Why are we paying the same price for digital games as physical copies?

[Rain for x-gods]

We aren’t paying for plastic, paper, distribution costs or anything else. Why is it the same price digitally as a physical copy? Plus it is cutting down on the carbon footprint ect etc….

[Zukabazuka]

Retail stores still had a massive hold on the market when it started and believe they said they would stop selling any company games that sold them cheaper online than their current price.

The other reason is its good amount of money for the company so why make it cheaper. Just cash in more money.

[Komarimaru]

The same reason games have stayed the same price for decades. It's only been until recently that games have reached the 1980's pricing again and gone up a whole $10.

[rawWwRrr]

Because you've been conditioned to accept the given price is of equal value to the entertainment received from the product regardless of the packaging, or lack there of.

[Wolverine]

Well, when people accept any crazy price for any mediocre game, because some "influencer" tells them to buy overpriced junk, that's on them and nobody else. And yes, most games released these days are pure junk.

My personal strategy for buying new games, i ignore the hype trains around them, i always wait until a "Collector's Edition" of a game that i really want has dropped it's price to around 30€ and then buy it. I pay less and get most of the time a better game, because by then most games were patched a few times already.

Add to that a HumbleBundle monthly sub., Amazon Prime, plus free games from Epic every week and sometimes from GoG or Steam directly - that's more then enough new games for me.

Anyway, like i always say, players don't need a specific game, but a game needs players.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by Komarimaru:

The same reason games have stayed the same price for decades. It's only been until recently that games have reached the 1980's pricing again and gone up a whole $10.

This.


https://store.steampowered.com/sub/222/


I was lucky and got it for $15, 15 years ago.

[Will be deleted]

Because people by the games at those prices. If people refused to buy video games that cost more than $20, like what do you think video games would cost in such case?

Originally posted by Komarimaru:

The same reason games have stayed the same price for decades. It's only been until recently that games have reached the 1980's pricing again and gone up a whole $10.

Seems true, but the real difference is video games relative cost of other things, like rent, houses and basically everything else was cheaper if not much cheaper than it is today while video games cost about the same in nominal terms.

So if rent is 4 times higher and video games cost same, it maybe feel video games today is about 4 times cheaper than 40 years ago.

Although many people would say wages 40 years ago was overall better than wages today, mostly because the stuff people need today is so massively overpriced and wages have not kept up with those costs.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Also, people forget that you don't have to pay Steam Store prices.

There's over a dozen legitimate sites that are authorized to sell Steam keys and they're always having a sale. All you have to do wait for the game you want to go on sale.

Authorized means those keys come straight from the dev or publisher.

[Crazy Tiger]

People really overestimate the costs for the physical part. Retail stores took major cuts compared to digital stores.

Plus ultimately, if people pay those prices for their games, why would they need to lower the price? Because of the sentiment of random user X?

[Will be deleted]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Also, people forget that you don't have to pay Steam Store prices.

There's over a dozen legitimate sites that are authorized to sell Steam keys and they're always having a sale. All you have to do wait for the game you want to go on sale.

Authorized means those keys come straight the dev or publisher.

It also help the developers more as steam don't take their cut from those keys based on my knowledge.

[veracsthane]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Because you've been conditioned to accept the given price is of equal value to the entertainment received from the product regardless of the packaging, or lack there of.

thats not even the worst part and people like to ignore that.

the worst part is they cry about labor or power costs and the server farms are in places like California where its the most costly possible place to have them...

oh and its not even 60-70 dollar games. its like 90-100 thanks to week 1 dlc and early access plus another 100-200 dlc + cosmetics... which is fine when you have games not buggy unfinished politcal activist social engineering garbage which is butchering the multi player market. every time i hear anything about censorship and anti consumer practices that arent flat out price gouging like ea was doing i get nam type flash backs to blizzard.

"what you dont got phones" they knew what they where doing and why it was wrong and they not only did it anyways they even knew where users where going to go as users dumped blizzard on pc trash as people got sick of them and expected to make more money.

[Will be deleted]

Originally posted by veracsthane:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Because you've been conditioned to accept the given price is of equal value to the entertainment received from the product regardless of the packaging, or lack there of.

thats not even the worst part and people like to ignore that.

the worst part is they cry about labor or power costs and the server farms are in places like California where its the most costly possible place to have them...

oh and its not even 60-70 dollar games. its like 90-100 thanks to week 1 dlc and early access plus another 100-200 dlc + cosmetics... which is fine when you have games not buggy unfinished politcal activist social engineering garbage which is butchering the multi player market. every time i hear anything about censorship and anti consumer practices that arent flat out price gouging like ea was doing i get nam type flash backs to blizzard.

"what you dont got phones" they knew what they where doing and why it was wrong and they not only did it anyways they even knew where users where going to go as users dumped blizzard on pc trash as people got sick of them and expected to make more money.

Quite a few people who play video games earn a lot of money and probably don't care that much about prices.

[sfnhltb]

We are? I would say am generally paying about half what I did for games about 30+ years ago (which inflation adjust presumably is more like a quarter of the price in real terms).

[Paratech2008]

I picked up the Sega Genesis collection digital for the Switch for $5 on sale and the physical copy was $30.

I picked up the Bioshock trilogy, Saints Row IV GotY, Torchlight II, Dragon's Dogma, A Hat in Time with all DLC, the Sega Genesis collection, Sonic 2, all for under $40. And it ate my 128GB memory card. (Switch)

[Ben Lubar]

A game that cost $30 in 1980 is the equivalent of a game that costs $115 now.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by Will be deleted:

It also help the developers more as steam don't take their cut from those keys based on my knowledge.

While Steam doesn't get a cut from Steam Key sales, key reseller stores take the industry standard 30% cut from any keys sold on their platforms. So no, the developers don't get more from selling Steam Keys (unless they sell directly without middle men) than selling directly from Steam.