oflaherty01
Member
Maybe I'm just thinking too plainly here, but isn't what he is talking about really just price fixing? Working together with competition to set a standard on pricing? Just a question.
Live/PSN games go on sale all the time. I'll concede that very rarely do we get sales during the first month of release but they do go on sale. Both services have games on sale on a weekly basis. I would suggest checking out CAG or keeping up with sales threads here.
I have seen PS3 games on PSN have flash sales but I am yet to see a PS4 game on sale that was lower then Physical copies I could buy locally.
I think you're looking at it wrong. Before i go further let me say I don't trade in games, nor am I defending gamestop, but i see this argument and i think people are missing something.Gamestop/EBGames is almost irrelevant. Where I live, they were offering $30 for advanced warfare or Master Chief Collection 5 days from launch. I was curious as to their prices.
They sell the game for $69 here new and they sell used for $64.99. That means they'll give you less than half for your game, and charge only $5 less than new. So how can they say the price of games shouldn't be so low, when that's what they're valuing your games at? Even during launch week.
Seriously, call them up and ask them how much they'd give you for used game a day after launch. I think the digital industry will be great for gaming. Get games out of the grip of retailers. Do you know how many people are getting money back from bundles while providing those who want games, the ability to get them cheaper? Loom how many can save $10-$20 on new games buying codes off of Craigslist etc.
Comments such as those in the OP boil my piss.
Just give the retailers parity (lol) and let them set their own prices as they do with physical releases.
The underlying costs of physical/digital are closely guarded and I accept that digital delivery infrastructure does not come free but I cannot believe that the costs of digital outweigh the costs of physical.
They should be more worried about the mobile market of cheap asses demanding $1 aaa titles in the future.
If GS is trying to keep the price of digital games up then I hope it does go out of business. Trying to nickel and dime your customers, and sell them garbage guides and scratch protection plans is one thing. Trying to make me pay more somewhere else goes beyond tolerable corporate greed efforts.
I just hope that PS4 digital game would be as cheap as PC game on Steam
Won't happen until physical media becomes less popular with console players. I thought MS or Sony might go big this gen with $40 day 1 digital titles but no dice. The margins for digital (along with no resale) just makes it immensely more profitable. If there's one thing you can count on, it's that the big players will chase the profit. Steam is successful because the prices can fluctuate without any stakeholders getting mad.
Once Gamestop's gone, I'll literally have no dedicated gaming shops near me.
Sad to think about
As much as I dislike Gamestop, having a chain of stores dedicated to our hobby is a good thing. We're not going to be able to rely on big box stores for anything but the big releases, and there is zero incentive for them to stock used accessories. Where else are you going to go for legacy peripherals? I guess we're all assuming if Gamestop went under, cool independent game stores that never hassle us about preordering would take their place, but I'm doubtful.
Maybe Gamestops could also become servers, essentially? Instead of buying a physical release from them, I could bring in a thumbdrive and get my digital copy downloaded there, instead of using my capped, throttled ISP data plan? That's worth a "convenience fee."
Once Gamestop's gone, I'll literally have no dedicated gaming shops near me.
Sad to think about
For fuckin real? Have they seen the price of games on PSN? Everything is still ludicrously priced. You might save 5 bucks vs store price on big name games, but thats it.
Steam is where the real deals are, and GS barely bother stocking PC games anymore, so no loss for them.
Serious question: what can you get at GameStop that you can't get online at Amazon or even Best Buy? (Obviously the exclusives, but the sooner those go away, the better.)
Maybe I'm just thinking too plainly here, but isn't what he is talking about really just price fixing? Working together with competition to set a standard on pricing? Just a question.
Cars were an objective improvement over horse and buggy, digital gaming isn't over physical copies.
The massive production so-called "AAAA" ones? Perhaps not, or at least reduced in number. My question though is, why should I care? There isn't a single "AAA" game in my top 10 this year -- the closest is Dark Souls 2, and I'd say that's "AA".
You should care because the profits from those games are how other, riskier development gets funded.
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Older games that Best Buy would've pulled long ago. Amazon also can rock you on older items, depending on the seller.
Some games I purchase day one and have no problem paying full price, others I'm not willing to pay full price for and I'd rather skip the game entirely if it means having to buy a cheaper physical copy when I want the digital copy. If I want a digital copy of a game and I see the new Physical copy $25 cheaper , I end up not purchasing the Digital or the Physical copy.
Amazon sells Physical and Digital PS4 games. Its pretty obvious that when Amazon can deliver a brand new AAA title to your door for $25 cheaper then its digital counterpart that Sony is price fixing the digital purchases.
I can understand Sony not wanting to undercut retailers but they should be able to match them in price at a minimum.
If sony wants to force overpriced digital Games on the market then fine . I'd rather they don't make any $$ from me on the physical purchase either. I usually just skip the game entirely or I pick up a used copy on ebay.
Gamestop is always there for the gamer and to lighten his wallet as much as possible.
I'm not saying you are wrong, but I am wondering how you came to that conclusion. Personally it seems like the "AAA is the only thing that matters" mentality has stayed stable, but perhaps I'm overlooking something.
Who has that mentality? Gamestop? Mouth breathing forum regulars?
In recent years, most consumers and video game enthusiast websites are rallying around smaller indie titles. While our desire to rally behind AAA titles has been crushed by bad publisher/developer practices (e.g. Battlefield 4 and Halo: MCC).
I think most even-keeled gamers know that there is a lot more out there than the titles that pop out at Gamestop or Walmart. We know that we have a lot more choices.
Just a PSA. A gamasutra take on the same studies had a thread posted on GAF a few days ago. I thought I had subscribed to that but can't find it.
Here is my thought on the issue. Do AAA games even have a future is their average selling price is $23. Remember these games now have teams of around 1000 strong and you have ones like GTA which are basically designed to last the best part of a gen (some expansions will be made to extend their life) and ones like AC and CoD which are yesterday's news in less than a year. When you look at it like that AC and CoD are their own worst enemies and are essentially devaluing themselves and eventually the industry needs to wake up to a better model.
It is easy to paint Gamestop as "oh noes if it is $22 then they won't be able to sell it for $55 after paying $6.26 credit" and in part that exaggerated example is true (Gamestop only pay you how much your game is worth to them conservatively rounded down of course, if they have lots of a game and are unlikely to sell why should pay out the $40 credit they would have done on day 1) and it is a lot easier to blame your product than it is to blame yourself. For example, do we really need a small town to have 3 stores, there is this strange fantasy that all the customers from 2 of those stores will just vanish if you do that (I imagine some will due to shopping at a more convenient location) but as a specialist Gamestop should be relying on range of stock sold and advice (ha the only advice you get is buy pre-owned and buy the card and pre-order too) rather than price to compete.
But as for games being given out for free of PS Plus etc there is a different dynamic there of trying to get people to subscribe and keeping people subscribed.