Digital pricing

Megalith

Megalith

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I am fucking sick and tired of how digital copies of console games are practically never on sale. How is it that you can get a pre-release copy of a game on physical disc, with box and manual, for a cheaper price than digital? There is also never any incentive whatsoever; you would think that they could give the digital versions an exclusive bonus or something since their pricing rarely drops or even fluctuates.
 
Megalith said:
I am fucking sick and tired of how digital copies of console games are practically never on sale. How is it that you can get a pre-release copy of a game on physical disc, with box and manual, for a cheaper price than digital? There is also never any incentive whatsoever; you would think that they could give the digital versions an exclusive bonus or something since their pricing rarely drops or even fluctuates.
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And people thought that XB1 with its original purpose was going to be cheaper? I've yet to see any good deals for digital downloads compared to physical.

It doesn't make any sense what-so-ever.
 
On consoles it's literally only there for convenience and day 1 purchases. If you're in any way looking for a deal, you're never going to find one. Kinda sad, really.
 
I would say it's worth it
but then again it's not because it's a console game that is not even on par with low budget steam titles. It's a Racket best
 
I only buy digital when I know I don't want to sell the game. For all other games I go physical even though swapping discs sucks ass. But I can at least recoup cost of the game for the most part. Also I almost never replay games and am never buying a remaster again (already didn't play TLOU, Gears, Tomb Raider and now Uncharted series after 2 hours of replay).
 
I believe the reason is that brick and mortar stores have a vested interest in continued sales of physical product. Those stores put pressure on game publishers to not be undercut on price. My observation is that if you wait long enough for sales some good prices can be had, especially on PC.
 
Part of it is not to undercut the retail stores. As far as deals go there is usually weekly deals on xbox live for gold members. Some of them good some them not so much.

If you're expecting it to be on the level of steam and PCs then you you're going to be disappointed.
 
Hmm, since they make D/L cards for most things, and these games tend to be "bundled"... I've found many a deal on digital games.
 
I have the perfect example of what you speak of.

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Has never been on sale.
Will never be on sale.
This is probably every publishers dream...
 
PSN has sales with discounted full games quite regularly...

But seriously I have no idea why some games just never seem to go on sale. There can't be that many people buying games at $50+ over a year after release. Dropping the price down would entice me to buy a lot of games I would never spend $50 on.
 
ocellaris said:
PSN has sales with discounted full games quite regularly...

But seriously I have no idea why some games just never seem to go on sale. There can't be that many people buying games at $50+ over a year after release. Dropping the price down would entice me to buy a lot of games I would never spend $50 on.
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That's my gripe. I don't care if games are the same price as the packaged version on release. I don't need crazy Steam sales either.
But it's odd that like 90% of the games out there will never go on sale. That instantly means I'll never bother with them.
Steam has gotten tons of $ from me just by pricing games at $10-20 off. If a game is $20 and even halfway decent, that's a no brainer. On the console, that isn't an option so they won't see a dime from me. $20 is better than nothing.
 
I will admit I am from time to time guilty of buying back catalogue games at full retail.

It often unfolds like this:

- Sitting on the couch randomly scrolling through <insert console>'s digital store
- "Hey, this game looks cool. Must play it now".
- Pay full price, play for 2 hours, never play it again.
 
Walmart Retail sales of games has come to a total standstill I would say in 2009 we were doing pretty good now people don't want to leave the house to track down a associate in order
to unlock the case to get the game. Plus Gamestop happened to open up in like 2005 Ok we have PS3 games of ACDC in the 20.00 bin and they are tattered like a Red light district phone book.
 
I paid $19.99 for Digital copy of LoU Remastered on PS4. I think games that I will play during brief stints between my main game will be digital...thay way I am not swapping discs.

Uncharted Collection, GoW3 Remastered, and Bloodborne are on my digital download list, among others.
 
I typically buy new release games I know I really want digitally. I just like the convenience of not having disks and not having to go to the store.
I just wish they'd apply some form of sale price for games that aren't doing gangbusters business online. Just have an algorithm that says that if X title has gotten X (or less) sales during Y period that maybe we should drop the price a few bucks and toss up a banner on the PSN or Xbox Live site.
 
What they are doing is setting a precedence. When the inevitable digital only age comes the companies have already shown that there will rarely, if ever, be sales on games. This means gamer's who normally wait for sales might as well pay full price. This also allows the company will maintain that full price over the long term.

The difference with physical is that they print all of the games ahead of time. Trying to keep that inventory clear gives manufacturers an incentive to lower price to move units. This is not a factor with digital sales.

We'll eventually always pay full price on games.
 
I bought Sniper Elite 3 on Xbox One digitally b/c it was a really good deal, but other than that I tend to try to stay away from digital. I also made a exception recently on my PS4 when Infamous: Second Son was on sale for $20. Don't regret the decision, it just sucks that in the future when I go to sell a console I can't sell the game.

Which reminds me, those people selling consoles with games installed on them... I don't think they have any idea what they're doing. As soon as the other person changes their password, reformat, person creates their own account those games will disappear. And even if that's not the case, those games will never be their's.
 
PS Plus has deals changing every week.

I've scored some pretty good deals.

$30 Borderlands Handsome Jack Collection

$23 Battlefield 4 w/ premium

$44 GTA V with $1.25 million in game cash

$20 Alien Isolation (now it's $30)

$30 Diablo 3 (Now $60 again :( )

Lot's of $20 indies that drop to about $4-$5


Check weekly, because there definitely is good deals rolling around.

Also, since digital downloads are fairly newer on consoles than on a PC, I would say they(Sony and MS) would stick to higher priced games generally longer than PC prices, for multiple reasons.

A. Console users generally spend more on software, even with older titles too.
B. Consoles have only 1 source to buy/download digital games, where as PC has literally dozens, if not hundreds, of places to download AND buy digitally. Which results in having more competition to keep prices down.
C. Steam has thousands of titles, PS4 has a few hundred. So the audience is generally focused on the few popular games for a longer time. This results in high demand and keeping prices up. I don't expect GTA V to be $20 on the PS4 anytime soon. Probably another year for that to happen.

But I can promise you, the last 2 months or so on the PS4 deals section, has been MUCH better.
Check every week, twice if you can. Some deals last for 4 or 5 days, other deals last for up to ten days.

A lot of great titles have come out this last year, so I expect some major discounts hitting the digital stores by Christmas.
 
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