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.
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