Console digital game prices are a joke!

I've been looking at them on the PS4 and they're all £50+ even for games that are a year old. Then they have a sale and bring them down to like £35 and claim it is a great deal.... like do people honestly buy digital games at all on these consoles? It's funny because most of these games launch £15 more than retail and at least with a retail copy you can resell it. However shortly after I find retail copies for £20ish and they're still £50 on the digital store. Right not Battlefield Hardline is £35 on sale from £50+ and yet It's only £39 on Amazon... so in reality it is a £4 sale, though I can buy the CD Key on the PC for £22 and not have to pay a subscription to play it.

I do not get how there isn't a bigger uproar over these prices, people have the nerve to say PC gaming is expensive... like yeah right all the games are less than half the price.

Yeah...this is a pretty common sentiment among the press and gaming community. It's really only worth it to buy digital Day 1 and for the Convenience factor. I bought MKX on my PS4 digitally because I want to be able to hop on and play a game whenever. Even without the disc inside.

This is why I rarely buy digital console games. If I can get the game on PC I almost always go that route since it will eventually go on sale on PC. Digital games rarely go on sale on consoles.

Console prices have the problem with competition from real world products. If you under cut the physical copy of the game then you're putting out all the retailers who sell your game. Publishers would also probably prefer physical copies since digital copies aren't tracked by NPD.

So while the PC, which doesn't really have a physical market anymore, only relies on digital sales the console has to server two masters in this case.

I've gotten some pretty great deals on the PS4 lately. Games for half the price within a few months of release and some pretty significant discounts on some older stuff. I mean, PSN just had that impressive sale over the weekend with a pretty big selection of games for only $5. It's not at Steam levels yet (and I don't know if it ever will be) but it's way better than it was last gen.

Though even without sales I have been buying a lot of my games digitally, purely for the convenience factor. I get to play it immediately and don't have to pay or wait for shipping. The Witcher 3 is the first game I've bought physically in awhile, because it came with bonuses, not because it was any cheaper. In fact I could have gotten it a few dollars cheaper on PSN. Digital being cheaper than retail must be a Europe thing, because it's pretty much always the same price here.

Also, when people say PC gaming is expensive they're obviously talking about hardware, not software.

I rarely buy games when they're new but recently it's been pretty crazy how long the price point is lasting.

Consoles have been getting better with sales (I just bought Destiny on PS4 for 30 just to stop messing with the disc), but yeah, after the launch window there really is no point buying a game digitally. Retail stores in the US have been aggressive with price drops, and stores like Best Buy have a membership for $30 that lets you buy new games for 20% off at launch. I went from mostly digital last gen to mostly physical this gen because of the prices mainly.

Also depends on the region. In the US it seems digital and physical are similar or the same price at launch. Here in Aus the witcher on xbox one digital is $109, in store it's $79. I don't think I've ever seen similar pricing at launch here.

I only buy digital.

@finaldasa:

They tolerate it because physical copies are still a relatively large portion of the total sales (for now) but they do not prefer it since retail takes a huge cut (about 1/3)

+ theres all the hassle of dealing with real world products, shipping, production, inventory risk etc.. with digital they can skip all that and keep all the money.

@trenox: Ubisoft's latest earnings call saw their digital sales skyrocket. Almost half of the sales for certain games I believe. So I wouldn't be surprised if the trend of higher console digital prices suddenly went away. Though you would still have Microsoft and Sony having to deal with retailers who would be mad to see their inventory undercut.

I don't resell my games and I think $60 is more than a fair price to pay for a game. Only two discs I own for my PS4 are Killzone and Black Flag that I bought day 1.

The only disc I have is Alien Isolation because the Mrs. brought it home from work.

All digital all the time.

As to the OP, I've heard a lot of complaints about digital pricing in the non-US regions like mentioned by @egan85

Those price points are insane, but here they are pretty consistent with market prices, with the trade off of a longer tail for the convenience of not having to scrape around amazon or a brick and mortar location to save $5 to $10. They've been having some fairly aggressive sales lately, hopefully they they keep going in that direction.

I buy games digitally mainly for convenience, but at the moment they're also cheaper on the Xbox One. If I buy my games from the US store digitally, I end up saving around 10-20 dollars per game compared to local physical copy prices here in Finland. But I would still buy my games digitally even if the price was comparable with physical releases.

@finaldasa: Indeed, hence the (for now). Games "brick and mortar" are going to way of block buster, its only a matter of time. But for now we have to tolerate the inflated prices on digital. However, there's no guarantee that prices will drop in general if people are willing to pay..

In a digital only future I think they will still charge 60 bucks initially but they will drop faster if the games underperform.

The problem is GAME, et al there prices are the ones keeping digital costs up, not Amazon.

I tend to buy console games physically for the convenience. I live in southern US and the internet here isn't great (especially for the cost, though it's improving in leaps and bounds lately). For now a 15 min. round trip of the local game store + patch time is much faster than a 6-10 hour direct download. It's the difference between playing tonight or tomorrow. The sometimes lower prices on physical copies is just a perk.

Yeah mostly you're right. Though PSN flash sales have been a nice refresher, they almost never touch new games.

I've been fully digital on PS4. The higher price point is annoying, especially since Europe doesn't get any weekend flash sales. However, the convenience of having every game ready to launch, plus no boxes that take up space, balances things out.

As mentioned above, if you're living outside of the US then all-digital on consoles is not even close to being a viable option unless you have a lot of disposable income and don't mind overpaying 30-50% for your gaming purchases.

I don't know what those funny symbols in your post are, OP, but I understand the pain. Digital copies of $60 games should be $10-15 less because there is no need for manufacturing, shipping, and sale infrastructure. Besides, I can buy a $60 game, trade it in a month later and get $25 back in my pocket.

Manufacturing and shipping is one thing, but a lot of people don't seem to realize that digital stores actually do charge a notable fee for hosting games on their store. It doesn't matter if it's Steam or PSN or Xbox Live or Nintendo, they all take a cut, so we probably won't be seeing digital discounts as a standard any time soon.

I compared a copy of Black Ops 1 for Xbox 360 vs what I can get on Steam, and BO 1 on the Marketplace was a full 60 bucks, Steam had it priced at 23 dollars, this is one of a few reasons why I am gravitating to PC gaming.

I thought the reason console digital prices are set like that is to ensure there is still a retail market that is competitive.

I mean, the retailers need to survive to sell consoles and games right?

Valve's cut of sales is typically 30%, but that doesn't stop most publishers from putting many of their games on sale for 75-80% off or more multiple times a year. "Digital discounts" (and deep ones, at that) are the standard, just not on consoles.

I've honestly never heard anyone complain PC games are way too expensive. I understand upon first release some people might get a little agitated by the pricing but when you offset it with the fact that games regularly go on sale for under the price of a subway sandwich I don't think you'll hear a whole lot of people complaining.

Pricing on the consoles is pretty ridiculous digitally but you do get some nice deals if you wait long enough. Case in point Disgaea D2 has been price at $40 for way too long on the psn store but went down to $10 bucks last month during psn's flash sale. Not the most timely sale but sometimes you can find hidden gems out there.

Agreed, that's why a shiver runs down my spine every time Jeff comments on an all digital future, as someone who doesn't get to play many new releases, I can't stand paying damn near close to new release prices for a game several months old. If they had a system similar to steam I would get on board eventually, but both Sony and Microsoft have shown no indication that they will reduce prices of new-ish games quickly. If anything all they have done is increased the frequency of sales that they hold (which is nice) but very rarely are the deals for newer games worth while.

It's why I don't buy digital. Won't be taken for a mug.

A few weeks ago I was comparing prices on Tales of Vesperia. Naturally, I checked used prices first since I figured they would be the cheapest option, but surprisingly the cheapest price ($15) was on the 360 store. It wasn't a sale either.

But yeah, they're usually either full price for everything regardless of age, or damn close to it.

The all digital future is coming. Seriously. Just start getting mentally prepared for it. It's going to happen. Soon. Not just for video games either. It's not a good thing for the consumer. That is all.

@mb: I'm talking launch prices.

Physical media yo. It's where it's at. Full price digital stuff seems friggin' insane to me but people seem to dig it so I guess...

they're wrong.

I pretty much buy all my games on day 1, so the prices are the same. I don't trade in a ton of games anymore. Also, my Playstation credit card bonus points offset the cost somewhat.

That wasn't clear at all from your post.

The all digital future is a lot further off than some think. Outside of major cities and around the world digital buying of games is yet to really take off. As long as physical media sales make up the majority of sales relationships with brick and mortar stores will have to be maintained.

In the distant future where digital sales far out-weigh physical then I think we'll see console digital prices go the way of Steam games

Pretty much this. In large parts of Europe the Internet isn't all that great either, even in the larger countries (Spain, France, Italy etc). I can understand that if you live in a urban area with lightning fast Internet (such as presumably California) you might think that a all digital future is only two years or so away, however it's a pretty different picture when you take other parts of the world into consideration. To give an example, two months ago I went to Spain (southern Spain, near Malaga) and a local told me that the fiber optic cables required for high speed internet were only installed in (parts) of the region last year. And downloading a 50 GB game with a 1 or 2 MB/s download speed is a huge pain in the ass.

The PSN Flash Sales sometimes have things like 75% off, but I guess those are only a US thing? I agree that even in the US the prices for some digital games can be a bit insane.

As to the argument of whether the console makers taking a cut hinder the possibility of Steam-quality sales, they don't. All stores including console, brick and mortar, PC download, and those of Google and Apple take 30%. The difference between digital and retail are twofold. First the games have no manufacturing cost, no distribution cost, and no sales force cost. So you are cutting between 10% and 25% off of your costs depending on how much money you are paying to the retailers for shelf space. And that shelf space is also the second difference. A physical store has a limited amount of space to put new products. Price cuts at retailers occur most often when a store purchases more copies of a game than they end up being able to sell at full price, or a manufacturer produces more copies than they can sell to stores. In these cases the games still have to be sold as they have already been made. So they drop the price until the copies leave store shelves. It's all about inventory control. All price drops for any product at a brick and mortar store are. Now a digital game is just a piece of code. Having 100,000 copies of the game takes up only a couple more kilobytes on your servers than having 1 copy. So price drops serve no purpose. Sales, meanwhile, are not constrained by supply limitations and so they can be more common. Physical retailers are also never going to drop the price of the product below the price they paid for it, and manufacturers aren't going to sell the game to retailers for less than it costs them to make it and ship it. Hence you have a minimum price that varies depending on how much it costs to get the game to your location but at the very minimum is probably around $5 and in some parts of the world with heavy import fees could be $20 or more. So a digital game can be sold for under a dollar because every cent of that sale is pure profit. Now that profit gets split between the developers, publishers, and retailers but 33 cents a game is better than not selling a game at all in the digital space, whereas making 33 cents on a physical game means you lost money on manufacturing it.

It was in response to a comment about how $60 games should be $10-15 cheaper digitally, so I don't feel like the context was that unclear. But whatever, it's clarified.

Video gaming is not a hobby for the poor. You're lucky games don't cost $120. Inflation and the costs of current gen development and advertising have sky rocketed since the days when The Legend of Zelda were sold in your local Toys 'R Us store. Gaming is a privilege not a right. Pay the cost of admission or play hoop and stick in the front yard.

Haha.. this guy.. Good job missing the entire point of the OP. Care to bold the section of his post where he complains the cost of gaming is too high? As far as I can tell, all he had done is raised a very valid point regarding the lack of value in a digital release verses the traditional brick and mortar. I don't really get your elitist attitude either.. you seem to either be stuck in some sort of 'check your privilege' feedback loop, or do you genuinely believe that gaming is for the upper echelon? Either way..

As far as the OP goes, I agree that there is a lack of value outside the US for digital purchases. In Australia a game as much as a month old can still be as much as $109AU, while you could pick it up in stores at launch for anywhere between $89 and 100. The explanation is pretty simple though. Publishers want to cut the middle man (stores) for more juicy profit (lack of manufacturing, transporting, and overhead), but the consoles require retailers to sell their products and accessories. In a way the consoles have become stuck in the middle now, and it's not that surprising that they'll charge whatever the publishers tell them to, even if it's absurdly disparate to what the competition is offering. For the people saying retail stores will be a thing of the past however, I'd like to disagree by challenging you to 3D print an xbox or something. The consoles will not be letting retail stores disappear any time soon.

There is a real simple answer here.

Its absolutely appallingly awful business sense for Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo to undercut the people who sell their games. That would be like me letting you sell something I make..but then offering to sell it myself for cheaper. In such a situation why, exactly, would you bother selling my stuff again?

Thus, of course digital should be cheaper, but this is reality and not the ideal. Until the day comes when there are no more physical games being sold, digital games need to either meet, or exceed the price of physical copies. Even though the people publishing them make more digitally. Without a presence at places like GameStop, Walmart or etc they are at a severe disadvantage.

PC games are somewhat different in that they have essentially reached the tipping point consoles are no where close too. Digital PC games can be discounted above and beyond their physical counterparts only because, in large part, there are no physical counterparts to compete against. And, infact, this is largely because of digital being a cheaper alternative. For the PS4 or X1 to start having Digital games be cheaper, you'd see whichever console maker began doing so's presence on store shelves diminish or vanish just as PC games have.

Your welcome to think however you like about this. Of course digital games should be sold on sell more often and should in theory being cheaper by about a 1/3 since the people making them pay that 1/3 to places like gamestop, so selling directly to the public we should be getting that savings right? But no, no that's not the reality of the situation at this time. One day? Yes.

But think about it. The X1 tried to go all but fully digital, but the reality of what this would entail caused massive massive public backlash. We are no where near a time when digital can beat physical on consoles. The next generation maybe..or the one after that. But now? Nope, sorry. How we all wish it could be and how it must be don't match up in this case.

I'll buy digital if the price is right. DriveClub encouraged a digital purchase due to the £15 difference between that and the retail version so I bought a £35 mistake. I also picked up DmC because digital and retail were going for £35 so convenience won out.

I worry that if digital becomes the norm, these prices won't deviate from the current structure as they'll have no incentive to do so. Although I do wonder in the current climate whether its having an inverse effect and giving retail sales more of a boost.

@venekor: Agreed, it feels like the just change the dollar sign for a pound and think that's enough. There are pretty good reasons why physical retail devalues faster that digital doesn't suffer from but it would be nice to see some effort.

The deals you are talking about are pretty standard across the board, the weekly ones Sony, Microsoft and Steam do are really meant to vaguely keep pace with devaluation but there just something to get people to come back to the storefront.

It's not like brick and mortar aren't taking the piss either, GAME online store has games at launch for £40-45 but in a GAME store it's £50-55

My advice to anyone on this is wait, digital prices can fall far lower than physical. You will eventually get a hell of a lot of game for your money. Price is always relative to competition, a sale on one platform means a sale on another.

Also, you seem to be British and our Import Tax and VAT are huge compared to other countries and international businesses don't really understand what there worldwide standard does to prices here. Also no one has ever cared about the PAL territories EVER, just be happy it doesn't take 6 months to localise games to 20 different languages just for us to end up with the American language versions. At least we get near enough day and date now, just not in our own language (still working on my "Help us to Help 'U's" campaign).

Weirdly enought the only company doing digital (sort of) right at the moment is Nintendo. Which is hilarious when you consider how poor their other internet features are. At least in the UK you can buy any 3DS game from our main game retailer (game.co.uk) and they'll send you a code for the same price as the physical copy, usually undercutting the online store's inflated price by ~£8. It still means the actual online store is a ripoff, but there are ways to get digital convenience without the overhead.

If I only I had the speed to download digital copies :(

I can I honestly say, I don't care about price reductions. If I want the game I want the game. If I don't think it is worth the price I don't buy it, but if I do I will buy it.

There are some people who won't buy anything without a coupon, or won't go to a restaurant without a Groupon. I really don't understand such stone-cold insistence on waiting for deals in every case. Sure getting a good price is nice, it should be sought, but not at the expense of just wanting and getting something you want now - at least sometimes.

My dad is super cheap in his old age. He will buy batteries & corn chips from the Dollar Store instead do the supermarket because they are cheaper. Okay, they are cheaper the batteries last 1/3 as long ....so he has saved nothing and lost money. Don't even ask about teh corn chips....are they mostly sawdust...I can only guess by how they taste.

Pretty much. I can buy The Witcher 3 on PSN for 69 EUR, but instead I opted to buy it in a store that's half a mile from my home for 48 EUR.

Download speeds are pretty bad as well. Could take half a day for a 50 GB game.

@venekor: My entire PS4 collection is all digital so yes people are buying digital games.

Even launch prices are a ton a cheaper on pc if you know where to look. Sites like Green Man Gaming almost always have deals, especially if you preorder. I got Mortal Kombat X for $23 on launch day and right now I could buy Witcher 3 for $35.

@giantrobot24:

Yep...I got Shadow of Mordor on release day for $27.50, and The Witcher 3 yesterday for $32. I'm pretty frugal with my game purchases in general, but as a rule I never pay anywhere close to full retail price for a game, even if it's something I must have on day one. There is almost always a deal to be had out there from one of the various PC digital distributors. I can't even recall the last time I paid anywhere close to full price for a day one release on PC.

The consoles definitely can't compete with PC when it comes to digital sales, and it's because all of the console platform holders have virtual monopolies when it comes to digital games. I know that some places like Amazon will occasionally have good deals on PSN or Xbox Live game codes, but that is the exception rather than the rule as far as I know. Of course, consoles trump PC in the physical media space since most games can still be bought and sold freely, so for some people who like to trade in or sell games, their price per game goes way down.

Anyone know what the current best deal on PS4 or Xbox One is for The Witcher 3?