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?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Prices on Steam are set by the publishers. Retail stores price them according to how popular, how well they sell and if they need space for new titles.

[Mancunian Prophecy]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce původně napsal:

Prices on Steam are set by the publishers. Retail stores price them according to how popular, how well they sell and if they need space for new titles.

:af:

So basically when Physcial distribution is a thing of the past and all we're left with is digital distributers (like Steam), games will be their release prices (unless in a sale) and we won't see any game prices being lowered. They will be dark times indeed.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

There are plenty of legit sites that set prices themselves.

https://isthereanydeal.com/ is a good place to start.

[Mancunian Prophecy]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce původně napsal:

There are plenty of legit sites that set prices themselves.

https://isthereanydeal.com/ is a good place to start.

:qr:

I love you

[Spawn of Totoro]

Mancunian Prophecy původně napsal:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce původně napsal:

Prices on Steam are set by the publishers. Retail stores price them according to how popular, how well they sell and if they need space for new titles.

:af:

So basically when Physcial distribution is a thing of the past and all we're left with is digital distributers (like Steam), games will be their release prices (unless in a sale) and we won't see any game prices being lowered. They will be dark times indeed.

Prices still go down, it just takes a lot longer. PC tends to get deeper discounts though, then retail, for sales and such.

[Mancunian Prophecy]

Spawn of Totoro původně napsal:

Mancunian Prophecy původně napsal:

So basically when Physcial distribution is a thing of the past and all we're left with is digital distributers (like Steam), games will be their release prices (unless in a sale) and we won't see any game prices being lowered. They will be dark times indeed.

Prices still go down, it just takes a lot longer. PC tends to get deeper discounts though, then retail, for sales and such.

I'm not sure they do.... It could be depending on the Developers/Publishers. For example Watch_Dogs 1 is still £25 digital download, seems pretty excessive for a game 4 years old, and one that was receieved poorly by critics.

I think Ubisoft and EA games will drop rarely and you only have to look to their platforms (Uplay and Origin) to see how exspensive their games (new and old) go for.


Sales seem to be more pot luck than general price drops as well, you're more likely to miss a good sale then you are of a games natural price drop over time.

[Kargor]

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of my first real encounter with Steam. I actually bought a disk -- but it came with a Steam code. I was like "oh sh*t, if it's just a Steam thing anyway, it would have been even cheaper on Steam itself" -- but it wasn't. It was much more expensive.

Of course, it didn't take long for me to figure out that pricing works differently for games that just come as keys: the regular prices are high; it's sales prices that you need to be looking for.

[Paratech2008]

Don't forget Activision, and if they go on their own they won't discount any better than they did on Steam even though they won't be losing the 30% cut they had to give to Valve.

Some games they'll never discount or just abandon.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

steam does sales all the time , theres publisher weekend / week sales , theres the halloween sale coming soon , the black friday / fall sale , the winter sale , later a spring sale , summer sale , steam has sales all the time

according to steamdb , the lowest recorded price for watchdogs was $8.99 ( not counting when it was free on uplay )

for watchdogs 2 it was $19.79

and lastly mafia 3 the lowest price was $5.99 , just because a game is old doesnt mean you have the right to get it for free all year, steams big sales are always at the same time , just mark them in your calendar and you will be fine

Mancunian Prophecy původně napsal:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce původně napsal:

Prices on Steam are set by the publishers. Retail stores price them according to how popular, how well they sell and if they need space for new titles.

:af:

So basically when Physcial distribution is a thing of the past and all we're left with is digital distributers (like Steam), games will be their release prices (unless in a sale) and we won't see any game prices being lowered. They will be dark times indeed.

today i was at a mall with a friend , and guess what , the gamestop there tried to sell an Xbox360 game for 20 € ( i bet they didnt get the message that 360 isnt relevant anymore ) meanwhile , pc games get dirt cheap after a short time just because games arent super low price all year


all you need to do is either pay the amount the devs ask , or wait for a sale , where the devs only ask for 1/2 or 1/3rd on average , sales also have so low prices you on average can buy a few older games and then wait until a new game gets cheaper

on steam games dont become old ,so theres no real need to lower the prices , the main reason console games get cheaper is because stores need to throw them out to make space for a new game since physical space is limited , which leads to older games being hard to find , theres fewer copies that got sold , so good luck finding an old gem that simply got overshadowed by another big release


if new games come out and theres a big sale , everyone will want to lower their game prices since they have to compete with the new shiny game ,and if their game costs the same as a newer game because they thought they didnt need a discount they wont sell many units , simple as that , meanwhile at gamestop , they dont compete , wether you buy an xbox or playstation version of an ubisoft or activision game , they dont care , if the games are used it means 100% profit for gamestop, if its new , they have to give a small amount to the devs but still keep most of it , so gamestop obviously will offer 5-10 bucks cheaper used copies so they get all profit fast

so yeah , just deal with it , games arent free , and if you cant afford them , you just cant afford them

[Spawn of Totoro]

Mancunian Prophecy původně napsal:

I'm not sure they do.... It could be depending on the Developers/Publishers. For example Watch_Dogs 1 is still £25 digital download, seems pretty excessive for a game 4 years old, and one that was receieved poorly by critics.

I think Ubisoft and EA games will drop rarely and you only have to look to their platforms (Uplay and Origin) to see how exspensive their games (new and old) go for.


Sales seem to be more pot luck than general price drops as well, you're more likely to miss a good sale then you are of a games natural price drop over time.

£25 digital download isn't bad though, for a 4 year, AAA game.

$20 USD, was $60 USD on release, so looks like prices did come down. I got it (with all DLC) for less then $20 on sale.

If a game is popular, then price comes down slower, even on console, and discounts are shallower.

As there are fewer copies of games in stores, then digital also becomes less of a choice and more of an only option. Developer want physical copies to sell out as they know digital won't have that issue and stores don't want to lose money on the game they purchased from the developer to re-sell, so digital needs to remain higher to ensure those sales. Otherwise you have retailers buying less or refusing to sell games as they can't compete with digital sales.

Remember, stores also have limited inventory and want to make room for new products.

[Spawn of Totoro]

100%XboxJuice původně napsal:

you have to buy on the sales for example which happens every month or 2
sword art online is crazy high at $50 but when they do bandai sale on fanatical it goes to $20
hyperdimension neptunia is $30 but on sale goes to $6.50

Yep.

They learned that people look at the % off these days, not the price. This leads to them leaving higher prices, so they can offer a deeper discount during sales and give people what they showed they wanted: A larger discount.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

100%XboxJuice původně napsal:

you have to buy on the sales for example which happens every month or 2
sword art online is crazy high at $50 but when they do bandai sale on fanatical it goes to $20
hyperdimension neptunia is $30 but on sale goes to $6.50

Fanatical sets the prices closest to what they are on Steam. But they are in charge of pricing on their site...

https://support.fanatical.com/hc/en-us/articles/202252772-Why-are-the-Euro-Pound-prices-on-our-website-not-always-a-straight-conversion-from-the-dollar-prices-

[Sixtyfivekills]

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.

[Mancunian Prophecy]

Sixtyfivekills původně napsal:

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 imagine they were disbanded due to cost of printing.... but most likely they made it about "saving the trees". Plus with mobile smart phones these days, there's no need to read a game manual whilst sat on the toilet any more.

[Rio]

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.

Another danger of digital only, is in a future where most people have a great connection, every game could becomes "always online". Then popularity decides the life of every game. You like an unpopular game? to bad, servers gone.