a digital download is much more convenient than driving to the local store, dealing with some rude Gamestop associate trying to sell you on something you don't need (poorly I might add) and paying $10 less. We will pay for convenience as has been proven.

I disagree. Keeping the price the exact same on release day for the physical copy and the digital copy is a price gouge. They know that if they sold a digital version for say.. $10 less on launch day they would not make as much in revenue because most people would choose that option. We're used to paying these costs, so we will continue to pay them, but I think this perception is going to change in our lifetime. Growing pains, due to the passing of greed.
 

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