How Does Xbox One's Software Sale Structure Benefit Consumers?

[Watcheroftrends]

Here's what I don't get:

Digital copies of games are cheaper than hard copies because the costs of disks, packaging, and shipping are removed. PlayStation has downloadable games.

Where do we, as consumers, see savings if Xbox One will still sell hard copies of games? How do the restrictions on trading, sharing, etc. and the associated fees translate to savings for gamers?

 

[Maximum Bert]

It dosent and its not designed to benefit consumers. A console is a closed system unlike PC there is no benefit to going digital because Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo effectively are the only shop in town for digital releases on their consoles so they dont have to compete with rival outlets only maybe rival stores if its a multi plat release but thats not a huge problem as not many people buy multiple platforms.

So basically they can price fix sure they may do a few token sales but you will be getting ripped off compared to what we have now because you effectively have less choice. Digital copies of games may be cheaper in theory but in practice thats not always the case in fact with the consoles the digital copy is usually more expensive hell even for PC its not always cheaper to get a digital copy.

Dont expect any savings to come from the Xbox Ones software sale structure at least not on the consumers side in fact you can probably expect the opposite.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

There's no benefit for consumers, besides being able to play the same copy of a game on multiple consoles (a pretty big benefit when most games now focus on online rather than split-screen multiplayer). It's the most obviously anti-consumer decision that Microsoft has made for a while.

 

[Olrod]

The only ones they care about benefiting are themselves, whether or not it benefits the consumer is a complete side-effect.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

If the situation on Xbox 360 is any indication of Microsoft's plans for the XBone, then no, customers will see very little to no benefit.

Digital AAA titles sell at the same price as their retail counterparts. Actually, the digital library is more expensive overall, since retail copies go down in price over time while I saw loads of years old titles still selling at full price. There's the occasional sale, but it's mostly rather disappointing. Limited to older games, oftentimes XBLA games, or sometimes a piece of dlc. I've rarely seen anything that made me think 'hey, that's a really great deal'. Compared to other digital distribution like Steam or even PS+, it's all pretty lackluster.

Unless Microsoft suddenly has a big change of heart, I don't see them changing their ways any time soon.