Dutch consumer foundation sues Sony for overpricing digital PlayStation games
The Dutch consumer foundation Massaschade & Consument alleges Sony prices digital PlayStation games at nearly double the cost of physical versions.
Hence why nobody should ever buy the digital-only edition of a console. You buy like one used game and make the money back. Then, you can sell that game once you're done and turn a profit over digital-only.
Honestly? It's been probably a decade-and-a-half since the last time I bought a physical game, and I don't exactly miss it. I lived through the era of having cubic metres of space taken up by discs and boxes of games that you finished once but don't really want to get rid of since you liked them and might want to revisit them. I lived through scratched discs and reading errors crashing the game mid session or preventing installation altogether. Having a digital games library is just magnitudes more convenient in practice, and I don't mind paying for that. Especially since I buy 90% of my games on big GOG/Steam sales anyway.
Sure, but this is specifically about consoles. They don't have the same open market that PC digital games have so the only way to not be price gouged is buying physical.
Bluray is extremely scratch resistant. I'm sure there are extreme cases, but scratched disks haven't been a problem for 15+ years.
I still remember when AAA games where $30 and that cost included the disk and case, sure inflation is a thing but with digital only these games still should be cheaper, not the same or more expensive than a physical copy.
I started buying games after buying myself an OG play station. Even back then, I remember $40 and even $50 MSRP game prices. Their greatest hits line was discounted to $20. Final Fantasy 7, which remains an all time favorite of mine, was $50 at launch.
Their greatest hits line was generally priced at $20, which offered a way of discounting games after launch. IMO man games in Steam follow a similar pricing strategy these days - high launch prices with discounts later.
Note that I'm not advocating for the digital only model. Not being able to sell your games again is super lame.
For the longest time, they couldn't undercut physical MSRP with digital MSRP because they didn't want to upset Walmart and have them stop stocking their wares.
From the perspective of a PC owner you sound like you are stuck in the 90s or early 2000s, back when you needed extra shelf space for physical game boxes at home.
Lmao. I primarily game on PC. I own hundreds of digital games. Even with it's superior sales and open market, PC struggles to beat buying a used game from marketplace or ebay.
Also, are you seriously dissing physical media? The benefits of actually owning something cannot be overstated. Even with Steam, you're technically just buying a revokable license to play a game. Physical media can not be revoked, it can be resold/shared, and it works offline. See: the recent PSN outage where people were locked out of their digital games for a few days.
Plus, having a physical collection is just plain fuckin cool.
That's the biggest problem I have with consoles. They're essentially expensive boxes that are tied to a single service, in this case PSN.
You don't like their store pricing, DRM or other policies? Yeah, well, unlucky. Sell your box and buy a different one (or don't). Too expensive to play online on PSN? Well unlucky, because that's the only way to play online. If it's more expensive tomorrow, you better pay if you want online play or you'll be locked out.
Xbox now locks out uncertified controllers, maybe PlayStation as well? Even their own previous controllers (DualShock 4) don't support playing PS5 games on PS5, so if you want to play a 4 player couch coop game you better own 4 controllers specific to that one console. I get it, the new controller has some new features like "adaptive triggers" - but that's entirely optional. Heck, you can play the PS5 games ported to PC with a DualShock 4 on a PC/Steam Deck.
Isn’t it effectively the same on PC but just voluntary? Nobody buys stuff outside Steam so they can do whatever they want. Long gone are deep discounts and you have to hunt for good deals on key shops.
Many people buy games outside of Steam. Sure, relatively speaking it's a minority and if a game is available on Steam and elsewhere, most will pick it up on Steam.
But part of the reason why Steam is so good is because these other platforms exist and there's nothing actually stopping anyone from buying their games from other stores. Cloud saves, game streaming/remote play, online play, family sharing and many more features are all free/included with the game purchase on Steam and they also pioneered many of these features. Steam Workshop adds great value as well, there isn't anything remotely comparable on any proprietary console.
Steam is good because it has to be in order for people to choose to use it.
And "deep discounts" are the same as ever, I see some games 90% off on sales events. Sure, successful AAA titles usually don't get a big discount 2 weeks after release, but in the end the publisher sets the pricing anyway. Generally, even when comparing full price, games are just cheaper on Steam compared to PSN (10 to sometimes 20 $/€ for big titles).
Again, just showing console gaming is one of the worst things to do if you are a gamer
Good. Make them open their platform to third party stores. Make them open their bootloader.
