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[Chris1]

Even if you decide to arbitrarily limit the comparison to Amazon, GAME, Shopto and the supermarkets, the price different between digital purchases and retail is often greater than 10%.

Edit: It's not uncommon for games priced at £59.99 on PSN to be available for around £40 at one of the retailers I mentioned above.

Yep

Hell sometimes games go as low as ~£35 ish prerelease on Amazon.

 

[sheamus]

I don't really understand why this is becoming so big in the console space - the prices are high, the games can't be resold, and they take up huge portions of the console's small hard drives.

I can hit buy and game will be installed on my system in less than 30 minutes

 

[Daemul]

I'm not talking about business rates, I'm talking about VAT. Amazon is a fair comparison with PSN/XBL because they are selling a UK product incurring VAT. Consequently the Amazon price is usually not massively different to online, often <10%. The point is not Amazon etc but the small sites like thatgamecollection etc which sell grey imports.

10%? Try 33%.

It's very common to find games which are being sold for £60 on PSN/XBL instead being sold for £40 and even sometimes less in places like Amazon.

EDIT:Beaten

 

[WadiumArcadium]

I don't really understand why this is becoming so big in the console space - the prices are high, the games can't be resold, and they take up huge portions of the console's small hard drives.

Neither do I. I can get it earlier, cheaper and trade in my copy when I'm done. Until digital's prices are competitive, I'm not interested. Even then physical will always be my preference.

 

[AnthonypUK]

Originally Posted by Withnail

I'm not talking about business rates, I'm talking about VAT. Amazon is a fair comparison with PSN/XBL because they are selling a UK product incurring VAT. Consequently the Amazon price is usually not massively different to online, often <10%. The point is not Amazon etc but the small sites like thatgamecollection etc which sell grey imports.

Yeah its not really hard to refute your point.

Doom PSN £49.99

Doom Amazon : £36.45

Over watch PSN :£54.99

OverWatch Amazon :£42

its a little more then 10%

 

[Shahed]

Nevermind that once you finish the retail copy that you can buy for uo to £20 cheaper gou can then sell it. So quite regularly the money j save by buying a physical disc and then selling it will let me buy an additional game.

I've got nothing inherently against digital. The value proposition just isn't remotely there. I'd only go that way if there's a game both myself and my brothers want to play together and we can put the game on two consoles at once. I mean when the games on PSN arw on sale for a more reasonable price I'm happy to but digital. But at full price? That seems silly.

 

[Bruno MB]

I shouldn't be shocked, but wow at those Wii U and 3DS numbers. Especially 3DS. Nintendo really is dead here. Dead and buried.

P.S. What is dead will never die.

It is really sad to see how the dedicated handheld market has shrunk so much, last year 3DS software sales barely matched what they sold in a much smaller market like Spain.

To think that when NDS and PSP were at their prime yearly software sales surpassed 20 million units for 2 consecutive years.

UK 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,344,000 (-28.8%)
PlayStation Vita - 196,000 (-51.2%)

Spain 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,356,000 (-1%)
PlayStation Vita - 335,000 (-28%)

 

[Loris146]

It is really sad to see how the dedicated handheld market has shrunk so much, last year 3DS software sales barely matched what they sold in a much smaller market like Spain.

To think that when NDS and PSP were at their prime yearly software sales surpassed 20 million units for 2 consecutive years.

UK 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,344,000 (-28.8%)
PlayStation Vita - 196,000 (-51.2%)

Spain 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,356,000 (-1%)
PlayStation Vita - 335,000 (-28%)

Holy shit. This is terrible.

 

[Kill3r7]

It is really sad to see how the dedicated handheld market has shrunk so much, last year 3DS software sales barely matched what they sold in a much smaller market like Spain.

To think that when NDS and PSP were at their prime yearly software sales surpassed 20 million units for 2 consecutive years.

UK 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,344,000 (-28.8%)
PlayStation Vita - 196,000 (-51.2%)

Spain 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,356,000 (-1%)
PlayStation Vita - 335,000 (-28%)

Eye opening but inevitable.

 

[flaviusconstantius]

It is really sad to see how the dedicated handheld market has shrunk so much, last year 3DS software sales barely matched what they sold in a much smaller market like Spain.

To think that when NDS and PSP were at their prime yearly software sales surpassed 20 million units for 2 consecutive years.

UK 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,344,000 (-28.8%)
PlayStation Vita - 196,000 (-51.2%)

Spain 2015

Nintendo 3DS - 1,356,000 (-1%)
PlayStation Vita - 335,000 (-28%)

A big factor I suspect is stores no longer carrying physical Vita software, and limited amounts being released. The 3DS is better, but non-specialty stores increasingly don't carry it either.