Business Approach for Video Game Physical and Digital versions *spawn*

[steveOrino]

In the US we have the mega cable/internet companies feeling the heat from streaming services eating into their premium cable subscriptions so they institute data caps (250gb, etc) by design but have no issue upgrading people to higher bandwidth speeds for advertising purposes. All I can say is good luck going all digital if this shit is considered legal going forward. Sucks when you have conglomerates that own the content and all the pipes to it.

 

[BRiT]

Not all companies are bad in the US. Locally I have 150mbit connection with 2TB monthly datacap. The next tier down is 100mbit with 700 Gig monthly datacap.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Games sound cheap in Canada.

I think most European countries pay more for games. They can cost as much as C$122 in the UK.

I don't necessarily have a problem with higher priced games. They're expensive to make. I was just surprised when I went to look at FIFA16 in the Xbox Store and saw that it was $80. Then I checked Best Buy and it was the same on both Xbox one and PS4. Then I checked steam and the new games are still $59.99 from what I could tell. To me that says the prices aren't going up because of economic reasons, other than to prop up retailers. If the publishers raised the prices across the board, I'd actually be more ok with it.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Not all companies are bad in the US. Locally I have 150mbit connection with 2TB monthly datacap. The next tier down is 100mbit with 700 Gig monthly datacap.

At what price? I think the argument is that 'affordable' broadband is either slow or capped. The push for faster speeds comes with (typically obscured in UK) data limits making the true cost of faster broadband and actually using it higher than the listed prices. Not to mention our laughable 'line rental' that goes up and up and isn't included in the cost of a broadband service despite being required.

 

[dobwal]

why not provide two keys on each disc. One tied to the disc itself the other that gets tied to your gamer tag through online activation.

The current systems are already managing two sets of keys. I see no reason Sony and MS can't tweak their system to handle a two keys for every title sold physically.

 

[dobwal]

At what price? I think the argument is that 'affordable' broadband is either slow or capped. The push for faster speeds comes with (typically obscured in UK) data limits making the true cost of faster broadband and actually using it higher than the listed prices. Not to mention our laughable 'line rental' that goes up and up and isn't included in the cost of a broadband service despite being required.

Given the average attached rate, I doubt in 5-10 years that 1-2 TBs of data use over a 5-7 year period is going to inhibit a great deal of many users.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Given the average attached rate, I doubt in 5-10 years that 1-2 TBs of data use over a 5-7 year period is going to inhibit a great deal of many users.

2 terabytes over 5 years is 7 gigabytes a week.

 

[upnorthsox]

I don't necessarily have a problem with higher priced games. They're expensive to make. I was just surprised when I went to look at FIFA16 in the Xbox Store and saw that it was $80. Then I checked Best Buy and it was the same on both Xbox one and PS4. Then I checked steam and the new games are still $59.99 from what I could tell. To me that says the prices aren't going up because of economic reasons, other than to prop up retailers. If the publishers raised the prices across the board, I'd actually be more ok with it.

Doesn't the price get updated to Canadian dollars only at checkout?

 

[dobwal]

2 terabytes over 5 years is 7 gigabytes a week.

Well I was being recklessly aggressive with file size (200 GB per title and no compression scheme).

But given a more likely size of 40-80 GBs, downloading 8-10 titles over a 5-7 year period doesn't seem like its going to crimp alot of people's data caps.

http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/sp/vni/vni_forecast_highlights/index.html

Globally, the average Internet user will generate 37.1 gigabytes of Internet traffic per month in 2019, up 139% from 15.5 gigabytes per month in 2014, a CAGR of 19%.

Globally, the average Internet household will generate 90.6 gigabytes of Internet traffic per month in 2019, up 146% from 36.8 gigabytes per month in 2014, a CAGR of 20%.

Globally, the average FTTx Internet household will generate 120.1 gigabytes of Internet traffic per month in 2019, 44.9% more than other broadband households.

Globally, the average FTTx Internet household generated 61.4 gigabytes of Internet traffic per month in 2014, 77.2% more than other broadband households.

Globally, there will be 792 million Internet households (83.1% of all Internet households) generating more than 50 gigabytes per month in 2019, up from 201 million in 2014.

Globally, there will be 164 million Internet households (17.2% of all Internet households) generating more than 100 gigabytes per month in 2019, up from 68 million in 2014.

Globally, there will be 74 million Internet households (7.8% of all Internet households) generating more than 250 gigabytes per month in 2019.

Globally, there will be 35 million households (3.6% of all Internet households) generating more than 500 gigabytes per month in 2019.

Globally, there will be 9 million households (0.9% of all Internet households) generating more than a terabyte per month in 2019.

Globally, the average mobile connection will generate 2,807 megabytes of mobile data traffic per month in 2019, up from 359 megabytes in 2014.

Thats just the growth between now and 2019. The growth will likely continue beyond 2019 as the next gen matures.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Fuck discs.

I can go on Steam and the games are still $59.99, like they were years ago. Why? Nobody carries the discs for PC games, so the games are still priced the same as they were. If I had a gaming PC, I could save myself $20 per game. That's insane. I don't buy as many as I used to, so I really can't justify the PC, so my only option is basically to buy one less game a year. Great for the industry, I'm sure (sarcasm), and sucks for me because it's already hard enough to choose.

The prices went up 33%, but my wages definitely didn't.

Funny over here PC games are more expensive on Steam, outside of sales. Metal Gear Solid 5 is 60 euros on Steam, whereas I can get the retail copy for 45 euros. It's not just Steam and that's not an isolated case. The digital distributed games are pretty much always more expensive over here. That retail MGS 5 is basically a Steam key BTW...

 

[Scott_Arm]

Doesn't the price get updated to Canadian dollars only at checkout?

No. Steam shows me the price as CAD.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Funny over here PC games are more expensive on Steam, outside of sales. Metal Gear Solid 5 is 60 euros on Steam, whereas I can get the retail copy for 45 euros. It's not just Steam and that's not an isolated case. The digital distributed games are pretty much always more expensive over here. That retail MGS 5 is basically a Steam key BTW...

Weird. It doesn't make sense.

Based on the exchange rate, a $59.99 USD game is $79.99. It's just weird that the Steam prices in Canada have stayed down where PS4 and Xbox One have gone up, or gone up more. Maybe Steam prices will jump up to match them. Right now, it just sucks to have a console and know I'm going to pay more for every game. Too bad I don't have a capable gaming PC.

 

[upnorthsox]

No. Steam shows me the price as CAD.

Ok, that's weird. Hard to believe they have missed that, Canadian PC gamers should be in buy mode before they catch on to that.

 

[MrFox]

You're no paying more for every game, you pay the same price based of the canadian dollar valuation. So... blame Canada.

Spoiler

That song is stuck in your head, isn't it?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

You're no paying more for every game, you pay the same price based of the canadian dollar valuation. So... blame Canada.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Well I was being recklessly aggressive with file size (200 GB per title and no compression scheme).

But given a more likely size of 40-80 GBs, downloading 8-10 titles over a 5-7 year period doesn't seem like its going to crimp alot of people's data caps.

If the downloads were distributed over that 5-7 years, no. But they happen in one month. It's enough to push people over their cap when it happens (not to mention all the streaming content and mobile downloads etc.). For example, a recent marketing flier from BT I think was all about how fast they were, yet there was a 40 GB data cap in the tiniest of small prints. There are already single titles that exceed that. Your quote gives average household BW use, already close to those limits and with little room for large game downloads. That's where the more expensive tariffs are needed, which makes the adoption of super fast broadband poor economy when normal broadband is uncapped.

At 12 Mbps, you can download/stream over 7 terabytes in a month (okay, there's probably a fair use policy going to come into effect at some point there!). At 100 Mbps and a 40 GB data cap, you can download/stream for 20 minutes at top speed before using your quota. What's the point in having such a fast connection. You'd have to have significant resource management in place to not just grab anything whenever you want which is contrary to what super fast BB is about!

 

[dobwal]

If the downloads were distributed over that 5-7 years, no. But they happen in one month. It's enough to push people over their cap when it happens (not to mention all the streaming content and mobile downloads etc.). For example, a recent marketing flier from BT I think was all about how fast they were, yet there was a 40 GB data cap in the tiniest of small prints. There are already single titles that exceed that. Your quote gives average household BW use, already close to those limits and with little room for large game downloads. That's where the more expensive tariffs are needed, which makes the adoption of super fast broadband poor economy when normal broadband is uncapped.

At 12 Mbps, you can download/stream over 7 terabytes in a month (okay, there's probably a fair use policy going to come into effect at some point there!). At 100 Mbps and a 40 GB data cap, you can download/stream for 20 minutes at top speed before using your quota. What's the point in having such a fast connection. You'd have to have significant resource management in place to not just grab anything whenever you want which is contrary to what super fast BB is about!

Yeah buts that now. In five years, the caps are more than likely to move especially given that its being estimated that in 2019 over 1 billion homes will be consuming at the very least 50 GB per month.

Thats a lot of overage fees if most caps are in 50 GB range 4-5 years from now. Not the case in the US where the cap from most operators are in 150-250 GBs range if at all while your typical household is no where close to that volume of use.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

According to TalkTalk, the average UK household downloads 77 GB a month. BT has a 40 GB cap on their basic fibre and Sky has a 25 GB cap. Similar to out of plan phone calls costing 20p a minute with a minimum 22p connection fee or whatever it is. Fees outside plans are rocketing and the plans are being worked to try and get people paying those outside-of-plan fees to maximise profits, or have more expensive plans. There's no business reason for these companies to change and offer uncapped super fast broadband. Other than competition - TalkTalk advertise their service as such. But importantly, the ISPs gain nothing from people using their service more. It's just added cost and work for them. There's zero incentive to provide faster internet for the same price - where's the growth in that?

 

[Scott_Arm]

ISPs are trying to stretch out their upgrades because it costs a fortune. Upgrades go in cycles. You'll see jumps in service each time they hit a major upgrade.

 

[BRiT]

At what price? I think the argument is that 'affordable' broadband is either slow or capped. The push for faster speeds comes with (typically obscured in UK) data limits making the true cost of faster broadband and actually using it higher than the listed prices. Not to mention our laughable 'line rental' that goes up and up and isn't included in the cost of a broadband service despite being required.

They will be upgrading the top tier speed to 1 Gigabit from 150mbit soon.

150mbit 2tb datacap bundle price is $65 a month, unbudle is $100 with special pricing at $80.
100mbit 700gb datacap bundle price is $50 a month, unbundle price is $78 with special pricing at $65.
50mbit 350gb datacap bundle price is $ a month, unbundle price is $65 with special pricing at $55.
15mbit 250gb datacap bundle price is $ a month, unbundle price is $52 with special prici g at $40.

For someone who works from home multiple times and has large data consumption, even at $100 a month it is extremely affordable.

You can pick up additional 50gb blocks for $10.

My bundle savings is $55 a month between internet, phone, and video.