Downloads would be cheaper they said.

Caporegime
Joined
22 Nov 2005
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They would cut out the middle men they said, they would be cheaper than making physical media they said, savings would be passed on to consumers they once claimed.

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Why is a physical dvd £9 cheaper than downloading? is the 4gb of internet data so expensive ?

And on steam the game already hads a 24.99 DLC before the game is released oh my days


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The Kombat Pack features Klassic Kombatants and Iconic Guest Characters.

Who’s Next? Experience the Next Generation of the #1 Fighting Franchise.

Mortal Kombat X combines unparalleled, cinematic presentation with all new gameplay. For the first time, players can choose from multiple variations of each character impacting both strategy and fighting style.
So your basically selling classic skin versions of the characters for £24.99 sir? maybe a few alternate "moves" bro? adding classic skin variations must be bloody expensive for them to shove so much of the cost on to the consumer

pretty much the cost of the actual game if you buy it on DVD WTF?!?!?!!?!?!?
 
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I reckon we have just reached the tipping point, where it has become more desirable to download than to have a physical copy. Throw in the constant argument about game pricing (is it too cheap, hasnt increased for decades etc.) and here is a built in opportunity to increase prices without increasing prices...
 
I'm dreading the day we go full digital.

Never understood the zealot praise of digital services. Seems too short sighted to me.
 
They lied ;) Mortal X is ridiculous £59.99 for the full content or wait 18 months for digital sales!

Batman Arkham Knight is digital only but ONLY in UK rest of world gets the cheaper PC-DVD version. UK pre-orders made on amazon.co.uk ONLY before 30th March will also get the physical copy but no-one else in UK gets it :rolleyes: WB have confirmed this in writing already:

http://www.vg247.com/2015/03/26/batman-arkham-knight-pc-digital-only-in-uk/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RUMOR-Batma...cd_dp_aar_al_a?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B00IS6S81G

To me this is a further sign they are treating UK differently PC gaming wise it seems very unfair to remove the physical option especially when games are coming on 7 DVD's like GTA V is but at least Rockstar made a retail version as they know their store cannot handle the downloads but the keys are not Steam keys only Rockstar Social Club.

I think this digital only push is:

1: To hike prices.
2: To control regional locks to control the regional pricing.
3: To avoid giving retailers their % which is about the same as Steam.
 
It may simply be that the UK has embraced buying digital more than other countries and therefore a lot less physical copies are sold, and they are getting to the point where it isn't worth producing them?

As for the original point, yes ridiculous.
 
What you give away on costs regarding physical distribution, you encounter a few when going online, like the service you are selling on, bandwidth, etc. However, Steam, Origin, Uplay etc., prices are way too high and it's best to just avoid them and buy keys on other sites or buy during sales.
At the moment, buying retail and activating the product on some online service works best.
 
They would have been cheaper if we didn't have legions of people queuing up to hand over money to Steam 'Just cos its on Steam'.

Look at GTA V, £10 more on Steam than competing services yet still people hand over money to Steam. Why would Steam reduce price?
 
It's all about demand and what people are prepared to pay. Most people now prefer to buy a digital copy rather than physical. Therefore, prices for digital downloads have increased to reflect this preference.
 
Physical games are cheaper largely because of the middlemen, not in spite of it. Distributors, retailers etc all negotiating cheaper unit prices on the basis of bulk orders, marketing agreements, long-term promotions etc. Plus there's the fact that physical products become a liability and lose value so the incentive is there for everyone involved to get the product sold and out of warehouses or stores rather than losing value.

Online distribution, on the other hand, gives a lot more control to the publishers over what the final price is.
 
It does seem odd for a specific retailer to sell the physical copy for more then the digital, but as its Amazon it probably just means that somebody else is selling the physical copy for that price and they have matched their price accordingly, as this is pretty much the way Amazon pricing works and the reason they usually appear to be cheap, they discount as long as somebody else does
 
You are complaining about pc prices? Is that a joke?

tbh - i think we are in a golden age of pc gaming right now. Market is saturated.. heavily in favour of the buyer.

As long as you dont buy on day 1 of release or preorder then quite literally your cup runneth over...

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I have far far too many great games (not even good but GREAT awesome games) to play. Not one of them did i pay more than £11 for.

You got so many sale websites and key sites coming out of your **** that you cant keep up...its ridiculous seriously. Theres always a mad sale going on somewhere on one of those sites. Even websites setup to keep you aware of any deals cant keep track of them all.

And then we have things like kickstarter...the proliferation of so many indie games (often better and far more ingenious than games by big publishers) More control over the type of games you want to see...active involvement by investors (ie us) in the game.

Dont want to spend any money at all either? Hey i got a **** ton of free games for you too! Often better than the AAA equivalent (e.g. Path of exile)...no matter what genre takes your fancy...

Add into this huge behometh of joy...you have the dawn of VR..we are here for this as well...


Its quite literally a feast.......imagine being starved for "centuries" :D and being led to this.

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It may simply be that the UK has embraced buying digital more than other countries and therefore a lot less physical copies are sold, and they are getting to the point where it isn't worth producing them?

As for the original point, yes ridiculous.

or it may be a case that digital sales are manipulated like a cartel/monopoly which is why games cost the same pretty much everywhere on the official online resellers.

I guess when you have overall control of your pricing and can demand everywhere sells it for XX competition ceases to exist and the consumer gets taken for a ride.

Where as with retail DVD copies I guess it's a lot harder to try and implement price fixing

CD Keys has had this cheap for a while now.

They don't actually have any keys yet though.

It wasn't for me anyway someone was asking if they could get it cheaper than steam and I was just shocked the dlc is so expensive and the physical copy is so much cheaper.

there a bit internet noobiefied so wouldn't send them to a cdkey selling site as it's just more hassle for me
 
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Steams 30% cut is what boosts it. £34.99 minus 30% gives it about £25. So in the op comparison from retail and steam it works out. Gog I think takes less cut so the retail vs gog should be cheaper. And humble site is just 5% cut isn't it so in theory that should be a better place. If it isn't then there inflation is due to competition profit margins they want so it isn't cheaper. :(
 
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