I was under the impression PC games were cheaper than on consoles...

[Waifu4Life]

Hey there,

I'm making the transition to PC gaming and I got my wish list ready (https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/profiles/76561198313094958/#sort=price) for the next Steam sales, but one thing is bothering me, why are some games more expensive than their PS4 counterparts on Amazon, BestBuy and GameStop/EBGames?

I thought the point of digital games on Steam was to be cheaper because there's no physical media to produce and no console licence to pay. Why are games like NieR:Automata more than twice the price than a new PS4 copy? I get the feeling that they're dropping the prices for consoles but they're forgetting their PC version.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publishers set the prices for their game ON Steam.

And the 2 sales events haven't even begun.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Publishers set the prices for their game ON Steam.

My last phrase wouldn't make much sense if Valve would dictate 3rd party prices on console now would it?

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

And the 2 sales events haven't even begun.

:qr:

When a company decides to reduce a price on one system, they should do it for all systems. Lowering the price of those games to match their console counterparts during a Steam sale is not a sale, it's playing catch up.

[Snapjak]

You need to realize one thing.

Physical vs. Digital

Retailers BUY thousands of physical copies at wholesale or less, and then sell them at whatever price they want since they actually own them. Those copies take up actual space and need to be moved to make room for new inventory.

The same is not true at all for digital. No space taken, as many "copies" as anyone could ever want, and all at the click of a mouse. Or touch of a finger if you phone it.

[anrkyuk]

This website will be your new best friend...
https://isthereanydeal.com/

Less than 20% of my games were bought on Steam as they are rarely the cheapest place to buy games. Simply enter the game name and it will give you the historical lowest price for the game and the current lowest price for the game for all stores authorised to sell Steam keys.

On a final note, do not be tempted to buy super cheap keys from sites/stores not listed on isthereanydeal such as Ebay, G2A, CDKEYS etc... there is a reason Steam has censored those names, because they are crooks selling grey market keys meant for different regions, sold without authorisation, purchased from bundles not meant for resale or paid for with stolen credit cards for resale.

[ReBoot]

Sales. You can get rather cheap games on sales. Physical PC games are also often rather cheap. The Steam storefront is, outside of sales, rather expensive indeed.
Sales.

[FreeToaster]

Without looking, it sounds like what you're looking at are physical copies.

Physical copies are owned by the seller and they will lower prices to push the product as not selling it wastes space and selling it at a discount is better than not at all.

I'd assume the price of Nier Automata on the PlayStation store is $59.99 or at least close to it as SE actually has control of the price there.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

You need to realize one thing.

Physical vs. Digital

Retailers BUY thousands of physical copies at wholesale or less, and then sell them at whatever price they want since they actually own them. Those copies take up actual space and need to be moved to make room for new inventory.

The same is not true at all for digital. No space taken, as many "copies" as anyone could ever want, and all at the click of a mouse. Or touch of a finger if you phone it.

Dude, I've worked retail at a gaming store for 3 years back in my younger days and let me tell you, if a store drops a game price like for Nier:Automata from what it's worth Digitally right now Vs the physical disc, that would be a huge lost.

The profit margin on console gaming is a joke: it's minimal on games, non-existent for the consoles and generous at most for first party accessories. The publisher or distributor needs to refund the retailer first, then the store will lower the price. Big chain stores like Wal-Mart and BestBuy didn't become rich by taking constant losses, any price drop you see has be refunded by the manufacturer or distributor.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by FreeToaster:

Without looking, it sounds like what you're looking at are physical copies.

Physical copies are owned by the seller and they will lower prices to push the product as not selling it wastes space and selling it at a discount is better than not at all.

I'd assume the price of Nier Automata on the PlayStation store is $59.99 or at least close to it as SE actually has control of the price there.

Physical copies? Outside of the last Blizzard title, where do you buy physical PC games?

[FreeToaster]

Originally posted by the_importer:

Physical copies? Outside of the last Blizzard title, where do you buy physical PC games?

I'm not talking about physical copies of PC games. I honestly didnt think I needed to clarify that as when talking about the prices of games on Steam it should be understood thats digital.

Your example was Nier Automata, Which is still $59.99 on PSN and probably everywhere else that offers it digitally because SE still has control of the price of digital copies.

Why the physical copies are cheaper has been explained already.

EDIT: After actually checking. of the sites you listed that offer the game digitally it's $59.99 all around. It's only cheaper for physical copies.

[Snapjak]

Originally posted by the_importer:

Originally posted by FreeToaster:

Without looking, it sounds like what you're looking at are physical copies.

Physical copies are owned by the seller and they will lower prices to push the product as not selling it wastes space and selling it at a discount is better than not at all.

I'd assume the price of Nier Automata on the PlayStation store is $59.99 or at least close to it as SE actually has control of the price there.

Physical copies? Outside of the last Blizzard title, where do you buy physical PC games?

Amazon[www.amazon.com], Best Buy[www.bestbuy.com], Gamestop[www.gamestop.com], Walmart, etc. You know, some of the places you listed.


Also, those digital copies? Yeah they bought the keys too. Only on Steam (or the respective store/client) does the publisher have direct control.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by the_importer:

Hey there,

I'm making the transition to PC gaming and I got my wish list ready (https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/profiles/76561198313094958/#sort=price) for the next Steam sales, but one thing is bothering me, why are some games more expensive than their PS4 counterparts on Amazon, BestBuy and GameStop/EBGames?

I thought the point of digital games on Steam was to be cheaper because there's no physical media to produce and no console licence to pay. Why are games like NieR:Automata more than twice the price than a new PS4 copy? I get the feeling that they're dropping the prices for consoles but they're forgetting their PC version.

You're comparing prices for physical and digital copies. You can't do that, you have to compare the prices for the digital copies on both platforms and they usually check out.

NieR Automata, to stay in your example, is on PSN twice the price of a physical PS4 copy at my local gamestore.

[J4MESOX4D]

A newly released PC game that costs £30-40 is usually £50-60 on PSN. Also shopping around https://isthereanydeal.com/ and buying in the sales is incredibly beneficial. Comparing physical retail copies and digital media is incredibly flawed though.

[Washell]

Regular prices on steam are high so they can do a 50/66% discount without screwing themselves over.

[Pocahawtness]

I think mostly they cheaper on the PC are but not always. I think what has really chaged over the past x years is that game prices fall much slower than they used to. It's still possible to pay good money for old games.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by the_importer:

Originally posted by Snapjak:

You need to realize one thing.

Physical vs. Digital

Retailers BUY thousands of physical copies at wholesale or less, and then sell them at whatever price they want since they actually own them. Those copies take up actual space and need to be moved to make room for new inventory.

The same is not true at all for digital. No space taken, as many "copies" as anyone could ever want, and all at the click of a mouse. Or touch of a finger if you phone it.

Dude, I've worked retail at a gaming store for 3 years back in my younger days and let me tell you, if a store drops a game price like for Nier:Automata from what it's worth Digitally right now Vs the physical disc, that would be a huge lost.

The profit margin on console gaming is a joke: it's minimal on games, non-existent for the consoles and generous at most for first party accessories. The publisher or distributor needs to refund the retailer first, then the store will lower the price. Big chain stores like Wal-Mart and BestBuy didn't become rich by taking constant losses, any price drop you see has be refunded by the manufacturer or distributor.

Actually the profit margin when a game first comes out IS around 5-15%, but that's factoring in the costs that went into developing the game. Once those costs are covered the profit margin goes WAAAAY up.

Also selling games at a store does not make you an expert in marketing, pricing, or anything else.

There is a price disconnect between physical and digital copies all the time. Physical copies are almost always cheaper because retailers are more prone to discount them because they have limited shelf space.