*** The Official Playstation 4 (PS4) Thread ***

ps3ud0 said:
Honestly I think Ive missed your point, how is this related to digital games being cheaper as you originally replied to?

ps3ud0 :cool:
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Apologies for not coming across clear enough.

My point is that digital downloads should lead to cheaper games. I don't see why it shouldn't.

Offering digital downloads means no/very little manufacturing costs (Discs, Cases, Manuals).
 
DAIR said:
Apologies for not coming across clear enough.

My point is that digital downloads should lead to cheaper games. I don't see why it shouldn't.

Offering digital downloads means no/very little manufacturing costs (Discs, Cases, Manuals).
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But on the other hand, the vast majority of cost in producing a game is in the costs of R and D, staff, office space, etc. Discs, cases, manuals etc can't contribute to more than £2-3 per game.
 
The thing that annoys me most about the PS store is the inconsistency with their pricing, some games are £39.99 which is fine, i could save a few quid at Tesco but it would cost me a fiver in petrol to get there, so i would be more than happy to download it. Then there are some titles at £49.99 and £59.99 which is ridiculous, nowhere sells games at that price.

I mentioned Sleeping Dogs which is now in the Playstation Essentials collection, meaning the RRP is £19.99, yet its £49.99 on the store, over double the RRP set by Sony themselves. Then you get games like Far Cry 3 which is an entirely reasonable £23.99. It just makes no sense, its almost as if they bend over backwards to make some games as unappealing as possible so nobody bothers.
 
Spinal2k2 said:
its not sony who set the prices of the games on the store unless its one of their games, the rest are all set by the publishers.
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That makes it even worse, they are the ones with the most at stake and also the ones pushing for an end to used games. Why the hell would they not want digital games to succeed? Less cost to produce means more money for them, its a huge marketplace available to access by 60% of console owners in their homes 24/7, and the games cant be sold on slowing the used game market which means yet more money for them. Its a win win for publishers but they choose to screw themselves over.
 
DAIR said:
Apologies for not coming across clear enough.

My point is that digital downloads should lead to cheaper games. I don't see why it shouldn't.

Offering digital downloads means no/very little manufacturing costs (Discs, Cases, Manuals).
Click to expand...
Oh I agree with that. Just didn't get the comparison with those other non- console digital platforms.

It's all quite obvious that they should be a bit cheaper, though my bugbear is more that during the shelf life of a game digital very rarely follows physical regards pricing. Now I appreciate the long tail methodology, but I still think there should be some conscious decision to follow physical pricing once a game has been out for a while - its just not acceptable to expect release-day pricing on old games.
Bennie-Mac said:
That makes it even worse, they are the ones with the most at stake and also the ones pushing for an end to used games. Why the hell would they not want digital games to succeed? Less cost to produce means more money for them, its a huge marketplace available to access by 60% of console owners in their homes 24/7, and the games cant be sold on slowing the used game market which means yet more money for them. Its a win win for publishers but they choose to screw themselves over.
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Makes you wonder if Sony/MS take a larger cut on digital products on their stores than it costs for publishers in physical distribution - its unlikely, but could account for those somewhat silly prices we see more often than not. Probably loads of fingers making that digital pie more expensive when competition isn't the driving factor

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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DAIR said:
Apologies for not coming across clear enough.

My point is that digital downloads should lead to cheaper games. I don't see why it shouldn't.

Offering digital downloads means no/very little manufacturing costs (Discs, Cases, Manuals).
Click to expand...

Plus the guaranteed lack of re-sale.
 
ps3ud0 said:
Makes you wonder if Sony/MS take a larger cut on digital products on their stores than it costs for publishers in physical distribution - its unlikely, but could account for those somewhat silly prices we see more often than not. Probably loads of fingers making that digital pie more expensive when competition isn't the driving factor

ps3ud0 :cool:
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Quite possibly but its strange how some developers can charge a reasonable price whereas others don't. I bought Borderlands 2 for £39.99 on release, if 2K can manage it cant others? Surely the costs charged by Sony would be uniform throughout, its not likely they would charge one publisher more than another is it?
 
DAIR said:
Apologies for not coming across clear enough.

My point is that digital downloads should lead to cheaper games. I don't see why it shouldn't.

Offering digital downloads means no/very little manufacturing costs (Discs, Cases, Manuals).
Click to expand...

Because of various reasons covered in previous posts. The lack of manufacturing costs is exactly why digital release games can hold their value in the first place.
 
Bennie-Mac said:
Quite possibly but its strange how some developers can charge a reasonable price whereas others don't. I bought Borderlands 2 for £39.99 on release, if 2K can manage it cant others? Surely the costs charged by Sony would be uniform throughout, its not likely they would charge one publisher more than another is it?
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If I was a pessimist I would say its collusion between the platform holders and publishers as unlike physical stores they have unlimited shelf space so no real pressure to sell those games unlike physical stores where through strong retail competition and finite shelf space games tend to get cheaper just to get them out of the shop...

Digital should be cheaper but no real reason to make it cheaper unless its concious effort, it suits everyone but us if digital stays more expensive than physical, publishers will get their pound of flesh either way...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
It's also down to some extra fees with the console platform holders and decisions made by the publisher too.

When you look at PC and for example Steam, quite a different picture and no surprise digital releases are cheaper there. Oh and with current Steam summer sales, dang! :p
 
Generally around the same price, maybe just a few quid more, or in some cases cheaper, especially if there is some special pre-order discount or something.

Of course, when it comes to Limited Edition or Collector's Edition packages, retail wins, due to the physical stuff you get, whereas digital, you'll obviously be missing that, but they'll always have some other thing thrown in for good measure too e.g. another game for free if it's within the same series franchise or something.

I'll take Resident Evil 6 as a quick example. When the PC version was to be released on Steam back in March, it was £19.99, if you pre-ordered, you get all DLC season pass, free Resident Evil 5, all due to bonuses. Retail disc version (Which will still use Steam anyway), was slightly cheaper from what I remember, but no extra fluff.

But yeah, pricing policies may vary between platforms, and just nothing much we can do about it, other than being extremely patient and maybe wait until it gets discount in a sale or something or via PS+.
 
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Phatjayunoi said:
Generally around the same price, maybe just a few quid more, or in some cases cheaper, especially if there is some special pre-order discount or something.

Of course, when it comes to Limited Edition or Collector's Edition packages, retail wins, due to the physical stuff you get, whereas digital, you'll obviously be missing that, but they'll always have some other thing thrown in for good measure too e.g. another game for free if it's within the same series franchise or something.

I'll take Resident Evil 6 as a quick example. When the PC version was to be released on Steam back in March, it was £19.99, if you pre-ordered, you get all DLC season pass, free Resident Evil 5, all due to bonuses. Retail disc version (Which will still use Steam anyway), was slightly cheaper from what I remember, but no extra fluff.
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why are you comparing steam with PSN?

with the PSN store you get nothing extra for free and it's usually hugely overpriced unlike steam.

i have bought maybe 3 games in total from the PSN store:

Risk factions - which cannot be bought in hard copy
GTA V - complete edition whilst on sale - already had the hard copy and sold it on years ago and wanted to replay it and i got some psn credit for free
and some poker game

with the PlayStation it has always been better to buy in a supermarket or an online retailer in 99% of cases.
 
Phatjayunoi said:
Generally around the same price, maybe just a few quid more, or in some cases cheaper, especially if there is some special pre-order discount or something.
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Agreed and from my own experience of pre-loading on Steam I'm pretty sure release day figures are the same as retail or as near as makes no difference.

When you look at PC and for example Steam, quite a different picture and no surprise digital releases are cheaper there.
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That was why I asked the question in the first place. Of course you may have meant digital releases generally and not new releases.

I think PSN and XBL have been better at discounting over the last couple of years (especially the last year) but - as has been mentioned - it is still very inconsistent in the way prices can vary wildly. If they sharpen up there I think we could see better offers on the new systems.
 
Theyve got better (still take too long for that first price cut IMHO) but if digital matched physical pricing throughout shelf life it would be a great indicator how ready the masses are for digital only and the necessary/possible restrictions that come with that. I doubt we will ever see a tangible monetary difference due to those additional restrictions automatically being applied across the board for digital games.

I really cant see that putting off retailers as there would always be some inherent benefit of having a physical copy...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
It will pretty much till 21-25 of Aug. That's gamescom and where we are likely to see a release date and more games.
 
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