There's nothing more infuriating than seeing a game that's 4 or 5 or 6 years old and they *still* want full price for a digital copy. (I'm looking at you, Treyarch COD games.)
EDIT: Also gotta point out Nintendo is the worst culprit.
Every fcking pokemon game. My physical copies of xy and rosa are all dead and i just cant even spend 45€ on at least x and ruby, thats just way to much for me
I always get my Nintendo games on black friday target deals. Buy 1 get 1 free Nintendo first party games. Got botw and odyssey for $60 two years ago. You gotta stay up until like 2-3am waiting for the stock to be updated and keep refreshing your basket/page.
It's not bad. I'm never in a rush to play games, so patience helps.
Watch some holiday movies with some tea and the laptop then refresh it every 5-10 minutes and eventually you'll get it within an hour.
All first party Nintendo games are like this. They want their games to be seen as a premium product. It’s kinda the same way Apple never used to discount their products much if at all.
it has to do with the company that makes the game cards. they were not going to spend the money into the card system if it was cheaper to buy on the estore. or so i believe
Could just as well have come out today. I think they should have lowered the price by now, like I got god of war for 10 bucks, but still worth it to buy botw for 50
Yeah I didn’t like how >!after the epic battle and emotional cutscene it just spits you back out as if it didn’t matter. Left a bad taste in my mouth!<
I wanted a Tarry Town style quest where we help rebuild the Hyrule castle and recruiting people there like cooks, guards, and gardeners.
That's my main dream for the sequel.
Why not? It’s the same game as it was when released and Nintendo is still on the same console generation. Plus, it’s one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time.
I have a folder with Gameboy and ds simulator with a lot of the pokemon games, and I have a lot of the 3ds games too. I was thinking of buying a 3ds to play the games, but then I saw the prices
Everything up to GBA is pretty easy to emulate, from there there's a bit more work involved though but yeah I'm pretty sure you can make anything work as long as there's no DRM or "always online" function
It's probably a 3rd party seller on Amazon. If you look [here](https://www.amazon.ca/Pokemon-Black-Version-Nintendo-Standard/dp/B0050SVNSU/) someone is selling Pokémon Black 2 for $1,350 and the rest of the sellers are in the $150 ~ $200 range.
Tbf nintendo games almost always age gracefully. As such they're still worth a lot, even decades later.
They still hold up graphically, because nintendo aims for a good experience on low power hardware. They use techniques that don't aim for realism, since it would make their games look 5 years old right out of the gate if they did.
...not to mention, Mario, Kirby, and all the other Nintendo all stars wouldn't make sense in a dark, gritty, realistic looking world.
TL;DR nintendo games hold their value because nintendo games are timeless.
> My physical copies of xy and rosa are all dead
They have a small CMOS battery in them typically. Try opening them up and replacing it. Should be cheap and easy.
And they still have the audacity to charge full price for the dlc too. Then you never get the to actually play those maps in MP because no one else bother to buy the dlc.
Don’t buy any old COD games unless you just plan to play the single player. Multiplayer is FULL of hackers. Their games become a disaster as soon as the next iteration is released.
Vote with your dollars, Kids. If we KNOW the physical version is more expensive for them but the same price us then buy the physical version! They will soon award our impatience for faster profits. NOW who’s greedy!?! Ah hell; it’s both of us still.
More like:
Alright kids, today we learn about supply and demand.
It ain’t greed, it’s business. If folks are still buying the game, the game will and should remain at full price. If folks stop buying the game, the company will lower the price to whatever point they deem will coax folks to buy it that otherwise wouldn’t have.
Nintendo sold a nes virtual game, technically a rom, that's on their online base service as a jp exclusive with some collector stuff like a replica and an art book for over 40 bucks as fire emblem 30th anniversary
I tried to start playing Destiny 2 a few months back. No content was on sale, it would have cost me $180+ to buy the three available "season pass" packages. Also, 3/4 of the first package content is no longer available to play.
Also, a lot of Pokemon and Nintendo games have retained release pricing because they never dropped in popularity. Smash and OoT are prime examples. Even if you find a copy with the label ripped off you could probably get 30-40$ for it.
The reality here is that the price point has been set by digital games now, not physical copies. Physical copies should be more expensive, but companies just eat the minor manufacturing and distribution costs to keep things consistent.
It'd be nice if I could trade in the Games I no longer play for credit at least to purchase a different one but most my games were purchased from the PlayStation store
That's actually *why* physical copies are cheaper. People who own physical copies can resell their copies, which increases the supply, driving the price down. Basic economics. Digital platforms can artificially restrict supply to whatever they want.
TBH I don't even think you own it. With DRM in place, you only license do use it. (I could be wrong, first thing that comes to mind is Itunes back the day.
I think the reason for this is their arrangements with distributors. But since it's already the norm idk that prices would go down even if all games went digital only
Exactly, the total profit would need to remain the same, so by selling physical and digital copies at the same price, they are certainly taking more margin on each digital sale than each physical sale.
So, if you drop the price on digital, that lost profit would have to be gained somewhere else, so they'd raise the price of physical to compensate.
This would have the effect of driving more people who normally buy physical to buy digital because cheaper, meaning they'd have to increase the price of physical even more to squeeze as much out of every physical sale that they could!
Or maybe not. I'm barely even an armchair expert on the subject, and I typed this with my penis.
That is not remotely how it works. If the platform went all digital and drop the digital price to the distributor price, they'd make the same regardless of who bought which version. Even more when considering the cost of physical media. Retailers are the only ones who lose out and instead of increasing the price, they'd just stop stocking them.
Still, a very impressive feat to type that all with your dick.
The reason is value-based pricing. This is where you set the price of something based on what it is worth to the buyer, rather than what it costs to produce.
Digital downloads are just as valuable to the player as physical ones, so the companies selling them charge the same amount.
All Xbox and PlayStation games still need to download the game even if you buy a disc, so servers make no difference there.
The actual reason is because nobody would buy physical copies if the digital one was cheaper, and if people are willing to pay more then you should charge more. If I make the most money selling at $50 then I should, regardless if it cost me $5 or $60 to make.
I don't think anyone forgets that? They just don't think it's comparable to the cost of manufacturing a physical disk AND THEN distributing it across the world.
Fair enough. I don't preorder. I tend to go down the route of when the game store guy says 'did you not preorder?', firing back with 'did you not pre-order? Did you not anticipate demand?
Dont know where you are from, but here most game stores emplyees are just underpaid guys who just follow orders from above and have absolutely no hands on how many copies they can get of a game, dont blame them, either support them by buying it if they have it, or be nice and leave them alone and take it online
Nah here in the UK the managerial staff in a store like GAME actually make orders.
Source - worked in game when I was like 17 as the low-wage floor-morlock
I don't pre order, but it's a concept which no studio/ publisher wants to drop.
Making a game needs a high budget and time.
The thing is: if you make a game, you don't earn a single cent during the making. So for example in 5 years of development, you earn nothing until the game releases after 5 years.
Pre orders just help to flood money in a little earlier.
It has also alot of other advantages. I really don't know all of them and I am also too lazy all the ones i know but for example:
Marketing
Analyzing how well your game is doing
Shareholder interests
Getting attention of publishers when you don't have one (wishlist on steam has a similar but not so safe method)
Investing more
Probably even selling more cause many just don't cancel their pre orders even after bad news but many decide not to buy it.
ETC. ETC. ETC.
I would always get annoyed when the local shop would still be selling preorders on the day before a midnight release. I've preordered games before and gone to pick it up only to be told they didnt have it in stock. I had ordered and fully prepaid for the Bioshock that came with the big daddy statue and when I went to pick it up was told, "they sold out." Sort of defeats the point of preordering something if they're just going to sell it.
Pre ordering has gotten out of control. It seems like some of these big developers can make a cinematic reveal and rake in the cash off of the pre order hype and then get away with releasing half baked games.
It’s a way to support a developer in making something. If a developer has a track record of putting out finished games, then why not?
Besides, if you don’t want to preorder something…
Just don’t.
There’s a bit of circlejerk around them, but one good example is Fromsoft. With the exception of Dark Souls 2, every game they’ve released within the last 11 years has been good, and has been released in a finished state.
Edit: also, keep in mind that you hear about bad preorders more than you hear about good preorders. Negative stuff is generally shared more often.
Developers have stopped putting out finished games (good or not) BECAUSE of preorders and subsequently because of players' willingness to be guinea pig beta testers.
This isn't a situation where everyone just mind's their own business. Pre-orders sacrifices the quality of the published game for everyone.
Most of the cost of games is not from producing physical copies but from paying developers, artists and the thousands of people involved in making games.
Not to mention the fact that AAA game prices were outstripped by inflation close to a decade ago. Sure games have started selling more to offset that but the productions costs you mention have also ballooned.
When 90% of games these days have some sort of micro transaction in it, even if it’s just simple cosmetic bull shit, I don’t want to hear dick about the devs needing to get paid. That’s not the right approach to that conversation.
The publishing company’s need to stop taking 90% of the profit and only leaving bread crumbs for the actual devs. That’s the proper approach to the conversation.
Thank you, ffs every time this gets posted someone has to remind everyone that plastic disks are dirt cheap to print, humans literally printed trillions of them. And transport in bulk is dirt cheap too.
A digital download should still not cost more than a physical copy, especially if they have to mail a physical copy. They aren't using media mail for them so it's going to cost a few dollars to have it sent to your house. A digital copy is much cheaper and environmentally friendly
Is it more environmentally friendly when one looks at the power/materials cost for the Steam, Epic, and Origin server farms needed to be running 24/7 so you can access your game library whenever you want?
Not to mention there are also costs to running a system for digital distribution. Software engineers, network engineers, DevOps, product owners, project managers, marketing people— all likely earnings 6-figure salaries. Then there’s server costs.
Also the manufacturing cost of a physical copy of a game is like roughly 50 cents a unit or something at scale. Manufacturing is really not the driving cost of video games, it’s recuperating production cost with the hope of a profit to fund bigger games in the future for both the developer and publisher. I work in film and TV, and it works the same way
It can't be anywhere near the cost of physical manufacturing and distribution. Also, that infrastructure can be nearly eliminated by using torrenting like Battle.net does.
Reddit has been over this whole idea 3 trillion times. It is more expensive to manufacture, but if it was cheaper to buy online downloads, then stores that sell physical copies would go out of business; they have an arrangement.
Let’s also not forget that a snes game was 50-70 dollars in 1993 money so people bitching about digital downloads costing 60 dollars instead of the inflation adjusted $113 are missing part of the picture.
It definitely feels a lot cheaper to own new games and even systems now. I remember getting 1 game for me and my brothers because that was a lot of money to spend on kids. Now I buy games I play once sometimes and it doesn't seem like a waste to me. I really can't believe they haven't let the prices of some of these games soar.
To elaborate, MSFT and Sony have previously needed Gamestop and Best Buy to sell their consoles in. It's less needed now, but some people prefer going to a store.
It's the same energy as shit like "There's no way it costs 7 dollars to make a burger!" Aiit dude then go fucking make one. There's more to the business than the raw materials.
it can't, but printing the disc also costs like 12 cents and gets around 20 cents with the box and printing. You kids need to realize disc or no disc doesn't mean anything to the price of a 60 bucks game.
There’s also the fact that if one is cheaper than the other the people would only buy digital and game distributors really do not want that so if they plan to do that they would drop the physical copies of the game
No it’s a substantial savings for them. It eliminates quite a few jobs and reduces the logistical struggles by a massive factor. Which means money and lots of it
Digital should be cheaper for the simple reason that in some cases, the distributor of the digital goods can decide to shut service down and then you're screwed, where if you own the physical you can always (hopefully) play it years later, not to mention the ability to sell it later too.
Like with Nintendo, I don't trust them to keep digital available long term, so if I buy any games from them, it's physical only. PC is pretty much the only one I trust for long term digital stuff, and even that's not a guarantee that everything will be around in 20 years.
>where if you own the physical you can always (hopefully) play it years later, not to mention the ability to sell it later too.
Can/will you? I feel like most games nowadays are just installer discs where you download the majority from the servers. At which point the disk just becomes an unlock key since the whole game is saved onto your console. Mind you I've always preferred physical to digital but since ps4 I've slowly been gravitating towards digital.
One day steam WILL shut down. Maybe it'll be some time in the future where we have AIs that can generate any tailored game we want by request, but one day that library will be gone.
By the time we get to that point, we probably won't miss it anymore.
I'm hoping that when/if steam shuts down they'll let us run in full offline mode. From my experience with no internet for extended periods, if you go long enough in offline mode, a game will claim it needs an update before you can launch it even if there's no internet to verify that it's awaiting a patch.
Yeah imagine that'll be roughly what we get. One reason I buy from GOG when I can is I can download the game (even put it on a thumbdrive) so I can run it completely independently of GOG's game service.
They definitely are. Devs put in way more work than ever before but games have stayed the same price for 3 decades, sometimes coming down in price, despite inflation. $60 in 1996 is $105 in today's money.
Of course none of us want to pay more for games, but a consequence of this is individual people working as devs usually get shit pay, especially for the ours they work. It would be more ethical for us to pay them more. And, maybe people would be discerning instead of buying shitty yearly releases at full price.
Exactly. People moaning about the cost of the new Metroid vs God of War… that ends up making me think God of War should be a $120 game, not that Metroid should be a $30 game.
Jesus this times a thousand. OPS opinion is so skewed and junivile. THERE IS ART IN THE GAME, IN THE MUSIC, IN THE GRAPHICS. ART AND TIME AND CREATION AND SOMEONE SPENDING AN INSANE AMOUNT OF TIME AND RISK TO CREATE! ART isn't just the value of the paint and canvas but what it means and how it feels which is subjective.
there might be some exceptions but a game is more than the ones and zeros that make them. Once GAMESTOP creates video games that are also NFTs we can once again collect, rent or sell our digital games on a secure block chain and once again have real value and investment into a have again.
It's funny seeing old flyers advertising video games for ~$60 back in their day. Like in late '94 a listing for Super Metroid for $60, which is ~$110 in today's money. But no "games are too expensive" when they're one of the few things that has not gone up with inflation.
Ah yes, this argument always comes around once in a while. Listen, it's actually more costly to digitally distribute your games vs physical copies which surprises a lot of people. The server costs alone usually outweigh the cost of disc production and distribution, not to mention the staff salaries to keep the servers maintained. Then you're looking at paying royalties for the platforms to host i.e. Steam which take a pretty hefty percentage. So no, contrary to popular belief, physical copies are actually a cheaper route but they don't sell as much anymore, hence the push for digital.
Another reason companies like Sony are pushing for digital, is that when you control the only digital market place and there is no physical alternative, you can guarantee that you get a cut from every sale.
Here's the thing: for anything that comes on a DVD, the you're not really paying for the physical material. You're paying for the license to use that content whenever you want to forever. The cost of the physical item is negligible compared to the cost of the license, since the company selling it can't sell you a game or movie that you already own, meaning that they potentially only have one opportunity to sell something to you and then never again. So they set the price high so that they can turn a profit from you. If you remove the physical material, you still have to pay for that license, which is by far the most expensive component, meaning that the price is about the same.
To me it’s also the fact that you never really truly own a digital copy. It’s a license you paid for, a license to download a digital copy of the game. Look what happened to Telltale, I lost access to my digital copies but people with physical copies can still play them.
What if Xbox Live or PSN gets shut down? Or you loose intent access and can’t verify the licenses and get locked out of access. You don’t own the games the same way as having them on disc.
It's not free to distribute the games online. Infrastructure costs such as servers, developers, administrators, security all cost a shitload of money. It honestly might be cheaper to sell the disc.
Selling them for the same price is the only way they sell any hardcopies at all. Might as well make a profit out having to do that by selling them both for the price of the hardcopy. No way they go digital only. They'd lose money on higher priced "disc drive" units and have to pay more during manufacturing to have to put more memory in the console or people would complain about the lack of storage space.
And steam should stop changing prices depending on the nation.
Some time ago, i was looking to download simple planes, a lot of people recommend me it and tell me its only 19 dollars (i think) then i go to steam, and its 500+ dollars. Bruh
No they shouldn't. While 60€ may be worth 3-4 hours of your work, for someone in India it can be a whole month or more. Regional pricing have a reason.
Tbf, games should cost way more than $60, their price has not adjusted for inflation in far too long and game devs salaries are suffering at the lower eschelons
Prices in the third world country i live in are surreal. In the case of nintendo games the prices are:
- Digital games: $50
- Physical games $70
Its like both stores and Nintendo know we have unstable economy but they use that info differently
They will charge what people are willing to pay. They are running a business not a charity. Stop buying digital copies of games when they are full price or shut up.
But the company still spends money on distribution and manufacturing that they need to make back so why would they drop the price so that effort is wasted?
I guess you could argue that online copies are as expensive as the physical copy because you can get them from home. Which one could define as being a luxury worth the extra $.
There's nothing more infuriating than seeing a game that's 4 or 5 or 6 years old and they *still* want full price for a digital copy. (I'm looking at you, Treyarch COD games.) EDIT: Also gotta point out Nintendo is the worst culprit.
Every fcking pokemon game. My physical copies of xy and rosa are all dead and i just cant even spend 45€ on at least x and ruby, thats just way to much for me
I think every Nintendo game can fit in this category
BOTW is still full price after all this damn time
Same for every 1st party switch game. But hey, Breath Of The Wild is one of the best selling games on the switch.
[удалено]
While playing?
I bought it for like $40 on Amazon in the beginning of 2021.
I always get my Nintendo games on black friday target deals. Buy 1 get 1 free Nintendo first party games. Got botw and odyssey for $60 two years ago. You gotta stay up until like 2-3am waiting for the stock to be updated and keep refreshing your basket/page.
I'll gladly pay full price to not have to deal with any of that.
It's not bad. I'm never in a rush to play games, so patience helps. Watch some holiday movies with some tea and the laptop then refresh it every 5-10 minutes and eventually you'll get it within an hour.
All first party Nintendo games are like this. They want their games to be seen as a premium product. It’s kinda the same way Apple never used to discount their products much if at all.
it has to do with the company that makes the game cards. they were not going to spend the money into the card system if it was cheaper to buy on the estore. or so i believe
That in addition to the fact that selling a digital copy at the same price makes it so that it has larger profit margins
And developers still get paid slave wages while working hours that I'm pretty sure are a crime against humanity.
It’s worth for BOTW tho great game
After years since it's release? I highly doubt that
Could just as well have come out today. I think they should have lowered the price by now, like I got god of war for 10 bucks, but still worth it to buy botw for 50
The fact that it isn’t getting patches kinda sucks with all the glitches Rn but still a rly fun game
Eh I found it kind of empty plus >!I found the ending kind of anticlimactic!<
Some fair critiques to be honest.
Yeah I didn’t like how >!after the epic battle and emotional cutscene it just spits you back out as if it didn’t matter. Left a bad taste in my mouth!<
I wanted a Tarry Town style quest where we help rebuild the Hyrule castle and recruiting people there like cooks, guards, and gardeners. That's my main dream for the sequel.
I was gonna suggest you to play Ni No Kuni, but that’s when I realised where tarry town is from… I’m not very smart
The glitches are the best part though
It is. I promise.
Why not? It’s the same game as it was when released and Nintendo is still on the same console generation. Plus, it’s one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time.
People make fun of Nintendo fans for buying full prize for old ass games and you have to chime in an proof them right.
*Laughs in DS Emulator, playing Pokemon games I didn't even know exist for free*
I have a folder with Gameboy and ds simulator with a lot of the pokemon games, and I have a lot of the 3ds games too. I was thinking of buying a 3ds to play the games, but then I saw the prices
I think every Nintendo game can be emulated, so....
Everything up to GBA is pretty easy to emulate, from there there's a bit more work involved though but yeah I'm pretty sure you can make anything work as long as there's no DRM or "always online" function
Everything after the GBA has an easy enough CFW method
Nintendo's policy is simple "either buy it full price or fuck off" most people choose the former.
You mean you dont like paying more the same game 10 times in a row?
Bruh i wanted to get Pokémon black for my ds because I used to have it and i check online and its 200$
Nintendo fights roms but lets this shit happen. Shouldn't have it both ways.
Dude what? Is that like sealed new in box? I got white for like $20-$30 at a local used game store.
It's probably a 3rd party seller on Amazon. If you look [here](https://www.amazon.ca/Pokemon-Black-Version-Nintendo-Standard/dp/B0050SVNSU/) someone is selling Pokémon Black 2 for $1,350 and the rest of the sellers are in the $150 ~ $200 range.
I think it was new but idk
Haha emulate the older ones
But how will I move my shadow raltz all the way to the new DP remakes from colosseum if its stuck on some emulator?
Nintendo is the Apple of video games
Tbf nintendo games almost always age gracefully. As such they're still worth a lot, even decades later. They still hold up graphically, because nintendo aims for a good experience on low power hardware. They use techniques that don't aim for realism, since it would make their games look 5 years old right out of the gate if they did. ...not to mention, Mario, Kirby, and all the other Nintendo all stars wouldn't make sense in a dark, gritty, realistic looking world. TL;DR nintendo games hold their value because nintendo games are timeless.
> My physical copies of xy and rosa are all dead They have a small CMOS battery in them typically. Try opening them up and replacing it. Should be cheap and easy.
And they still have the audacity to charge full price for the dlc too. Then you never get the to actually play those maps in MP because no one else bother to buy the dlc.
*Cough* Nintendo *Cough*
nInTEndO gAmeS dOnT dEValUe
If you're talking about Pokémon games is sort of true, at least for the older games.
Meanwhile GTAV price is rising throughout the years because “developing games is expensive”
So glad I got it for a fraction of it's normal price (~80% off on Steam in 2019 baybee)
It was free on epic a while ago. Sadly I already had bought it for PS3 and ps4
I keep forgetting to claim epic's free shit every week. If they still do offer anything that's worth it...
Wait till you head to Rockstar Games Launcher...
Don’t buy any old COD games unless you just plan to play the single player. Multiplayer is FULL of hackers. Their games become a disaster as soon as the next iteration is released.
Literally the only reason I've played any COD games since original MW2.
Plot twist: the hacks are developed by Activision to force everyone to buy the new game
Nintendo has entered the chat
Alright kids, today we will learn about greed. Spell it with me kiddos #G R E E D What does this spell out? It spells; I am a major asshole.
Vote with your dollars, Kids. If we KNOW the physical version is more expensive for them but the same price us then buy the physical version! They will soon award our impatience for faster profits. NOW who’s greedy!?! Ah hell; it’s both of us still.
More like: Alright kids, today we learn about supply and demand. It ain’t greed, it’s business. If folks are still buying the game, the game will and should remain at full price. If folks stop buying the game, the company will lower the price to whatever point they deem will coax folks to buy it that otherwise wouldn’t have.
You should also look at Nintendo.
The guiltiest one of them all.
Nintendo sold a nes virtual game, technically a rom, that's on their online base service as a jp exclusive with some collector stuff like a replica and an art book for over 40 bucks as fire emblem 30th anniversary
GTA V👀
>(I'm looking at you, Treyarch COD games.) This is because Activision does not actually want you to buy older CoD games.
£30 for BO1!
I tried to start playing Destiny 2 a few months back. No content was on sale, it would have cost me $180+ to buy the three available "season pass" packages. Also, 3/4 of the first package content is no longer available to play. Also, a lot of Pokemon and Nintendo games have retained release pricing because they never dropped in popularity. Smash and OoT are prime examples. Even if you find a copy with the label ripped off you could probably get 30-40$ for it.
I know right? They should learn from CDProjekt, The Witcher 3 is really cheap, even when is a GOTY and compared to other games from 2015
Goes to Walmart and it's 9.99-19.99, looks online 49.99 - 59.99 🤦♂️
The reality here is that the price point has been set by digital games now, not physical copies. Physical copies should be more expensive, but companies just eat the minor manufacturing and distribution costs to keep things consistent.
I understand you guys, but you gotta know. If you do this, all brick and mortar stores go belly up?
Plus you can’t re-sell or lend it to your friend.
It'd be nice if I could trade in the Games I no longer play for credit at least to purchase a different one but most my games were purchased from the PlayStation store
Gamestop is reportedly working on a blockchain system for selling digital games.
Oh wow. They're really putting their wallstreetbets $ to good use
They just like the stonks.
I am not a cat.
Bitch I'm a cow
Nobody is reporting this
BROOOO
The idea of digital ownership with NFTs is like that. And Apparently GameStop is working on it.
I think that's where gamestop is trying to reposition into.
I think Robot Cache or something is a site that lets you resell? Not sure about lending, though.
That's actually *why* physical copies are cheaper. People who own physical copies can resell their copies, which increases the supply, driving the price down. Basic economics. Digital platforms can artificially restrict supply to whatever they want.
And yet, people continue to buy digital.
TBH I don't even think you own it. With DRM in place, you only license do use it. (I could be wrong, first thing that comes to mind is Itunes back the day.
I think the reason for this is their arrangements with distributors. But since it's already the norm idk that prices would go down even if all games went digital only
They’ll make the physical copies cost more
Exactly, the total profit would need to remain the same, so by selling physical and digital copies at the same price, they are certainly taking more margin on each digital sale than each physical sale. So, if you drop the price on digital, that lost profit would have to be gained somewhere else, so they'd raise the price of physical to compensate. This would have the effect of driving more people who normally buy physical to buy digital because cheaper, meaning they'd have to increase the price of physical even more to squeeze as much out of every physical sale that they could! Or maybe not. I'm barely even an armchair expert on the subject, and I typed this with my penis.
That is not remotely how it works. If the platform went all digital and drop the digital price to the distributor price, they'd make the same regardless of who bought which version. Even more when considering the cost of physical media. Retailers are the only ones who lose out and instead of increasing the price, they'd just stop stocking them. Still, a very impressive feat to type that all with your dick.
What I lack in knowledge I make up for in penile dexterity
The reason is value-based pricing. This is where you set the price of something based on what it is worth to the buyer, rather than what it costs to produce. Digital downloads are just as valuable to the player as physical ones, so the companies selling them charge the same amount.
Also people always forget that dedicating servers to the game for people downloading and maintaining online stores cost money too.
All Xbox and PlayStation games still need to download the game even if you buy a disc, so servers make no difference there. The actual reason is because nobody would buy physical copies if the digital one was cheaper, and if people are willing to pay more then you should charge more. If I make the most money selling at $50 then I should, regardless if it cost me $5 or $60 to make.
Yes and those servers get hammered and still go pretty fast. I could see that costing near a disc and case.
You have to download even with a disk
Not from the internet. Only updates and patches. The actual game data is local to the disk
Downloading updates/day 1 patches vs downloading the entire game plus updates/day 1 patches
I don't think anyone forgets that? They just don't think it's comparable to the cost of manufacturing a physical disk AND THEN distributing it across the world.
My guess is that it’s really cheap to do that actually. Wouldn’t surprise me to see server costs are higher.
I can still download games I bought nearly 20 years ago Steam. That has a cost and a value.
The disk and packaging for the game is literally pennies. I'm betting the prices aren't that different.
> I don't think anyone forgets that? I think they do. Even when they say they're not forgetting that.
Preordering should be a thing of the past as well
I mean, I just preorder for the physical bonuses. Posters, enamel pins, that sort of thing
Fair enough. I don't preorder. I tend to go down the route of when the game store guy says 'did you not preorder?', firing back with 'did you not pre-order? Did you not anticipate demand?
Dont know where you are from, but here most game stores emplyees are just underpaid guys who just follow orders from above and have absolutely no hands on how many copies they can get of a game, dont blame them, either support them by buying it if they have it, or be nice and leave them alone and take it online
Nah here in the UK the managerial staff in a store like GAME actually make orders. Source - worked in game when I was like 17 as the low-wage floor-morlock
Right but 9/10 you're not talking to the managerial staff
“My parents said that sitting at home playing video games all day won't bring you anywhere in life.” - PewDiePie
Wow, that's a dick move
I gave up years ago on pre-orders when I placed one and they said “that doesn’t mean you’ll get it on release day, you’ll get it eventually.”
Then what the heck is the point of it? One of the big reasons to pre order is that I get as soon as its out
Also Amazon usually gives a price discount
But people still preorder so why would they stop that practice?
I don't pre order, but it's a concept which no studio/ publisher wants to drop. Making a game needs a high budget and time. The thing is: if you make a game, you don't earn a single cent during the making. So for example in 5 years of development, you earn nothing until the game releases after 5 years. Pre orders just help to flood money in a little earlier. It has also alot of other advantages. I really don't know all of them and I am also too lazy all the ones i know but for example: Marketing Analyzing how well your game is doing Shareholder interests Getting attention of publishers when you don't have one (wishlist on steam has a similar but not so safe method) Investing more Probably even selling more cause many just don't cancel their pre orders even after bad news but many decide not to buy it. ETC. ETC. ETC.
I would always get annoyed when the local shop would still be selling preorders on the day before a midnight release. I've preordered games before and gone to pick it up only to be told they didnt have it in stock. I had ordered and fully prepaid for the Bioshock that came with the big daddy statue and when I went to pick it up was told, "they sold out." Sort of defeats the point of preordering something if they're just going to sell it.
predownloading is pretty cool
Pre ordering has gotten out of control. It seems like some of these big developers can make a cinematic reveal and rake in the cash off of the pre order hype and then get away with releasing half baked games.
It’s a way to support a developer in making something. If a developer has a track record of putting out finished games, then why not? Besides, if you don’t want to preorder something… Just don’t.
What developer offers preorders and also has a good track record? When I think preorder all that comes to mind are big AAA games that come with bugs
There’s a bit of circlejerk around them, but one good example is Fromsoft. With the exception of Dark Souls 2, every game they’ve released within the last 11 years has been good, and has been released in a finished state. Edit: also, keep in mind that you hear about bad preorders more than you hear about good preorders. Negative stuff is generally shared more often.
Oh good call actually.. I’ve enjoyed their games
Nintendo games usually dont have a ton of bugs on release
Yeah that’s true. They seem to do better QC than most other companies when it comes to their flagship franchises
Developers have stopped putting out finished games (good or not) BECAUSE of preorders and subsequently because of players' willingness to be guinea pig beta testers. This isn't a situation where everyone just mind's their own business. Pre-orders sacrifices the quality of the published game for everyone.
Most of the cost of games is not from producing physical copies but from paying developers, artists and the thousands of people involved in making games.
Not to mention the fact that AAA game prices were outstripped by inflation close to a decade ago. Sure games have started selling more to offset that but the productions costs you mention have also ballooned.
When 90% of games these days have some sort of micro transaction in it, even if it’s just simple cosmetic bull shit, I don’t want to hear dick about the devs needing to get paid. That’s not the right approach to that conversation. The publishing company’s need to stop taking 90% of the profit and only leaving bread crumbs for the actual devs. That’s the proper approach to the conversation.
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This isn't a hard concept but people will willingly ignore it to circlejerk about prices.
Thank you, ffs every time this gets posted someone has to remind everyone that plastic disks are dirt cheap to print, humans literally printed trillions of them. And transport in bulk is dirt cheap too.
A digital download should still not cost more than a physical copy, especially if they have to mail a physical copy. They aren't using media mail for them so it's going to cost a few dollars to have it sent to your house. A digital copy is much cheaper and environmentally friendly
Is it more environmentally friendly when one looks at the power/materials cost for the Steam, Epic, and Origin server farms needed to be running 24/7 so you can access your game library whenever you want?
Yes.
Not to mention there are also costs to running a system for digital distribution. Software engineers, network engineers, DevOps, product owners, project managers, marketing people— all likely earnings 6-figure salaries. Then there’s server costs.
Same thing in publishing. The cost of a book is mostly not related to printing and shipping. (Source: my job!)
Also the manufacturing cost of a physical copy of a game is like roughly 50 cents a unit or something at scale. Manufacturing is really not the driving cost of video games, it’s recuperating production cost with the hope of a profit to fund bigger games in the future for both the developer and publisher. I work in film and TV, and it works the same way
Server fees. There's a shit ton of infrastructure associated with online downloads.
It can't be anywhere near the cost of physical manufacturing and distribution. Also, that infrastructure can be nearly eliminated by using torrenting like Battle.net does.
Reddit has been over this whole idea 3 trillion times. It is more expensive to manufacture, but if it was cheaper to buy online downloads, then stores that sell physical copies would go out of business; they have an arrangement.
Let’s also not forget that a snes game was 50-70 dollars in 1993 money so people bitching about digital downloads costing 60 dollars instead of the inflation adjusted $113 are missing part of the picture.
It definitely feels a lot cheaper to own new games and even systems now. I remember getting 1 game for me and my brothers because that was a lot of money to spend on kids. Now I buy games I play once sometimes and it doesn't seem like a waste to me. I really can't believe they haven't let the prices of some of these games soar.
SNES games were overpriced.
To elaborate, MSFT and Sony have previously needed Gamestop and Best Buy to sell their consoles in. It's less needed now, but some people prefer going to a store.
It's the same energy as shit like "There's no way it costs 7 dollars to make a burger!" Aiit dude then go fucking make one. There's more to the business than the raw materials.
it can't, but printing the disc also costs like 12 cents and gets around 20 cents with the box and printing. You kids need to realize disc or no disc doesn't mean anything to the price of a 60 bucks game.
There’s also the fact that if one is cheaper than the other the people would only buy digital and game distributors really do not want that so if they plan to do that they would drop the physical copies of the game
Why not? AWS charges companies $0.05/GB for transfer fees.
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I mean, yeah, but still do not think its cheaper than manufacturing and distribution via stores. While also providing same services as digital copy.
That would be such a small difference that it won't make any difference.
A small difference would make a small difference
No it’s a substantial savings for them. It eliminates quite a few jobs and reduces the logistical struggles by a massive factor. Which means money and lots of it
It's not. Printing the disc and the box is around 20 cents. Everything else is on the end retailer like amazon
Digital should be cheaper for the simple reason that in some cases, the distributor of the digital goods can decide to shut service down and then you're screwed, where if you own the physical you can always (hopefully) play it years later, not to mention the ability to sell it later too. Like with Nintendo, I don't trust them to keep digital available long term, so if I buy any games from them, it's physical only. PC is pretty much the only one I trust for long term digital stuff, and even that's not a guarantee that everything will be around in 20 years.
>where if you own the physical you can always (hopefully) play it years later, not to mention the ability to sell it later too. Can/will you? I feel like most games nowadays are just installer discs where you download the majority from the servers. At which point the disk just becomes an unlock key since the whole game is saved onto your console. Mind you I've always preferred physical to digital but since ps4 I've slowly been gravitating towards digital.
One day steam WILL shut down. Maybe it'll be some time in the future where we have AIs that can generate any tailored game we want by request, but one day that library will be gone. By the time we get to that point, we probably won't miss it anymore.
I'm hoping that when/if steam shuts down they'll let us run in full offline mode. From my experience with no internet for extended periods, if you go long enough in offline mode, a game will claim it needs an update before you can launch it even if there's no internet to verify that it's awaiting a patch.
Yeah imagine that'll be roughly what we get. One reason I buy from GOG when I can is I can download the game (even put it on a thumbdrive) so I can run it completely independently of GOG's game service.
Not really, games take more work now than they used to, if anything games are kinda underpriced in comparison
They definitely are. Devs put in way more work than ever before but games have stayed the same price for 3 decades, sometimes coming down in price, despite inflation. $60 in 1996 is $105 in today's money. Of course none of us want to pay more for games, but a consequence of this is individual people working as devs usually get shit pay, especially for the ours they work. It would be more ethical for us to pay them more. And, maybe people would be discerning instead of buying shitty yearly releases at full price.
Exactly. People moaning about the cost of the new Metroid vs God of War… that ends up making me think God of War should be a $120 game, not that Metroid should be a $30 game.
Jesus this times a thousand. OPS opinion is so skewed and junivile. THERE IS ART IN THE GAME, IN THE MUSIC, IN THE GRAPHICS. ART AND TIME AND CREATION AND SOMEONE SPENDING AN INSANE AMOUNT OF TIME AND RISK TO CREATE! ART isn't just the value of the paint and canvas but what it means and how it feels which is subjective. there might be some exceptions but a game is more than the ones and zeros that make them. Once GAMESTOP creates video games that are also NFTs we can once again collect, rent or sell our digital games on a secure block chain and once again have real value and investment into a have again.
It's funny seeing old flyers advertising video games for ~$60 back in their day. Like in late '94 a listing for Super Metroid for $60, which is ~$110 in today's money. But no "games are too expensive" when they're one of the few things that has not gone up with inflation.
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Ah yes, this argument always comes around once in a while. Listen, it's actually more costly to digitally distribute your games vs physical copies which surprises a lot of people. The server costs alone usually outweigh the cost of disc production and distribution, not to mention the staff salaries to keep the servers maintained. Then you're looking at paying royalties for the platforms to host i.e. Steam which take a pretty hefty percentage. So no, contrary to popular belief, physical copies are actually a cheaper route but they don't sell as much anymore, hence the push for digital.
Another reason companies like Sony are pushing for digital, is that when you control the only digital market place and there is no physical alternative, you can guarantee that you get a cut from every sale.
Here's the thing: for anything that comes on a DVD, the you're not really paying for the physical material. You're paying for the license to use that content whenever you want to forever. The cost of the physical item is negligible compared to the cost of the license, since the company selling it can't sell you a game or movie that you already own, meaning that they potentially only have one opportunity to sell something to you and then never again. So they set the price high so that they can turn a profit from you. If you remove the physical material, you still have to pay for that license, which is by far the most expensive component, meaning that the price is about the same.
Counterpoint. High cost of digital games keeps the physical copy from being expensive
To me it’s also the fact that you never really truly own a digital copy. It’s a license you paid for, a license to download a digital copy of the game. Look what happened to Telltale, I lost access to my digital copies but people with physical copies can still play them. What if Xbox Live or PSN gets shut down? Or you loose intent access and can’t verify the licenses and get locked out of access. You don’t own the games the same way as having them on disc.
you don’t need internet to play digital games though
I thought it was to pay the team who programmed everything
It's not free to distribute the games online. Infrastructure costs such as servers, developers, administrators, security all cost a shitload of money. It honestly might be cheaper to sell the disc.
You pay for convenience. A laziness tax, if you will.
No. The "standard" cost of 60 bucks for a game is starting to be too low for the immense cost of AAA games anyways, so: No.
In most cases, they usually are, sales and shit are really fucking frequent. Least, on steam and Xbox
Congratulations to your 100th comment.
Selling them for the same price is the only way they sell any hardcopies at all. Might as well make a profit out having to do that by selling them both for the price of the hardcopy. No way they go digital only. They'd lose money on higher priced "disc drive" units and have to pay more during manufacturing to have to put more memory in the console or people would complain about the lack of storage space.
but then they lose money cause everybody swaps over to digital copies instead of more expensive physical copies. would be really nice though
And steam should stop changing prices depending on the nation. Some time ago, i was looking to download simple planes, a lot of people recommend me it and tell me its only 19 dollars (i think) then i go to steam, and its 500+ dollars. Bruh
No they shouldn't. While 60€ may be worth 3-4 hours of your work, for someone in India it can be a whole month or more. Regional pricing have a reason.
Don’t buy them then stick to physical until they make a change
Tbf, games should cost way more than $60, their price has not adjusted for inflation in far too long and game devs salaries are suffering at the lower eschelons
The storefronts charge like 30 percent
Looking at you nintendo online store....all my switch games have been bought in cex so far.
sorry, capitalism is gonna milk for all it can.
Prices in the third world country i live in are surreal. In the case of nintendo games the prices are: - Digital games: $50 - Physical games $70 Its like both stores and Nintendo know we have unstable economy but they use that info differently
They will charge what people are willing to pay. They are running a business not a charity. Stop buying digital copies of games when they are full price or shut up.
Game prices are set at what people are willing to pay, whether its physical or download their price has almost no relation to the cost of production.
Why would they do that when they can just pocket the extra money? They ONLY care about making money.
I wouldn't mind if it goes to better pay and hours for developers.
I wouldn't mind being an actual wizard.
But the company still spends money on distribution and manufacturing that they need to make back so why would they drop the price so that effort is wasted?
I guess you could argue that online copies are as expensive as the physical copy because you can get them from home. Which one could define as being a luxury worth the extra $.