Jimquisition: Don't Charge Retail Prices For Digital Games

[Quiotu]

I'm fairly certain that the console makers would like nothing better than to make their DD network friendlier and more popular among their subscribers. It really is the publishers, particularly the huge ones, that are pushing the price points up... and until recently probably had complete say for how much their titles were. Also, somehow it's the Japanese publishers that are the worst. Taking Jim's example, Atlus is one of the few Japanese publishers I completely respect anymore, but their games on PSN were all full price until just a month ago, only going down in price during an occasional week-long special.

Still seems like a miracle that Sony managed to lower the price of DD games for the Vita, and it's still not perfect, but you have to figure Sony had to bend over backwards to get publishers to cooperate.

It honestly is odd to see Sony be one of the first to push prices down for digital content next to Valve. To a lesser extent CDProjectRed and GOG help as well, but that's more helping through content availability than pricing.

 

[chiefohara]

Enjoyable video.

Gotta be honest though, i like my collector's editions. Not that keen on retail being dead and gone, digital, yes its the future and yes you make complete sense with the price being totally incorrect, but from a selfish point of view, im glad publishers are being douches about this because it keeps my archaic precious Retail hardcopy source of games alive

 

[Tharwen]

Hooray for Hitler!

 

[daxterx2005]

I feel like I've been living under a rock since I buy all my games off Amazon/gamestop/eBay.
Never in hundred years did I think games would be default 60-70 dollars on launch, thats madness.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Next thing we know publishers will make digital versions cheaper... by making physical copies more expensive.
From their point of view it makes sense.

Oh god I can see them doing that too. There "reasoning" (or how they spin it to the press) would be that "the price of game development has gone up, so to make back the cost, the price of games has to rise too".

 

[Spankable]

Just payed £32 for Diblo III from Amazon in the UK, the digital copy would be £45. Surely even if they price matched the publisher would make more money, surely activison getting £25 at most from a physical sale with the rest going to creating the product, amazon costs & free shipping.

Jim made good point about the power of GameStop, we don't have them in the UK, we still need a physical distributer, but surely Amazon can do that, they actively encourage competition.

Modern AAA publishers are slick Corporation & can't be that blind, charege £30, add 20% to your profits, sell a phisical copy through amazon for £32.


They can't be all that dumb. Sorry Jim you, an all of us, are clearly missing the reason for this.

 

[Frostbite3789]

If you don't support the better developers then they wont keep making great games. Sure skyrim is $60 but that's for hundreds of hours of gameplay. Considering millions of people pay $60 for COD which only has about 10 hours of content before your just repeating maps in multiplayer paying $60 for skyrim is a bargain. I bought it on release day and i think it's the best game this gen. Bethesda deserves your money for it

I would argue that Skyrim is one of the most hollow gaming experiences I've had to date. Even more hollow than whatever time I put into a multiplayer game.

Your move.

 

[theultimateend]

Well I can't imagine that there's any intelligent counter argument to this...

Oh sure there is.......its greed filled, bullshit filled and reeks of pure unadulterated evil. But intelligent non the less.

Well that was quick.

Onto the next problem!

Perfectly understandable. I realize that for some, it is difficult having my face appear in their feeds because any passing girlfriends and boyfriends will fall in love with it and leave you in order to seek my hand (my own wife, upon seeing one of my videos, actually divorced me in order to marry me again. It was very troublesome).

I assume this is the problem anyway, since it's the only logical one I have as to how simply seeing the existence of a video in a feed is a problem to anybody. In any case, you can let your significant others know that I am off the market and so they should probably stick with whoever they settled for.

That made my post lunch work day.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

And that my friends, is why I do all my game shopping from Amazon/Gamestop.

I got Mass Effect 3 on PC for 36 euro off Gamestop on release day. For PS3 it would've cost me 45-55 euro as a physical copy.

Last time I checked it was still SEVENTY FUCKING EURO on the Playstation Store.

Aye. And that's exactly why EA and everyone else seem to have pretty much already decided to favor digital distribution of game data and 'licenses' over those pesky physical copies. They're hell-bent on destroying or at least severely crippling the second-hand market, eliminating trading or other after-market consumer oddities and random flukes in their equations.

On one hand, it's a really modern and reasonable thing to do, and be it just because we have the infrastructure to do it; on the other, it's the end of a lot of what made gaming fun. It also gets rid of collectables and the very concept of our current market and distribution outlets. We're bound to see how that plays out - I personally don't like it.

 

[Alexander Cunningham]

This is why I refuse to buy Skyrim on Steam. The bloody game is STILL at $60. I always wait for Bethesda to release a Game of the Year Edition so I can at least get everything. Buying one of their games at launch is never good news to me.

You have a stonger will than me.

 

[CapitalistPig]

Jim you took every word out of my flapping mouth. This is the reason I've bought one game in four years. The only reason I even bought Starcraft 2 was because my demo (which allowed me to download the full game online AKA I bought a $60 key code) ran up and I had a $50 gift certificate to walmart. The entire argument is the truth. I'd say the only argument that allows retail practices to continue is the boobs who complain about their crappy internet connection which always baffles me that someone would bother buying a $1200 gaming juggernaut computer knowing full well they have poor digital access but I digress. it is a glorious future that could cut out all the gamestops of the world. Literally the wet dream of capitalism of cutting out the middle man.

Not to mention anyone who raves about the green movement, this is a holy grail of efficiency and saving of resources.

All around it would be a good push for developers. Thank god for Jim

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

There is also this one funny thing about EA's pricing model on Origin. Considering that Euro is a stronger currency than US Dollar, how come I should pay 60-70 Euros for game priced 60 USD on lunch day?

And on a side note to those complaining about Skyrim on Steam: there have been 3 discounts I remember since Christmas and at least one of them was 50%. I would have liked to make use of that, however Skyrim is not even available in my region on steam and for 40 Eur (52 USD) on retail.
I just wanted to complain about that for some time, so there.

I would expect a random, but well prepared common excuse to go like this:

"Distribution in Europe, that is EU member countries and other, non-EU member countries residing on the European continent, requires special attention and preparation for multiple languages and sometimes rather different legalities and sensibilities. To accommodate for all our customers best interests, we have established legal and business presence in virtually all these countries, or at least many of them, and we have opted to print multilingual booklets on eco-friendly toilet paper. In order to prevent customer confusion from an overabundance of choice, we are dedicated to deliver them only software titles (and licenses) that have been released in their region and are in accordance with their local laws; we are dedicated to eliminate any and all cross-pollution and grey imports and have already installed measures to disable and blow up any consoles that are used to illegally run game titles the customers have bought themselves that are not within the scope of what we have decided to want to offer them. We are currently participating in talks with other software ("games") developers, hardware manufacturers and internet providers to establish an efficient zero-tolerance framework to ensure maximum gaming performance, game title reliability, utmost "fun" value (see scientific definition of the term and study results in appendix F) of the customer experience and a well optimized customer experience resulting in "happiness" and "satisfaction" (see EU regulations in accordance with (IP/08/310) et al).

 

[James Crook]

Would you people bloody stop it with the bad puns? We've already reached Godwin point before the video ended, so no need to go on and play with words...

 

[mjc0961]

Shh, Jim, don't help the publishers on this one! Them being completely idiotic about this one is a good thing. The longer they fail at converting everything to digital distribution, the longer we can actually buy retail copies that are available for cheaper, come with more stuff, and are ours to loan to friends, bring to parties, sell if they suck, and other wonderful things digital doesn't offer.

Don't help publishers take away our consumer rights faster by giving them advice! Let them rot while we enjoy the benefits of their incompetence.

 

[Nurb]

I'm glad someone said it... The big corporate publishers are making the consumers bend to their will rather than listen to their consumers.

And what do they and their corporate whore fans say when consumers actually tell them what they want? "STOP BEING AN ENTITLED WHINEY ****, BE THANKFUL YOU'RE GETTING ANYTHING AT ALL"

With what EA is doing to Sim City 5 after it was modders alone that kept the franchise alive all this time, they can go fuck themselves and I hope pirates really do have have an effect on their profits. I have no sympathy for them over such arrogrant bullshittery and they deserve bankrupcy for ignoring consumer demand and proper business practices and trying to eliminate game ownership.

Seriously, what other industry would survive running things this way? Telling customers to fuck off whenever they have a product request or legitimate criticism, attacking customers for practicing thier right to resale, and making purchasing outside of retail more inconvenient and less rewarding.

Shh, Jim, don't help the publishers on this one! Them being completely idiotic about this one is a good thing. The longer they fail at converting everything to digital distribution, the longer we can actually buy retail copies that are available for cheaper, come with more stuff, and are ours to loan to friends, bring to parties, sell if they suck, and other wonderful things digital doesn't offer.

Don't help publishers take away our consumer rights faster by giving them advice! Let them rot while we enjoy the benefits of their incompetence.

Agreed. Digital distribution is the end of game ownership and game libraries free of online accounts and servers that are required to play.

 

[MasterSplinter]

I believe Jim had a bet with someone, that he could make an entire video talking about digital distribution without uttering the word "Steam" or make any reference to said service.

Also mentioning On Live would have been nice. Last I heard it was dirt cheap sometimes.

 

[babinro]

Can't say I agree with him on this one. As a consumer, I of course want cheaper games. It's why 90% of my game purchases are through Steam sales these days.

From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to sell your digital and retail games at different prices from day 1. Everyone knows there's a greater markup on the digital product. That's not the point. It's not good business to undercut yourself.

 

[Chris Errett]

like music i will never go digital and anyway if the games industry goes digital ud still be able to aquire games for free from torrent sites