So, something has been bugging me lately. Why are we forced to pay full price for games that are released digitally? Now, I'm not talking about buying say Fallout: New Vegas or Skyrim on disk and then having to install it via Steam. That I've got no problem with. What I'm talking about is games bought via a digital download only. For example, I'd like to buy Sleeping Dogs. Now, I can go to the store and pay $65 for it and bring it home and install the game via Steam. That's a bad example. Ok, so I'd like to buy Max Payne 3; yes I can go to the store, buy a physical disk for $65 come home and install it via Steam. No problem. I'm not questioning that. I've got a physical box, a small manual, and a disk. But why should I be held to the same pricing if I want to download it directly off of steam? If you look at Steam and then look at the store price they are both $59.99. But what exactly am I paying for via the digital download?

Convenience to "use" their game?


Why should it cost the same as a physical copy when it's not the same. Sure, the content is the same but it's not the same. I've got a shelf of games that I've bought over the years; and yes, Max Payne 3 is one of them. I just don't get it. Have I ever bought digital games at full price online through Steam? Yes. Have I enjoyed them? Yes. Will I still buy them via Steam for full price regardless? Yup. But this question has plagued me for a while and it'd be nice to get some sort of answer as to why. The obvious being we're nothing more than sheeple.

Off the cuff answer: you aint forced to do anything

Real answer:

1 - eliminate costs
2 - sell at regular price
3 - profit

Honestly, for what goes into making games, be happy they are as cheap as they are.

Because you're paying for the game, not for a few bits of paper and ink and a disk. As far as the developers are concerned all that stuff is just [censored] they throw in for free to please the hardcoe fans who still like to own physical copies of things.

To allow fair competition for retail stores? I don't know. Maybe on release day Steam isn't not allowed to sell their games for less than the retail price due to EU regulations? Does anyone know? That would sort of explain why we pay 50 euros for new games on Steam rather than the equivalent of 50 dollars.

You're paying for the convenience of having the game have unlimited copies, brought to you instantly etc. People that have that mindset, it's best to avoid dealing with them as you know what they hold dear.

To get as much http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXDwIo5_AMo as possible I'd say.

Either that or they are protecting the market of the physical copies, by making sure that it isn't that much cheaper to buy things online.

Yes, I understand we aren't techinically forced to do anything...that was, a bad choice of words for the thread title on my part.

Povuholo seems to make the most sense to me. It does make sense they'd need to keep competitive with the retail stores. I guess if they cut the price back for the digital release of the game they'd lose a ton of money and the physical sales would suffer.

I buy both, physical and digital, just depends on how lazy I'm feeling about getting in the store and driving an hour to the nearest Best Buy or Gamestop or Wal-Mart. I've just often wondered why the same price for either copy.

Some people are lazy and perhaps want to save the cost of going to a store?

That's not a good enough reason though. You could take a bike. Or maybe your flat is just above a game store or something.

Steam's usually more expensive than ordering a physical copy from Amazon; and given that I like physical copies and dislike typical digital EULAs, I buy very few games that are download-only (unless they're heavily discounted.)

IMO if I'm really just buying a license to use a game, then I should be able to have new physical copies shipped to me whenever I want for, say, $5. Also, if the game is multi-platform, one license should cover all the versions of the game. So I could buy a license, then have them ship me copies for both my Xbox360 and PS3 for $10.

As it is, we have the worst of both worlds. If you buy a physical copy, you're only buying "one copy" and if you lose it, well, svcks to be you. But if you dare to make copies yourself, then you're branded as a pirate.

Duh. It's basic economics. This guy got it right:




Not necessarily sales, but customer relations definitely would suffer. A lot of people prefer to have a physical copy, they'd feel cheated if they had to pay more than others - and it's already difficult to find a non-digital distibution of some games (not to mention DLCs).

I don't really care, I can't buy anything on Steam unless it's heavily discounted. Prices in euro are a killer...

Yup, I haven't bought Sleeping Dogs because I want it to go on sale first. Some games I care very much about physical copies, others I don't. Examples of this are, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, if I had been interested in FO3 when it came out I'd of bought it physical too but as it were, I didn't get into it until I got it for the 360 so I missed out on the goodness for the PC.

But I've been debating on Dishonored. Whether I'd buy it physical or digital. So, that's why I was like,"Why would the non-physical be the same price?"

In retail you have shipping costs. In digital sells you have servers to maintain and paid employees to ensure they run smoothly.

So I'd say overhead costs.

I only really buy stuff on Steam during sales, or when there's no physical copy available. Very often I find full-price games are more expensive on Steam than in stores

As others have mentioned, distributing digitally has different things to take into account which require money. Such as running servers, maintenance. I'd go as far as saying digital distribution requires more money than physical...anyway, it's still cheap. If you struggle to find money to buy games, I suggest you stop spending time playing games and focus on more important things

Yeah, just like the other guy said: PROFIT. Last month I found out that private stores can actually sell US stamps at higher prices than that of the post office.

They can? I had no idea they could do that. But then again, the USPS is in a world of hurt so it'd make sense. They'd need to justify their jobs somehow.

Yeah, the post office charges $9.00 for the booklet(20 stamps). The private store was charging me $12.00. Of course, I said, HELL NO. I went to the post office, and sure enough, they said that is legal. I don't blame them. If I had a store, I'd buy lots of stamps and resell them at higher prices. Although, not all stores sell at higher prices. Safeway, sells stamps for the same value as the post office.

Whenever I buy a game that's new I order them from the UK. Shipping is usually free, and the price of games is lower there if I pay in pounds. Sleeping Dogs is 25 pounds there, which is 31.5 euros. In retail stores here and on Steam it's 50 euros.

Usually I only buy games on Steam if they're at a discount or don't have a retail version, otherwise they're way more expensive.

There's a black box somewhere in there. Quite simply, it's impossible to tell, because nobody in publishing or distribution wants to talk about their pricing schemes.

The only explanation I have ever seen. which povuholo has already mentioned, is that the games must be priced in such a way as to enforce parity between the various distrobution regions.

They sell em at those prices because people keep buying at those prices.

The maximum price I am willing to spend on a game on steam is $15.00... well on any DD game from anywhere.

If it bothers you so much, why don't you start a people's uprising?

I feel the same way about ebooks, There are some publishers/venders selling an ebook at the same. or a higher, price than a paperback, even though they save the printing and shipping costs. I avoid them, but sometimes it's the only place to find a specific author/series.

That's factored into the overall cost of the product, but there's one other reason that the prices are the same: It costs almost nothing to produce physical copies. Whether you get a physical copy or a digital one, you aren't paying for the package (except with CEs).