Why are PC game download services so expensive....

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

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12 May 2005
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Really fancy getting Napoleon Total War and Settlers 7 Road to a Kingdom. Please, I know UBI soft’s draconian DRM is a pain, however I’ve never had much problem with my Internet Connection so should be ok…

Empire total war was a bit of a disappointment, however Napoleon is meant to take the series back to Rome total war, so quite fancy that. And always liked Settlers from the Amiga days, and quite liked what I’ve seen so far, apart from DRM so another one to keep me company during the weekend… lol

However, thought I’d give Steam a go and buy my games from there… Napoleon total war is twice the price of most online retailers, and Settlers 7 isn’t even on there…

So, so much for the great Steam and instant purchase, download and pay idea. Back to waiting on the postman to shower my letterbox with gaming heaven… I even took a look at direct2drive and the prices on there are horrendous.

To be honest, I’ve noticed with Steam and a few others that offer direct downloads that Mass Effect 2, Assassins Creed II, Battlefield Bad Company 2, COD MW1 and MW2 and many many more are pretty much top end prices where you can get these games for up to half the price looking around elsewhere, such as erm – driving to the local store and picking it up or just waiting for the postman…

I mean, I saw Grid for £6.99 from a well known local games store, yet download was twice the price from some download locations….

Napoleon total war is £14.99 locally – bargain…!! Erm, Steam not so much of a bargain.

Is this me, or am I missing something here….?? I thought downloading directly would be cheaper – but its not. Very disappointed…. Looks outside and thinks… Hmmm quick trip in the car and I’ll be saving a few quid and waste half hour drive.. lol
 
Two reasons:

1) Server space and bandwidth ain't cheap

2) Brick and mortar stores make up a very worthwhile proportion of sales for publishers, and if they see Steam cutting prices by huge amounts they will take their business away from game publishers.

I am with you though mate, it is frustrating.
 
All I can suggest is that you wait for the weekend / midweek deals. I agree the prices are horrendous at times. The only plus point is convenience. People will suggest it costs to download (i.e. bandwidth) but it also costs to open a shop so I find this as a negligable argument.

Basically you're paying for the convenience of having it right there and then and while people pay stupid charges the service will continue.


M.
 
Such a shame…. The PC is a very capable content driven platform that doesn’t need you to pop a CD /DVD into a drive to gain access to new media.

I think the idea of downloading games, videos and music on demand and not waiting to get your new purchases is excellent…. Just a shame the prices for PC Games really aren’t competitive compared to traditional methods of delivery.

The idea of no CD /DVD, no keep case and having the game installed when needed and removed and then stored elsewhere – ie steam is excellent. I’m all for the idea sadly I won’t pay £29.99 for a game I can get for half at my local games store.

Back to DVD media and if I don’t fancy popping a DVD into a drive, make an ISO image and using a fixed .exe to play the games…..

I’ll keep an eye out for the Steam deals, sadly I don’t buy mass numbers of games and don’t keep my eye out. I’m more of an impulse gamer, and if I fancy a game for the weekend, then I buy one…
 
The only reason I'd buy something via the likes of steam is it's either a bargain, not available elsewhere or just some DLC.

Personally I like having cases with instructions book, and anything that comes with a special edition, if I'm not getting those I'd certainly expect it to be cheaper not more expensive.

I normally pre-order games and most of the time they arrive early, on the occasion I decided to buy a digital download where I wanted to play it that evening, I worked out the download time basis my normal connection speeds with steam of 6-8mb and thought great I'll be playing it by 1900, that was until steam churned out a download speed of about 200k for 4 hours before speeding up (apparently it was a busy night) so come midnight still downloading..
 
I might be wrong but here goes......

Shop retailers buy from the publisher, they then set prices instore and if they are selling it cheap they do so at there own expense.

Steam is a content delivery system.

Publisher signs up to use STEAM as a way to deliver content and take payment but the publisher sets the price?
 
N:TW is a Steamworks title so the retail can be unlocked on Steam as if you bought it on Steam...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
To maximise profits, goods are charged on what people are prepared to pay, not what they cost to produce.

4 Gillette 'blades' (the top-of-the-line ones) cost in the market about £6-£8. They cost about 3.5p each to make. Thats the biggest profit margin in the world. But of course, they charge what people are prepared to pay.
 
Bandwidth and server costs aren't the reason. MW2, AVP and Napoleon TW all use Steamworks and cost less to buy retail. It's down to large retail chains having deals in place with publishers that prevent digital downloads under cutting them. It's a similar deal with Ubisoft games like Assassins Creed 2 and Settlers 7 not being available on Steam in the UK, they still have a contract in place with the large retail chains regarding digital downloads.

And I don't suppose Steam are that bothered either, they sell at recommended retail price and a lot of people are prepared to pay that price. They get the rest of us with sales and weekend deals.

When the balance of sales tips towards downloads, then maybe prices will fall, though I doubt they will.
 
Publishers view the 'content' as the worth of the product - the delivery mechanism is largely irrelevant to them.

Consumers view the 'form' as the worth of the product - hence the perception that digital DL's should be cheaper.

I think it was shown that e-books on Amazon arent actually that much cheaper to produce and sell than paper books.



Also cokezone have EA vouchers back in stock if you have spare points (10 points for £5.00 off / 20 points for £10.00 off) - got DAO: Awakenings for £10 the other day.
 
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Just noticed that EA Store have marked up Bioware POINTS (!!!) by 33% - for 1600 its:

Bioware = £12.38
EA = £19.99

How they can possibly justify marking up something thats not even tangible! :rolleyes:
 
Same applies to downloads of film and music. You can buy a hard copy DVD (new) for as little as £3 in hmv. Surely digital downloads of the same should be able to at least match that price?
This kind of blatent rip off pricing only encourages piracy.
 
Not really encouraging piracy when you can buy it cheaper elsewhere? As I already said, prices are set by the publishers of the game, when it comes to their own things Valve are quite competitive (Orange Box £16.99, L4D2 £19.99). For example they also set EA games who have their own delivery system in EA Downloader and prices on there compared with Steam are cheaper and I wouldn't be surprised if EA keep the Steam prices artificially high to make people use their own system rather than Valve's.
 
Retailers would refuse to stock PC games if the digital copy was much cheaper. Publishers are scared of this as they still need the shops to sell their games not just PC but console as most publishers are active on all platforms.

I doubt it will change much in the next 5-10 years or until bandwidth for mass market is unlimited & speeds are high!
 
m4cc45 said:
All I can suggest is that you wait for the weekend / midweek deals. I agree the prices are horrendous at times. The only plus point is convenience. People will suggest it costs to download (i.e. bandwidth) but it also costs to open a shop so I find this as a negligable argument.

Basically you're paying for the convenience of having it right there and then and while people pay stupid charges the service will continue.


M.
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See I don't even see if like thatm my internet speed is so slow it takes three whole days to download a game like GTA4. The postman is quicker than that anyway!

Then you cant even sell games in steam :/
 
I agree 100%. I think Steam is great but the prices ruin it. I just buy games when they are in the sale. I have a well chosen list of games on my Steam list, most of which I have played. I'd like to buy Fallout 3 GOTY but no-way am I paying £30 for a 2 year old game. With all the recent DRM or whatever they are called now, I don't think I'll buy any more boxed games. The last one was GTAIV about 15 months ago because I saw somewhere selling it for £9.99 on release. It seems to me that a pirated version offers more than an original. Tbh, I couldn't be bothered dusting off the box of a game I bought a couple of years ago and finding I can't install it, even though I have paid for it.
 
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