All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+
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I have to admit, I was very much a disc kind of guy but I changed my mind. Discs are for grannies. About time we stop killing the planet with all this plastic.
It is mind blowing to think of the amount of jewel cases still out there somewhere from the CD era, I have an 18-gallon tub full that one day I will recycle. ;p
Been very happy to go all digital, sure helps with the kids as well. No more scratches and they are not laying in ugly stacks behind the TV.
Been very happy to go all digital, sure helps with the kids as well. No more scratches and they are not laying in ugly stacks behind the TV.
Inuhanyou
Veteran
I'm the opposite, i only use downloads when there's a sale i can't avoid or the game is only downloadable. Call me an old grandpa, but i don't have a good enough connection to secure all my content through downloading, my datacap just makes it even more of a chore.
And also, my PS4 HDD would fill up mighty quick, i like being able to delete system data for certain things without having to redownload everything from scratch. I imagine for me it would be a nightmare in my case.
On top of all that...i just don't trust the fickeness of servers and the internet, or counting on other people to keep track of my purchases. If PSN ever goes down, or games are delisted off the store like the MvC games, congratulations, that piece of gaming history is now gone forever and there's no copies anywhere.
And also, my PS4 HDD would fill up mighty quick, i like being able to delete system data for certain things without having to redownload everything from scratch. I imagine for me it would be a nightmare in my case.
On top of all that...i just don't trust the fickeness of servers and the internet, or counting on other people to keep track of my purchases. If PSN ever goes down, or games are delisted off the store like the MvC games, congratulations, that piece of gaming history is now gone forever and there's no copies anywhere.
Once the price drops to a reasonable point I totally agree, but at the moment the cheaper to produce medium that has no actual value once purchased (if I don't like the game I'm stuffed & I can't sell on to help fund other purchases) then I will only buy discounted digital titles I know I will love and play to death.
I'd love to go all digital but currently it's a ripoff.
deathindustrial
Regular
Making the trip from the couch to the PS4 is a sisyphean task. "Infamous Second Son" was the the last physical copy I bought and probably the last ever outside of vintage stuff or special cases like the Korg synth carts for the DS.
I got Killzone:SF disc with the system, and that's my only PS4 disc. Especially stuff like remote play makes discs a no-no for me and with the games having to install to HDD anyway any other benefit is gone too plus the fact that release-day games are so limited versus all the updates they get later as well making holding on to that disc for later emulation or stuff like that also less appealing. That resale value though, definitely remains an important factor for most (I rarely sold any of my previous gen games myself, though at times I did give some away or lent them out). I do hope the EU keeps pushing for that digital licence resale proposed legislation which requires that to be possible.
Yeah, having worked in retails I know at least one aspect of markup so I know for a fact games could be sold substantially cheaper as digital only, but I guess the problem is the console makers need to keep retail onside because they make such a small margin on the hardware that is they couldn't sell the games there'd be no point selling the hardware.
I tend to get physical and upgrade to digital if I want to 'keep' a game.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
PC didn't start seeing massive regular discounts on digitally distributed games until retail sales started to make up a smaller and smaller portion of total game sales. When Steam started doing it, it was just one massive sale a year. Then it was twice a year. Now they do a big sale about 4 times a year. And that isn't counting the other stores that also put on massive sales at times when Steam isn't putting one on. Humble store just had a huge sale recently, for example.
But it may never quite match how cheap PC games are since there's only 1 game store available per console, so there's no competition there.
Regards,
SB
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
There is the Amazon store as well but it's currently not any sort of competition. But this demonstrates that the principle of third party stores are sound should anybody actually want to enter this market and provide some actual competition.
I'm not expecting PC levels of sales, I just want digital prices to fairly represent their production cost vs physical. At the moment I can buy a new game for ~£40 retail vs ~£55 digital, that is frankly ridiculous for a product that costs next to nothing to make (as in physically) and deliver to me...there's also at least one less layer of markup.
Sorry, this is probably going way OT.
Sorry, this is probably going way OT.
I seem to remember that we have recycled this discussion a couple of times, did we ever get a comparison of digital vs physical cost?
In my head it breaks down to something like this, for the publisher...
Physical
1. Manufactor BD disc with an image on
2. Create and print box material, not art, but fitting it to box etc
3. Ship to distributor (cost covered by distributor?)
4. Ship to retailer (cost covered by retailer?)
5. Profit
6. Retailers discount games to get rid of inventory, since throwing it out means its a loss (I assume retailers do not get stock return deals)
I assume that 1 + 2 is done by supplier of such services and not done inhouse by everybody
Digital
1. Upload image to a server
2. Pay for space on servers, PSN/XBLive
3. Profit
Anybody got a better, more accurate breakdown?
Physical seems its more a one time cost for different steps and that digital is a more recurring cost. And whether one model is cheaper than the other for the publisher is up for discussion I guess.
Like why would Konami keep paying for having PT available on PSN (XBLive?) when they will never ever recoup the cost, since the game never will be made.
Its not the publisher that discounts games that are in the retail end, right? Its the retailer to cut loss on old inventory.
Launch day, discounts most likely are retailers again that carry the cost and not the publisher.
The publisher already sold the game to the distributors and in their view of the world, the prices might even be in sync between physical and digital already.
In my head it breaks down to something like this, for the publisher...
Physical
1. Manufactor BD disc with an image on
2. Create and print box material, not art, but fitting it to box etc
3. Ship to distributor (cost covered by distributor?)
4. Ship to retailer (cost covered by retailer?)
5. Profit
6. Retailers discount games to get rid of inventory, since throwing it out means its a loss (I assume retailers do not get stock return deals)
I assume that 1 + 2 is done by supplier of such services and not done inhouse by everybody
Digital
1. Upload image to a server
2. Pay for space on servers, PSN/XBLive
3. Profit
Anybody got a better, more accurate breakdown?
Physical seems its more a one time cost for different steps and that digital is a more recurring cost. And whether one model is cheaper than the other for the publisher is up for discussion I guess.
Like why would Konami keep paying for having PT available on PSN (XBLive?) when they will never ever recoup the cost, since the game never will be made.
Its not the publisher that discounts games that are in the retail end, right? Its the retailer to cut loss on old inventory.
Launch day, discounts most likely are retailers again that carry the cost and not the publisher.
The publisher already sold the game to the distributors and in their view of the world, the prices might even be in sync between physical and digital already.
We've had this discussion before. The higher digital cost is not to cover the cost but simply a premium (pure profit) for the luxury of total immediacy (download times aside) and it basically just feeds impulse buyers like me who are always a couple of clicks away from thinking "oh I can wait a couple days". By then I'd already have bought the game on the psn.
And to be honest, in my mind I was quite happy to impulse buy Bloodborne and a lot of other games, before overthinking it and changing my mind.
And to be honest, in my mind I was quite happy to impulse buy Bloodborne and a lot of other games, before overthinking it and changing my mind.
I know retail markup was around 30%, and often it would depend on how many copies you bought - the more you bought the bigger discount so for big games it was a no brainer to get 50 copies as we knew they would sell out and if we had a few left we had more room to mark it down. The problem was you really had to buy every game that was released (to compete with Game & Currys at the time) and for a small retailer it meant you'd have quite a lot of stock sitting on the shelves but the bigger titles made it worth it.
Point being I think a £45-£50 RRP was about £30 cost to us (don't forget to factor VAT) - that's a physical game shipped - the retailer payed ~£30.
Point being I think a £45-£50 RRP was about £30 cost to us (don't forget to factor VAT) - that's a physical game shipped - the retailer payed ~£30.
But how does this affect the retail selling price? Unless it forces the publisher to drop the price to "combat" reselling of titles.
Now if I was an excel sheet guy, I would say, hey you can resell it, thats a premium, I should raise my prices since I sell a premium product.
If downloads provided me explicit control, I'd be 100% DD.
1. It will never happen for obvious reasons.
2. I prefer the disc compromise for AAA titles.
3. I prefer the DD compromise for games that are low cost, unimportant, or online only.
4. This discussion will lead nowhere, as was the case every time.
1. It will never happen for obvious reasons.
2. I prefer the disc compromise for AAA titles.
3. I prefer the DD compromise for games that are low cost, unimportant, or online only.
4. This discussion will lead nowhere, as was the case every time.
I prefer buying digital unfortunately in Europe the price of digital games particularly of third parties is horrendous and and stays like this even long after.
Now you can still buy Far Cry 4 and AC Unity for ~70€ digitally (PS4) when those games can be bought at roughly half the price (34.5€ and 38€) at amazon (sales or not this price is constant, ergo this is not a sale), that's ridiculous and totally illogical. It's like they want you to buy physical games using online stores only. Because obviously the price in brick and mortar stores is high too (usually between €60 and €69 where I Live).
They don't get it, really. If you don't buy via Internet, you'll buy a high price in brick and mortar stores, I don't have a problem with that. But if you buy stuff on Internet, why would you buy a game at 70€ digitally (that you can't resell) if you can buy it half the price a few clicks away...and you can resell the game later. They really should encourage people to buy digital games only, at least they'll be sure people couldn't resell the game later.
I am talking about third parties only, first party games usually have similar and coherent prices (and lower prices too) whether Digital, online retailer or real stores.
Now you can still buy Far Cry 4 and AC Unity for ~70€ digitally (PS4) when those games can be bought at roughly half the price (34.5€ and 38€) at amazon (sales or not this price is constant, ergo this is not a sale), that's ridiculous and totally illogical. It's like they want you to buy physical games using online stores only. Because obviously the price in brick and mortar stores is high too (usually between €60 and €69 where I Live).
They don't get it, really. If you don't buy via Internet, you'll buy a high price in brick and mortar stores, I don't have a problem with that. But if you buy stuff on Internet, why would you buy a game at 70€ digitally (that you can't resell) if you can buy it half the price a few clicks away...and you can resell the game later. They really should encourage people to buy digital games only, at least they'll be sure people couldn't resell the game later.
I am talking about third parties only, first party games usually have similar and coherent prices (and lower prices too) whether Digital, online retailer or real stores.
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