?So, consoles are kinda new to this. But digital is way cheaper than physical was on PC, and PC games were cheaper than console.
If people think digital is why things are expensive or whatever, it's not. Digital prices would have been pretty reasonable, Sony and MS get to keep things at ludicrous prices because they have you trapped in their closed ecosystem, in which you have no say in pretty much anything. You just gotta deal with what they give you, good or bad.
People are immensely lazy and think the "convenience" of downloading instead of going outside and traveling a few miles to a store is worth paying so much extra.
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Outside of their own first party games, how can they control how games are priced?
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Outside of their own first party games, how can they control how games are priced?
Really wish retailers just sold codes for console at this point.
Cover art is on digital. Downloads are fine if you live someplace with moderately decent internet. Also preloading is niceHow I see it. Downloads take time. Time enough to motivate someone to buy a copy (oh look, cover art someone got paid to do... and it looks great!) and return home. It's just too authentic.
I just think it's stupid digital costs the same or sometimes more than physical, since the publishers don't spend money on printing discs, packaging and delivery. It should be cheaper, but there's a lot of people out there who don't think about and don't mind wasting their money away.
The breakdown for a typical $60 physical game goes:
$2 in production and distribution of the disc
$12 to the retailer selling it (Amazon, Best Buy etc)
$10 to the platform holder (Microsoft /Sony)
$36 revenue to the publisher
The breakdown for a typical $60 digital release is :
$18 to the platform holder
$42 to the publisher
So yes, the publisher does make $6 more from digital. But they'd rather just make an extra $6 rather than pass the savings on. It's actually not that big of a margin relative to retail.
This. Means I can be lazy, I can also play a game instantly on launch and not wait for the 50gb day one patch haha
I mostly buy digital, We have two Xbox's, it makes sense. I can play and my kid can play in his room or vise-vs. Plus play-anywhere and I almost always buy on sale. I just bought Lego Undercover yesterday for $9, retail is mostly $15-20 bucks. both me and my kids Xbox has the game now. No switching discs, can play together.
Take less than 30% cut so they have more room to drop the price
I suppose it's theoretical at this point but they are supposed to last longer than CDs or DVDs. I have CD based games that are from 1991 that still play great so it is my estimate that most properly cared for Blu Ray discs will outlive me.
What's the half life of a digital distribution platform?
I guess I'm just bitter. I recently lost $100+ worth of purchases from the Telltale store. Also Apple has removed some TV shows I purchased from my library (rights issues? No idea). Had a bought those on Physical media I would still have them.
Your ability to play anything that old on Win 10 is based highly around you having a digital emulator on your PC, right? Modern OS computers can't even play games like The Sims even with a functioning disc without one of those babies.
Your half-life isn't the day the disc is dead, it's the day digital support for it dies to make sure it works in the modern world. Trying to go online to get The Sims to work with a disc or digital is a chore on a modern PC.
Without those digital (downloaded or otherwise copied) translators you're carrying hardware for years. Most people do not even finish games let alone go back and play old ones on old hardware.
I don't know about you, but for the every day consumer that's a bit deeper than just "my couch is two steps from the PS4." the other thing you also see the most on this forum is "I want my PS4 games to play in my PS5" as a huge deal for people." Why? No one wants to bring the hardware forward. So even when people are buying physical media, they still don't want to be physically tied to the hardware that ran it. Welcome to the all-digital future, baby!