Console Game Prices vs PC Game Prices - The death of Physical copies.

[Mancunian Prophecy]

What has taken my notice is that PC games very rarely seem to drop in price in retail, unless it's in the form of a digital distribution sale (like steam sales and the very rare Origin/Uplay sales), a game from 2 years ago could cost you the exact amount today as it did on release.....

For example, I randomly thought to myself to check on Watch Dogs 2 as I've heard good things and thought since its almost 2 years since it was released I'll check to see how much it's going for, to my surprise it's still £50 on Steam and Uplay, so I thought I'd check out Amazon and it's £20 on PS4 but for PC (Uplay code) it's £40!!

I assume this is due to the game not being a physical copy, and I accept that PC physical copies are becomming less and less common, because optical drives are a dying peripheral on gaming PCs these days.

Mafia 3 you can get PC/PS4/Xbox physical for £11 but on digital for all it's £35, so it seems the lack of physical media is a hinderance on PC gamers..... If we want a game in 2 years time we're expected to pay full price where as consoles get the luxury of paying the potential of 50-70% less as physical copies cover the numbers.


Possibly next gen could see the death of physical media, then what? Are we all expected to forever pay £50 for a digital game (that we don't techinically own) 4-5 years old? Where does it stop?

[Mancunian Prophecy]

The Devil's in the details eredeti hozzászólása:

Digital was suppose to be good for everyone, except middlemen.

Cheaper for companies to make games because they don't need to print disks and stuff, then ship them. Cheaper for the customers because they don't have to pay for the price of the shipping, printing, ect

But companies and their shareholders are greedy. Look at nintendo, thier digital titles for 3ds which has been out I think ten years are still expensive. Like pokemon X/Y are still brand new price, despite being 2 game series (Soon 3) behind.

Theres even been some shady deals where digital only games doubled in price once they secured a physical release. For example, If I remember right Ark survival evolved doubled in price and blamed it on the contract.

Some PC digital only games have got an update to make them worse so they run better on a console release..hero siege, 7 days to die come to mind.


Anyway, I fully expect once places like gamestop are dead and gone, game companies will go full monopoly greed mode. And popular titles will stay full price for 15+ years. Game companies are not your friend. These are the same people who put kill switches into consoles and arcades. Who are currently sueing a guy for selling a modified system on ebay. Sueing children for distrubing cheats, striking down fan projects all over, stealing money from youtubers if they include any game footage or audio, who want to break the law to sell gamble boxes to kids (EA), removing compatability with older games, who wanted you to be forced to have an always on thing recording you (Microsoft kinect), back up your saved data behind a subscription (nintendo online), ect.

Pretty much this.... Digital distribution will be a bad thing tbh, it's obviously cheaper for developers to release digitally but it will make it more easy for them to monopolise (as you said).

Look what happened between EA and Valve..... EA weren't happy with Valve under cutting their games on steam, so EA ended up creating their own digital distrubtion platform (Origin) and taking most their devleoped games off Steam. Now if you go on Origin games are going for £50-60 which for a PC game is ludicrous. Ubisoft jumped on the bandwagon also with Uplay.

There's literally nothing stopping other developers going down this route and charging a fortune for games.... At least with console its more of a level playing field, where as PC it seems so divided, it was perfectly fine just as a steam client, but I fear more will arrive rendering Steam an indie distributer.

[Violeta]

Indies are just themselves becoming that mass thats on everything capable of running them. They don't for the most part have any system or platform loyalty.

Heck, I run into lot of indie devs who have a game on steam and they don't even bother to use thier own steam game forums.

[Mancunian Prophecy]

The Devil's in the details eredeti hozzászólása:

Indies are just themselves becoming that mass thats on everything capable of running them. They don't for the most part have any system or platform loyalty.

Heck, I run into lot of indie devs who have a game on steam and they don't even bother to use thier own steam game forums.

Seems like it's becomming an industy easy to exploit then. I fear for the future of gaming.

[愛と愛]

Sixtyfivekills eredeti hozzászólása:

PS4 physical copies suck, it's just a disc with an irrelevant piece of paper about PS+. What happened to manuals? They're digital as well? That's bs.

I get physicals on PS4 having a case and CD is hobby for collectors. Physicals got manual inside i saw in Detroit: Become Human. Digitals are BS. It takes long to download. Discs just save time.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

100%XboxJuice eredeti hozzászólása:

A bill proposed to congress

No company shall prevent purchasers from using their single player mode containing product if the company's servers are permanently taken offline, and shall be required to remove the online requirement at such time. They must also provide a means to download or obtain a physical copy of said product at the cost of physical media and postage, at the time the servers are taken offline.

No company prevents users from accessing the single player mode if the game has one when the multiplayer servers were shut down.

[Daxank]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

100%XboxJuice eredeti hozzászólása:

A bill proposed to congress

No company shall prevent purchasers from using their single player mode containing product if the company's servers are permanently taken offline, and shall be required to remove the online requirement at such time. They must also provide a means to download or obtain a physical copy of said product at the cost of physical media and postage, at the time the servers are taken offline.

No company prevents users from accessing the single player mode if the game has one when the multiplayer servers were shut down.

:qr:

Wrong, some games require online DRM to even play the game solo, when the servers of the game are shut down, the online DRM is usually shut down with it, making it impossible for customers to play their games unless they get a crack and other times, it's not even possible at all. Good luck playing those new "streamed" games that they're trying to push when they decide to shut down the server of your favourite game

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

🎃Daxank🎃 eredeti hozzászólása:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

No company prevents users from accessing the single player mode if the game has one when the multiplayer servers were shut down.

Wrong, some games require online DRM to even play the game solo, when the servers of the game are shut down, the online DRM is usually shut down with it, making it impossible for customers to play their games unless they get a crack and other times, it's not even possible at all. Good luck playing those new "streaming" games that they're trying to push when they decide to shut down the server of your favourite game

What games?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

100%XboxJuice eredeti hozzászólása:

Tales of Berseria - Denuvo
if it gets shut down and they refuse to patch it out

On Steam, you have access to the download at anytime.

[Daxank]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

100%XboxJuice eredeti hozzászólása:

Tales of Berseria - Denuvo
if it gets shut down and they refuse to patch it out

On Steam, you have access to the download at anytime.

:qr:

To download a game doesn't mean being able to play it

[Daxank]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

🎃Daxank🎃 eredeti hozzászólása:

Wrong, some games require online DRM to even play the game solo, when the servers of the game are shut down, the online DRM is usually shut down with it, making it impossible for customers to play their games unless they get a crack and other times, it's not even possible at all. Good luck playing those new "streaming" games that they're trying to push when they decide to shut down the server of your favourite game

What games?

:qr:

Dead Rising 2 and Fallout 3 come to mind
You have to get rid of game for windows live yourself or you just can't play both games

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

🎃Daxank🎃 eredeti hozzászólása:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

What games?

Dead Rising 2 and Fallout 3 come to mind
You have to get rid of game for windows live yourself or you just can't play both games

I play both games without issues. I don't even use the GFWL.

🎃Daxank🎃 eredeti hozzászólása:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

On Steam, you have access to the download at anytime.

To download a game doesn't mean being able to play it

You still can though.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

fauxtronic eredeti hozzászólása:

I don't even feel like I paid for Mafia 3. I got it for 'free' through PS+. Granted, I paid for an annual subscription, but considering other PS+ 'giveaways' in the past six months alone (Bloodborne, Heavy Rain, COD:BO3, XCom 2, Mad Max, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, etc.) I'd say it's an incredibly good deal.

As for physical PS4 games, they have resale value. If you only think you'll play the latest AAA game once, you can buy it at full price and easily get half your money back up to a few months later. By the time you want to play it again, you can grab it when it's heavily discounted assuming it hasn't been given away through PS+.

no , you didnt get it for free , you paid a subscription to get it , same with the other games ,they arent giveaways , you pay for them

also , let me quote something for you

Once your PlayStation Plus membership ends, content you previously downloaded at no cost as part of the membership (such as Plus Monthly Games) will no longer be available. However, free avatars and content you purchased at a discounted PlayStation Plus price is yours to keep

We may close your account if you don’t use it for 24 months.

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/get-help/help-library/playstation-plus/playstation-plus/what-happens-when-your-playstation-plus-membership-is-cancelled/

you dont even get to keep those games if you decide to no longer pay for the subscription that btw is required to play online anyway you lose access to the games , and worst of all , if i understood this right, sony even closes your account if you dont pay for 2 years ( atleast thats how i understand it )

you pay 60 bucks a year to rent some games digitally ( and i know this is a hard concept for console peasants but , if the game is digital it has no value , its tied to your account anyway, it doesnt cost sony a dime to give 100 million users temporary access to a game which they lose once they stop paying , so all you really pay for is playing online

also , lets go over those other games, they gave black ops 3 into ps plus years after it came out , coincidentally , shortly before black ops 4 comes out , they gave god of war 3 away , a bit before the 4th came out , clearly to get people to buy the newest one if they enjoy the 3rd

and the other games are so cheap on steam sales , its cheaper to get them on steam than on ps plus ( plus i get to keep them even without paying $600 / 10 years for the rest of my life )

reselling also is something bad , you buy a game for $60 , play it once for a few weeks or months ( if you wait too long it wont have any resell value anymore) so , you paid 60 bucks for maybe 10-30 hours ( 2-6$ per hour ) then you sell the game for , lets be genorous , $30 , you lost $30 bucks , as well as the ability to play the game , if you want to play it again , you will pay atleast $20-$10 for it again , so you spend $80 for the game , and only got $30 back meaning you only saved $10 (or less , in worst case you paid even more than $60 in the end )


also , reselling hurts the developers, they dont get a cent from a used copy , the only one who gets rich is gamestop , they sell you the game for $60 if you sell it back they pay you $20-$30 if you are lucky for your used game and put it back up for sale for $40-$50 once someone else buys it they already made over $100 while you only managed to reduce the loss to $30

if you buy it again from them later , you again pay 20-30$ , meaning you lost the amount of money you had paid for the game at launch anyway , but until it dropped to that low price , you only were able to play it once, and then not play it for years

[Violeta]

"also , reselling hurts the developers, they dont get a cent from a used copy ,"

So what? Name any other product someone buys and then resells and the original manufactor gets another cut.

Does toyota get a second cut if you resell your used car? Does the carpenter who made you house get a second cut if you sell it?

Are game devs and companies a special class of humans that deserve addition privedges? Such as thou shalt not resell.

[Dominic]

Nintendo may keep the physical copies I feel. So I may still be safe. More or less seeing as they are going back to my favorte thing carts, rather then disk. Or are SD cards different then carts? Eh who knows.

But yeah physical games have a more special feeling to me some reason.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

The Devil's in the details eredeti hozzászólása:

"also , reselling hurts the developers, they dont get a cent from a used copy ,"

So what? Name any other product someone buys and then resells and the original manufactor gets another cut.

Does toyota get a second cut if you resell your used car? Does the carpenter who made you house get a second cut if you sell it?

no , but thats entirely different , a used car always comes at some disadvantages a new car wont have , wether the tires arent as new , or the aircondition might be broken , and most importantly , a new car comes with a waranty if anything breaks , i just checked , theres a bumper to bumper waranty for 3 years or 36000 miles , and " A power train warranty, which covers major components of the engine and transmission, is usually at least equal to if not longer lasting than bumper-to-bumper coverage."

meanwhile a used car wont have that , if you buy it from a person , theres no warranty at all , and if you buy it used from a car seller , it will have a shorter and different type of warranty that might not cover everything

the reason it is bad for games , is because game devs often make games alot more expensive because they know only the first sell gets them money , why do you think many games cost 60-70 bucks and then have season passes and other junk ? its because the devs know used copies will take a big profit chunk from them so they charge more from the first customers and add digital content people have to pay full price for


just look at some digital game prices of older games on steam , especially during sales , they are cheaper than used copies , since the devs already made more than enough money with the game , gta v even dropped 50 % on its regular price after staying full 60 buks for ages


buying a used game esentially is the same as if you would pirate the game for a dev , they get no money in both cases , but console players see used copies as something awesome because for some reason being able to resell games at a loss is something they find cool

its the same for movies and music , take a wild guess how much money goes to film makers if you buy a movie at a flee market , same for CDs , guess why they moved onto making those things digitally ( where they even are really cheap ( or for music on youtube free (but they make money on ads and clicks i think )