How do you square PSN and XBLA prices?

[DeaDRabbiT]

It's always difficult for me to weigh value in deciding whether a digital purchase is worth the money or not.

I very rarely purchase Games on Demand; DLC and Props/outfits are always a no go, but have bought quite a few XBLA/PSN titles, mostly during discount periods.

The metric I normally use to justify my purchase or passing usually involves thinking about how many physical copies of full retail games I've snagged a while after, or very recently after release for a pittance. Most "worthwhile" games on XBLA/PSN (non-PSN+)tend to be 14.99, and all said and done that's probably what I paid for ME 2 and all the DLC.

It has always seemed (especially if you compare it to Steam sales) that the digital marketplace should function on volume and not margins. Should a digital arcade title and/or DLC (GoD to a lesser degree) artificially hold their full retail price, unlike it's physical cousin, simply because it's exists in an environment free from competition. Should MS/Sony allow developers more leeway in what they charge for their titles? The reason physical copies of games see their prices tank, usually has something to do with either excess supply, or an excellent launch. Seeing as how digital media is in effect infinite, shouldn't the prices be much lower?

Do you buy a lot of stuff? How do you go about justifying the cost?

 

[Therumancer]

It's always difficult for me to weigh value in deciding whether a digital purchase is worth the money or not.

I very rarely purchase Games on Demand; DLC and Props/outfits are always a no go, but have bought quite a few XBLA/PSN titles, mostly during discount periods.

The metric I normally use to justify my purchase or passing usually involves thinking about how many physical copies of full retail games I've snagged a while after, or very recently after release for a pittance. Most "worthwhile" games on XBLA/PSN (non-PSN+)tend to be 14.99, and all said and done that's probably what I paid for ME 2 and all the DLC.

It has always seemed (especially if you compare it to Steam sales) that the digital marketplace should function on volume and not margins. Should a digital arcade title and/or DLC (GoD to a lesser degree) artificially hold their full retail price, unlike it's physical cousin, simply because it's exists in an environment free from competition. Should MS/Sony allow developers more leeway in what they charge for their titles? The reason physical copies of games see their prices tank, usually has something to do with either excess supply, or an excellent launch. Seeing as how digital media is in effect infinite, shouldn't the prices be much lower?

Do you buy a lot of stuff? How do you go about justifying the cost?

It all comes down to greed.

The basic idea is similar to the publishing industry for books and such. The idea is that they keep the digital prices high so as not to drive those selling the physical copies out of business. This is a big part of why I haven't jumped on the whole "Gamestop is going to die out soon" bandwagon because it still apparently has enough power to largely prevent games from going entirely online. Something that is surprising when you consider most physically bought games just connect you to STEAM or whatever with the disc and make you download it anyway (with the CD code being the download code for the service). It's sort of like how digital booksellers have been forced to raise their prices by publishers in order to not totally destroy the sale of physical copies which have to consider printing costs and the like.

In the end though the initial justification aside, they keep the price high because they can. They have the justification (above) for not lowering price for cutting out materials, shipping, etc... (unfair to those dealing in copies that have those costs) but then eventually those copies are going to disappear, even when they devalue, and the digital version can still demand top dollar because after a while it's pretty much "pay what we want, or go without".

Originally digital was going to drop prices through the floor, but you'll notice that this never happened, all it really did for most platforms was give the companies more control over the product. Sales are entirely under their control, and don't typically apply to brand new, in-demand-at-the-moment titles. This is a big part of why I give the games industry so much crap, all it really did was continue business as usual, and directly pocket the money it was saving rather than passing it onto the consumer with radically lower prices, which the industry WAS promising when they were pushing digital distribution.

 

[Hazy992]

I don't think I've ever bought a AAA game on PSN or XBLA. What with the usually much higher prices than retail (seriously WTF is that about), lack of resale options and huge file sizes it simply isn't worth it. The few tiny advantages don't outweigh the costs.

There's no justification for it other than greed, and if it continues then the digital marketplace on consoles is never going to grow. I can't imagine digital sales numbers are all that high compared to retail.

 

[Liquidprid3]

I've gotten about, say, 30 or so games digitally on my Xbox, but I only got them when they were on sale. Even though I could get them on Steam, I like to keep all platforms in use. Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy, Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite, as well as other games I bought digitally on good sales. Microsoft has been getting much better with sales lately.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

For a console game, I'd never buy a full price game when I new I could find the disc in a meatspace store or online for possibly far less. The facts that years from now my console could die/HDD crap out after MS/Sony/Nintendo[footnote]Nintendo's "content is tied to the device not the user account" policy from the Wii Era really pissed me off. MS's "sign into Live to see content not native to this console" deal was almost as bad considering the failure rate of the early 360s.[/footnote] dropped server support for that generation so I couldn't get my games back, I could trade in discs someday (maybe even for more than I payed if a game was rare), and like what was said already, they charge just as much for digital games as discs. These rumors floating around and wishes of greedy publishers that say this is the last disc based console generation are just funny. The way many people like having a physical item and the way publishers treat the online markets assures that physical games will be a market for a looong time.

Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS bundles are also pissing me off, too. All the included games are actually download codes, no disc/ cart even in a crappy paper slip. They're not even preloaded! Have fun if you can't connect your console to the Internets for 30-180 minutes. For the 3DS, having downloaded games means less carts to keep track of on the go, but that limited capacity[footnote]Does anyone really want to hook up a hard drive to buy overpriced digital downloads when they could get the games off Amazon for cheap?[/footnote] of the Wii U is going to hurt, even the 32GB model.

 

[teqrevisited]

I usually wait for sales and only ever buy older titles on PSN. It also helps to use different region stores to take advantage of the best prices and get around them either being unable or refusing to make titles available in certain regions.

 

[LookingGlass]

I've bought two games via PSN: Silent Hill (1) and Final Fantasy VII. Two classics that I'd always wanted to play, thought were reasonably priced ($10-12), and weren't available anywhere else.

Outside of that, I don't bother. The prices are always worse than Steam (if there's a PC version), and the Australian PSN Store either never has sales or doesn't advertise them very well. Whenever I see a big PSN store sale advertised, the discounts never seem to make their way down here. They'd have made a whole lot more money from me if they lowered their prices, had bigger/better sales, and got the word out about sales better if they do have them. It'd be nice if the store was more responsive too.

 

[Trek1701a]

I've only bought one 'new' retail game at retail price from the digital stores and that was FF:XIV. I don't really have any plans to buy any more. The prices are usually the same or if they are cheaper, by way of PS+, it usually isn't by much and doesn't reverse the fact that I can trade in the game if I get it physically.

The only stuff I get digitally are digital only titles, even then price matters, and titles that are heavily discounted. The only system for me that price, while matters is less of a factor is the Vita. For some reason, I just really prefer the games being on the machine instead of the cards. And it's not a portable thing as I don't feel that way with the 3DS, weird.

 

[viranimus]

I dont.

Due to customer hostile philosophies I cannot willingly agree to unreasonable terms required to bring software UTD in order to even access either of their online capabilities.

Plus I know overall that 9/10 times the mingling of connectivity and gaming results in something awful. Making gaming suck just a lil more every time.

So I guess I reconcile by having principles and knowing a bad apple when I see it. Works well for me. have never had any buyers remorse on either client. I fully recommend it.

 

[LaoJim]

Microsoft has been getting much better with sales lately.

I'd agree with this a lot. I've bought a surprising number of games on XBLA this year: Bioshock Infinite, Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Rayman Legends, Transfomers (both War and Fall of Cybertron), Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions, Alice: Madness Returns, Asura's Wrath, Remember Me, Devil May Cry HD, plus a whole load of arcade titles for 1 or 2 pounds each. Each of these games has been a few pounds cheaper than you'd find second hand copies and most have been about 6 pounds. It well worth keeping your eye on these sales every week.

That said I never buy anything that is not in one of the weekly sales; if it's not discounted like this, the prices are hardly ever worth it. You can usually get a new copy from Amazon for less, and almost certainly get a second hand copy significantly cheaper. What's particularly offensive about XBLA is that they will sell you Dragon's Dogma for 6 pounds one week, and then the next week it will be 15 pounds but listed in their "Great Value" section. The other problem is that older titles don't generally depreciate below 15 pounds (except on weekly sales).

One theoretical advantage is that if you buy an older game on the sales the same time as everyone else, the multiplayer section gets a fresh infusion of new blood and is more fun for it.