Should we pay less for digital downloaded games?

I have wondered why we pay the same price for something when there is no cost to the devs for material or shipping or anything like that other than bandwidth.

Kind of seems like they would be making more $ off of games this way...or am I missing something?

no. when you buy a game you buy an intellectual property, the retail box when mass produced hardly cost anything to them.

Yeah, that's why console manufacturers can get away with selling the console at a loss (at least at first). They make their money back on the games. There's the initial cost of developing the game in the first place, but once that's done, they manufacture the discs and cases for pennies a piece (if that), then sell em for $60.

What, no poll? You should feel bad.

You don't own the game, just the right to install & run it.

The servers still require maintaining, so while physical discs/boxes might make up a £1 of a game, that's offset by ensuring the servers have enough bandwidth and so on.

And with costs of games development going up every year, don't expect anything to come down ;) .

Gotta keep servers running for you to be able to download the game from. Plus maintenance etc. It probably cost close to the same.

I have wondered why we pay the same price for something when there is no cost to the devs for material or shipping or anything like that other than bandwidth.

Kind of seems like they would be making more $ off of games this way...or am I missing something?

BSC14

I hate digital,i don't ever care if the game requires steam or not,i just want the physical copy in my hands.Digital should be at least -10$.

Ha! Like that'll ever happen... I do think it should be cheaper to buy DD especially on places like Origin where the money goes directly to EA.JohnF111

I agree with this. For a digital PC game, the publisher is cutting out the retailer, along with the costs of physical manufacturing, packaging, storage, distribution and in-store advertising - so the cost to the end consumer should be lower to reflect that.

And I don't believe server/bandwidth costs are as high as manufacturing/distributing a physical retail product, especially overseas.

but having different pricing creates a whole set of new problems for the publishers, such as retailers being pissed off, so there's that.Kh1ndjal

But the opposite seems to be true at the moment. Retailers of physical games seem to drop prices more quickly, and to a level often much lower than the digital version. There are some games that I can buy for half the price from Amazon compared to the digital version, and that's crazy.

Unfortunately this leads to some people believing the cost of the digital version is highly inflated, whereas the physical retailer is taking a big hit just to shift copies of a game that may not be selling well.

And I don't believe server/bandwidth costs are as high as manufacturing/distributing a physical retail product, especially overseas.

RobertBowen

Hiring a shipping container to transport something overseas costs something like $1000 long distance. You can pack tens of thousands of DVD cases into a container, so the price per unit for transport is negligible. Retail, a DVD costs something like a $1 and a DVD case about $0.30c; in bulk they're going to cost a lot less.

So don't discount the price of server maintenance, which is an ongoing issue and the electricity bill for a 24 hour service.

Yes, I believe we should pay less. The publisher isn't paying for printing, boxing, and shipping. The only cost they pay for digital is the bandwidth to download it, but that's nothing compared to printing, boxing, and shipping. It won't happen though. Not until retailers mostly disappear. That won't happen until everyone has high speed internet. Right now there's around 30% of the population without high speed.

I hate digital,i don't ever care if the game requires steam or not,i just want the physical copy in my hands.Digital should be at least -10$.

thanoswf

[QUOTE="RobertBowen"]

And I don't believe server/bandwidth costs are as high as manufacturing/distributing a physical retail product, especially overseas.

LordRork

Hiring a shipping container to transport something overseas costs something like $1000 long distance. You can pack tens of thousands of DVD cases into a container, so the price per unit for transport is negligible. Retail, a DVD costs something like a $1 and a DVD case about $0.30c; in bulk they're going to cost a lot less.

So don't discount the price of server maintenance, which is an ongoing issue and the electricity bill for a 24 hour service.

Yes, I understand that. But you are not paying 24/7 maintenance and electricity for just one game title on that server. The cost is spread across hundreds of game titles being distributed via that server (or server farm), so the associated cost 'per franchise' is effectively lower.

try steam steam mid week madness sales.

Usually you can preorder a a digital copy and get a discounted price for doing so(%10 usually) and its not as if the price remains there for long. The frequent and heavy discounts on game prices more then make up on it imo. I'd wish more forms of digital distribution adopted the steam model with frequent sales that discount the price in increasing amounts as the game gets older so we can buy it at the price we feel it is worth. It would be nice if they charge less right off the bat but this is a business after all and devs/publishers are looking to make a profit so I'm fine with it because the price do drop with the frequent sales if that didn't exist and it was like console level DD where they keep the prices as high as possible rarely if ever dropping the price I would have a problem with it.

The only thing is affects is new releases. Nearly all of DD titles are way cheaper in sales. I could honestly give two sh*ts about this whole mess because I rarely buy new because it's not easy to drop $50-60 on a game.

Yes I think DD versions of games should be cheaper than their retail versions.

As others have stated - no costs of manufacturing a physical product, packaging, storage, distribution, end retailer cut (may incur DD cut depending on dev and outlet).

It does make me laugh when I see things like "Digital Deluxe" edition featuring a PDF of the game world map - where the retail version would be a nice printed poster or cloth map for certain games. Ooh a free PDF picture - that'll convince me to buy digital.

As for costs of maintaining servers to provide the game for download - well that is in the best interest of the developer to keep low. Find new ways of compressing the data or repackaging it for download - ultimately not that different from the current ways of trying to cram large amounts of data onto a DVD or biting the bullet and admitting you need more than one disk to ship the game.

DD bypasses a lot of the costs associated with a retail copy and I feel some of that should be passed on to the consumer.

Of course games aren't priced on how much they cost to make or related to how many they think they can sell - they are priced at a socially acceptable level determined in each country - a new game in the UK will cost £30 for PC or £40 for consoles.

no. when you buy a game you buy an intellectual property, the retail box when mass produced hardly cost anything to them.

Krelian-co

And still we're expected to pay the same.

What I find crazy is that developers will sell digital versions of collector's editions. The digital version costs just as as much as the retail version. Why would anyone buy the digital deluxe version of Mass Effect 3 if you can't get that comic, artbook, and lithograph in physical form? You also don't get the collector's box or the tin casing for the disks if you buy the digital version...

What I find crazy is that developers will sell digital versions of collector's editions. The digital version costs just as as much as the retail version. Why would anyone buy the digital deluxe version of Mass Effect 3 if you can't get that comic, artbook, and lithograph in physical form? You also don't get the collector's box or the tin casing for the disks if you buy the digital version...

JangoWuzHere

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]

no. when you buy a game you buy an intellectual property, the retail box when mass produced hardly cost anything to them.

yellonet

And still we're expected to pay the same.

If you don't like the price of games, then don't buy them. Maybe if you can convince everybody else that games aren't worth the money at their price, they'll drop in price when the sales drop.

[QUOTE="Kh1ndjal"]but having different pricing creates a whole set of new problems for the publishers, such as retailers being pissed off, so there's that.RobertBowen

But the opposite seems to be true at the moment. Retailers of physical games seem to drop prices more quickly, and to a level often much lower than the digital version. There are some games that I can buy for half the price from Amazon compared to the digital version, and that's crazy.

Unfortunately this leads to some people believing the cost of the digital version is highly inflated, whereas the physical retailer is taking a big hit just to shift copies of a game that may not be selling well.

[QUOTE="yellonet"]

[QUOTE="Krelian-co"]Actually it's the other way around, download games cost nothing to make new copies of or to distribute around the world. The physical discs, manuals and boxes and their delivery to physical stores do cost a lot of money.
That's why packaging has gone from very nice boxes with thick detailed manuals through slim cases with a flyer as a manual to downloads.

And still we're expected to pay the same.

Elann2008

What I find crazy is that developers will sell digital versions of collector's editions. The digital version costs just as as much as the retail version. Why would anyone buy the digital deluxe version of Mass Effect 3 if you can't get that comic, artbook, and lithograph in physical form? You also don't get the collector's box or the tin casing for the disks if you buy the digital version...

JangoWuzHere

For new games you may pay the same but with all the Steam sales you do save money. You can't go to a store and buy games for a few dollars.JC_Spot

This. You can get older games for $5-10 where as in the store they're still over $20.

[QUOTE="RobertBowen"]

[QUOTE="Kh1ndjal"]but having different pricing creates a whole set of new problems for the publishers, such as retailers being pissed off, so there's that.Kh1ndjal

But the opposite seems to be true at the moment. Retailers of physical games seem to drop prices more quickly, and to a level often much lower than the digital version. There are some games that I can buy for half the price from Amazon compared to the digital version, and that's crazy.

Unfortunately this leads to some people believing the cost of the digital version is highly inflated, whereas the physical retailer is taking a big hit just to shift copies of a game that may not be selling well.

The reason why they are priced similarly is because if the digital game costs less than MSRP, then the physical retailers will complain and not sell the game at all. So games are priced similarly for a time period after launch (Normally 3 to 6 months).