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….

[skOsH♥]

I typically wait for games to be $15-$30, especially if I know I can get a lot of replay value with it. That's the overpriced cost of a movie ticket (at least $15)

Games give you more entertainment value than movies do, usually. Unless you get fascinated with some particular movie(s)

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by skOsH:

I typically wait for games to be $15-$30, especially if I know I can get a lot of replay value with it. That's the overpriced cost of a movie ticket (at least $15)

Games give you more entertainment value than movies do, usually. Unless you get fascinated with some particular movie(s)

Imagine a game's price in McDonalds hamburgers, or whatever arbitrary cheap food you want. If you think a game will give you as much entertainment as eating that many hamburgers (not necessarily all at once), the game is worth the price.

[skOsH♥]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Originally posted by skOsH:

I typically wait for games to be $15-$30, especially if I know I can get a lot of replay value with it. That's the overpriced cost of a movie ticket (at least $15)

Games give you more entertainment value than movies do, usually. Unless you get fascinated with some particular movie(s)

Imagine a game's price in McDonalds hamburgers, or whatever arbitrary cheap food you want. If you think a game will give you as much entertainment as eating that many hamburgers (not necessarily all at once), the game is worth the price.

Yeah, but I can't split up a hamburger hundreds of times like I can spend hundreds of hours on a game

And realistically, the cost of a burger is actually *way* more than you pay for it. The restaurant usually recoups tons of money on fries and other offerings. Fries cost maybe 0.15c to make for each person and they charge you $5.

[SKARDAVNELNATE]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Imagine a game's price in McDonalds hamburgers, or whatever arbitrary cheap food you want.

Is McDonalds paying you to say this? Their hamburgers are not cheap.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by SKARDAVNELNATE:

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Imagine a game's price in McDonalds hamburgers, or whatever arbitrary cheap food you want.

Is McDonalds paying you to say this? Their hamburgers are not cheap.

You are proving the comparison.

[SKARDAVNELNATE]

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.

I've been buying video games since the 80s. I'm conditioned to expect large manuals and to swap discs while installing the game. Nothing today makes me feel like I'm getting the value of the money I spent on it.

Originally posted by 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?

I've refused to buy video games that cost more than $20 for a while now. Evidence shows that they keep going up in price regardless.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by SKARDAVNELNATE:

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.

I've been buying video games since the 80s. I'm conditioned to expect large manuals and to swap discs while installing the game. Nothing today makes me feel like I'm getting the value of the money I spent on it.

I'll give you that the lack of those colorful manuals is a disappointment in today's digital distribution age, but you actually perceived value from having to disc swap during the install? That having to babysit your PC while it churned away on disc 5 or 6 discs sometimes is more beneficial than clicking a button? Or having to always keep one disc around to satisfy the DRM?

Then you have to make sure those discs are kept safe, organized so that you'll find them again, taking up space on a shelf or in a binder that cost extra, and lest one get damaged it can't be replaced? So you go out of your way, spending more money and time to create backups that take up more space on the shelf, until DRM crushed that as well? All that's better more valuable than clicking a button and having a service deliver it to your PC, unattended while you do something else, in the same pristine condition as it came directly from the developer?

I'd gladly compromise my lack of colorful manuals with all that nonsense of physical media. My time is more valuable to me than the time spent having to deal with the tangible parts of a brick'n'mortar store bought game.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by SKARDAVNELNATE:

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.

I've been buying video games since the 80s. I'm conditioned to expect large manuals and to swap discs while installing the game. Nothing today makes me feel like I'm getting the value of the money I spent on it.

I've been buying video games since the 80s as well. I've always gotten my value out of actually playing the games, so nothing for me has changed in that regard.

While I did love certain manuals of the past (Vault Dweller's Survival Guide was fun), I can't say I actually miss them. The swapping of floppies or discs, no, don't miss that at all.

Originally posted by SKARDAVNELNATE:

Originally posted by 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?

I've refused to buy video games that cost more than $20 for a while now. Evidence shows that they keep going up in price regardless.

Because people who are not you are willing to pay higher prices, both at release and at relative discount, for the games. Which ultimately is more important to the game developers/publishers.

[Paratech2008]

I buy digital art books occasionally for games I like and digital soundtracks for games like beat hazard 1-3.

[phosTR]

greedy companies.

[Ben Lubar]

A huge portion of a video game's cost happens well before the build is uploaded to Steam or printed on a CD. You're not paying for the plastic circle the game is distributed on, you're paying for all the work that went into deciding what exact series of bytes should be on that plastic circle. And that costs the same amount to do regardless of whether it's going to be on a plastic circle or sent over the internet.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by 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….

Because the person selling the game deems that's the price you should pay. Take it or leave it,.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

we? i dont pay for games

Despite your attempts to pretend to be a limited account, you are not.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Despite your attempts to pretend to be a limited account, you are not.

you failed to understand a simple statement

You have absolutely paid for games.

[Paratech2008]

I try not to pay over $30 for digital games but make exceptions.

I like buying season passes on fighting games annually rather than buying a full priced fighting game.

I try to get the season passes on a discount as well.