I was browsing through the XBL Store and Steam at games to get an idea of what price degradation over time might be like for XBox One games vs. Steam (when available). Here's what I found:

Kameo (launch title) - $15

Perfect Dark Zero (launch title) - $15

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 (approx 5.5 years old) - $20 (also $20 on Steam)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (approx 3.5 years old) - $30 ($20 on Steam)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (approx 18 months old) - $60 ($40 on Steam)

Alan Wake (3 years old) - $30 ($30 on Steam)

Assassin's Creed (approx 5.5 years old) - $20 ($20 on Steam)

Assassin's Creed II (approx 3.5 years old) - $30 ($20 on Steam)

Call of Duty: Black Ops (approx 2.5 years old) - $50 ($30 on Steam)

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (approx 6 months old) - $60 ($60 on Steam)

Saint's Row 2 - (approx 4.5 years old) - $20 ($15 on Steam)

Sleeping Dogs - (approx 1 year old) $25 ($15 on sale right now, but only if you're an XBL Gold subscriber) ($25 on Steam)

In a lot of situations, the normal pricing models are not completely dissimilar, there are exceptions, MW3 being one of the more notable that I found (the Call of Duty games are obviously big sellers on the 360, so none of these are surprising). $15 for Kameo and PDZ seems excessive for 7+ year old games to me, I think MS needs a $9.99 tier for games that old.

So the big separators between the two right now:

- A lot of times when MS has a sale, it's for Gold members only, which is definitely a ding against them if they carry that policy forward to the XB One (why make a sale on a SP game like Sleeping Dogs a Gold subscriber only option in the first place? Nonsensical.) Steam also has a lot more sales a lot sooner on big titles (not to mention other digital sites, you can get Defiance for $24 on Greenmangaming right now, and pre-order Arkham Origins for $37.50), and console makers in general need to embrace a more frequent, more generous sale structure.

- While MS is getting better at regular sales and dropping pricing, they're still behind Steam from a competitive standpoint in that regard. If they can improve how they drop pricing on digital games in a more timely manner, I think that would help them a lot to put the used game debate to bed. Sony does the same thing unfortunately to some degree, with PS Plus subscribers often getting a larger discount on sale items than non-Plus members, but I think it's more forgiving on PSN because even non-Plus gamers usually still get at least some price cut, even if it's less. Either way, it's market manipulation that definitely cast a negative light on how sales are conducted digitally on consoles.

There's a lot of doom and gloom around locking down used game sales, and MS has kind of pushed the blame over to the publishers, which is what Sony is kind of doing as well, but MS and Sony are both the bread and butter for these publishers for the most part, so they can dictate policy if they choose to when it comes to relaxing terms of ownership, pricing, etc on their consoles. I don't agree with using used games as a scapegoat for the ills of an industry that has kind of put itself in the position it's in, but this is the direction we're heading.

It's good to see that the popular, hyper sellers are kept in lock-step with other retailers, but it bears mentioning that part of the problem with Games on Demand is that especially for B-tier games, there are a lot of the bizarre outliers that Microsoft refuses to drop the price on. There's literally no reason why, say for example, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand should be $50 on Games on Demand - it's years old, not very hard to find and the publisher no longer exists. And yet this is the world we live in.

EDIT: Or, rather, it WAS the world we lived in a couple months ago. Looks like they've pulled the ability to buy it from Games on Demand completely.

Yeah, that is definitely a problem. I own a copy of BotS that I bought used for like $7, if MS would offer it for even like $15, I think it would be better than gouging people on costs for games like this the way they do.

I said this in another thread, but I'll restate it here.

I don't think the pricing/sales argument people are using to argue Steam's superiority really works. At this point, console gaming is still largely built around physical releases and the digital distribution infrastructure for major releases simply isn't there. The digital distribution side is hamstrung by a lack of day-one releases, a lack of releases in general, and still being secondary to physical releases, and that's why I think you still see primarily static pricing there. With the PS4 and Xbox One, you're going to see things start to shift towards an emphasis on digital releases, so now I think you'll finally have the opportunity for more dynamic pricing like what you see on Steam.

I certainly can't guarantee that we will see broader and more frequent sales and more dynamic pricing in general, but consoles have never really even had a sufficient digital storefront to even support a Steam-like pricing model in the past.

i dont think comparing the prices to steam and xbox are the problem. the problem comes when you compare digital to physical.

and im not saying microsoft are a bad guy for this. im going off memory here but im sure last night sony had resident evil revelation and fuse for £59 (the usual retail for new games here is 39)

@lord_canti: UK digital pricing is a drum I've been beating for a while now. I have zero motivation to buy any new(ish) release whilst pricing remains as nuts at it.

However, Steam/PC has its own set of games that you can't get on the Xbone. Like the upcoming Shadowrun Returns or the ton of F2P MMO games. Likely none of that coming to Xbone, though I hear a bit of it is coming to the PS4.

@nezza said:

@lord_canti: UK digital pricing is a drum I've been beating for a while now. I have zero motivation to buy any new(ish) release whilst pricing remains as nuts at it.

it seems to be a third party im assuming when there given the ability to set it them selves as sony games are in line with retail(the last of us is £39)