PC game prices higher than consoles lately

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DF-1

2[H]4U
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Anyone notice that PC games don't drop in price as much or as fast as the console games nowadays?

Cyberpunk has been $10 on consoles (now $5 @ gamestop) for a while now. It was ~ $30 with the last PC sales.

Assassins creed is similar. Right now $15 for consoles. Never hit close to that price for PC.

Why is this happening?
 
Retailers can set games to whatever price they want. (most of the time), prices on digital products are controlled by the publishers. Also, there is no inventory to manage with digital items.
 
Since I'm digital only on both PS5 and PC, I have different experience.
Console prices are way too high. I'm not buying a game unless it's at least 50% off. Preferably 60-75%+
 
I look at the prices every few weeks it depends on the game I know Demon Souls remake was like 67.00 at launch but it's cheaper now.
 
DF-1 said:
Anyone notice that PC games don't drop in price as much or as fast as the console games nowadays?

Cyberpunk has been $10 on consoles (now $5 @ gamestop) for a while now. It was ~ $30 with the last PC sales.

Assassins creed is similar. Right now $15 for consoles. Never hit close to that price for PC.

Why is this happening?
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Where are you seeing these prices? I know Best Buy had Cyberpunk 2077 for $10 a few weeks ago. Right now it's $30 for Xbox One, $23.50 for PS4. The $5 is for a used PS4 copy.
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The digital price for Cyberpunk 2077 has never dropped below $30 on consoles.

The digital version of the standard edition for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla isn't even on sale for consoles right now, while it's $30 on PC.
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Physical PC games are a rare breed these days, so they can't get the advantage of overstock discounts that physical console games do.
 
You can get a lot (maybe even most) PC games on different storefronts, so it's worth looking at Steam, Epic, GOG, EA, Uplay, Bethesda, etc. for sales and discounts. You can also look to sites like CDKeys and such to take advantage of lower localized prices for certain keys, too. I have noticed fewer deep, deep sales like a 3 month old game for $5, but you can usually get most PC titles for cheaper than a non-used console disk.
 
Digital only makes prices go up. E.g. I bought AC - Valhalla on physical disc for my Xbox one X for 70% of what the digital edition cost and I bought on release day. Physical media means there is a cost to not moving units which makes the retailers do launch day discounts and fire sales once the game has been out long enough. We lost that on PC when we moved to mainly digital distribution. For console games I mostly buy them on disc, unless it has Xbox play anywhere (PC+Xbox version in one purchase), as the discs are generally 15-40% below digital price. You can buy keys from legit (not grey market) retailers and save money though. I got my CD-key for deathloop at a 25% discount from what would be my country's equivalent of best-buy and bought on launch.
 
Console games will always be cheaper if you go physical. Personally $60 is my cut off for games. I have no issue paying $60 day 1 but I will not pay $70+ for a game.
 
Depends on the type of game. However, yes, for AAA largely singleplayer only titles consoles are way cheaper since people can resell their games unlike PC.
 
If you've paid much attention to the console digital stores in the past few years, you'll see they largely match or sometimes beat Steam sales, at least on Xbox and PSN stores. But even the Nintendo eShop has decent sales every few weeks for 3rd party titles and occasionally for their less prominent 1st party titles. Sony is pretty good about discounting even their exclusive titles by 30-50% within their first year or so as well.

I've pretty much been all digital on consoles since I got my PS4 in 2016 for Uncharted 4 and that was my first game purchase on PSN as well. Barring a few exceptional physical game sales like CP2077 that I got recently on PS4 for $10 (that I don't plan on playing until the free PS5 upgrade comes), I don't see much incentive to physical games anymore unless you like to trade in games a lot still, which I don't care to bother with and like to add to my collection in case I want to go back and play a game.
 
T4rd said:
If you've paid much attention to the console digital stores in the past few years, you'll see they largely match or sometimes beat Steam sales, at least on Xbox and PSN stores. But even the Nintendo eShop has decent sales every few weeks for 3rd party titles and occasionally for their less prominent 1st party titles. Sony is pretty good about discounting even their exclusive titles by 30-50% within their first year or so as well.

I've pretty much been all digital on consoles since I got my PS4 in 2016 for Uncharted 4 and that was my first game purchase on PSN as well. Barring a few exceptional physical game sales like CP2077 that I got recently on PS4 for $10 (that I don't plan on playing until the free PS5 upgrade comes), I don't see much incentive to physical games anymore unless you like to trade in games a lot still, which I don't care to bother with and like to add to my collection in case I want to go back and play a game.
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Doesn't really help when you want a game on release date and a there have been a few titles that never matched release day physical copy discount until a few years had passed. One used to be able to go through the bargain bin and get 1-2 year old PC games for 15-30% of regular price, but now days you can only do this for console games and it will typically be 20-50% of regular price.
 
evhvis said:
Doesn't really help when you want a game on release date and a there have been a few titles that never matched release day physical copy discount until a few years had passed. One used to be able to go through the bargain bin and get 1-2 year old PC games for 15-30% of regular price, but now days you can only do this for console games and it will typically be 20-50% of regular price.
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I'll pay the $10 convenience tax to have the game immediately at midnight release if I want it that badly, instead of having to go out for it or wait in the mail. Rarely is a game worth buying day 1 for me though. I just saw plenty of 1-6 month old games, some exclusives, for 30-50% off on the PSN store as well over the past few weeks.

Also, not sure what games you're talking about, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a non-CoD game on Steam not discounted less than 30% off after the first year either permanently or through routine sales. That's what your wishlist is for; it's the digital version of going opportunistically going through a B&M store's bargain bin looking for deals.
 
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T4rd said:
I'll pay the $10 convenience tax to have the game immediately at midnight release if I want it that badly, instead of having to go out for it or wait in the mail. Rarely is a game worth buying day 1 for me though. I just saw plenty of 1-6 month old games, some exclusives, for 30-50% off on the PSN store as well over the past few weeks.

Also, not sure what games you're talking about, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a non-CoD game on Steam not discounted less than 30% off after the first year either permanently or through routine sales. That's what your wishlist is for; it's the digital version of going opportunistically going through a B&M store's bargain bin looking for deals.
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RDR2 was never below the price I paid for it for Xbox one on launch (around 60% of the digital price) within the first 18 months or so, closest it got on sale was the equivalent of $5 or so of the launch price for a physical copy. You say you are willing to pay $10 extra which doesn't do much when the difference is mostly in the $15 to $30 range difference as disc launch prices haven't moved much but digital has. When I was ordering most games on disc the disc pre-orders shipped a few days before release which made it common to have the disc the day before official release or worst case on the day of release.
 
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