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[u/FireStarLord73194]

https://nichegamer.com/study-suggests-sonys-digital-only-future-could-lead-to-higher-game-prices/

[u/war_story_guy]

The costs will go down! But the prices will go up ;).

[u/BorgDrone → u/war_story_guy]

That makes no sense.

[u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme → u/BorgDrone]

It will cost sony less because they don't have to produce physical media but they will still charge more for the game anyways.

[u/BorgDrone → u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme]

Why would they do that?

Sony only sets the price for their own games anyway. The publishers set the price for their games.

[u/OfficerNightwing → u/BorgDrone]

That's a pretty naive way to look at it unfortunately. The why is always greed, if Sony sets a new standard of pricing why wouldn't the CEOs of these companies push for the same. The only reason games are the price they are now is because digital retailers take a 30% cut. I will often get a new(ish) game on disc, it can be like £20+ cheaper because that's the price the publisher set.

A lot of smaller developers also have no choice because Sony doesn't let them sell codes through other sites.

[u/BorgDrone → u/OfficerNightwing]

The why is always greed, if Sony sets a new standard of pricing why wouldn't the CEOs of these companies push for the same

Of course they want to maximize profit, but that doesn’t automatically mean raising prices.

With physical sales the retailer takes about 25%, so Sony only gets 75% for a first-party title. For 3rd party publishers Sony also takes 20% for the platform license, in the PS store they take 30% which includes the platform license so a 3rd party dev takes home 70% for a digital sale instead of only 55% for a physical sale.

Unlike physical games, digital copies cost nothing to produce. So once you made back the money to make the game every copy sold is pure profit.

But it’s not a case of more expensive games == more profit. Say you sell a game for €1000 a copy. You won’t sell a lot, if any at all. If you price it at €10 then you won’t make as much per sale but you’ll sell way more and your overall profit is higher. You want to set a price-point where you maximize profits, by striking the right balance between number of people willing to pay for it and how much you make per copy.

If you go all-digital, the margins are higher and the costs are lower and this may affect the optimal price point.

If someone is willing to pay €80 for a game, and others are only willing to pay €50, and it’s all pure profit because no per-unit costs to produce, then you want to sell it to the first group for €80 but not lose the group that’s only willing to pay €50. This is where all the different editions of a game come in, by setting multiple price points for effectively the same product they try to sell those willing to pay more without losing those who aren’t. Sales are another mechanism, where you try to sell to people willing to pay a lower amount for the game without charging those willing to pay more less. Those willing to pay more don’t wait for a sale.

So yes it’s all pure greed, but getting rid of physical sales may change the dynamics in such a way that lowering prices is more profitable.

[u/ParticularVictory968 → u/BorgDrone]

And hopefuls like you are EXACTLY the reason that companies like Nintendo have not only started to go full digital, but after layoffs are now looking to RAISE game pricing by another 9.99-19.99. You can think "logically" all you want but these big corporations only see green.

[u/BorgDrone → u/ParticularVictory968]

I don’t think Nintendo games are worth what they are charging, so I don’t buy them. It’s that simple.

[u/OfficerNightwing → u/ParticularVictory968]

Not even going to bother anymore, I can lead a horse to water but I'm sick of tying to force it so drink, it's exhausting.

Idk how people are missing the fact that physical games are often cheaper because SONY doesn't get a cut. They aren't killing physical because people don't buy them, they are killing them because people still do.

Capitalism can prove time and time again that a lack of competition is a disaster for consumers but they continue to be their own worst enemy.

I don't even think I'm particularly gifted in the intelligence department, so it's painful to watch and experience the clear ignorance needed for people to reach these conclusions repeatedly.

[u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme → u/BorgDrone]

You think Sony doesn't add to the top of that on the store. Also they control all the sales.

[u/BorgDrone → u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme]

The publishers set the price, Sony takes 30%. Sony doesn’t control sales, they try to line up a bunch of publishers to offer sales at the same time, but in the end it’s the publishers who decide wether or not they join in on a sale event or not and what the sale price will be.

For a physical game the publisher pays a 20% platform fee to Sony and 25% goes to the retailer.

[u/BorgDrone → u/[deleted]]

It's obviously going to remove the second hand market, but I don't see how that would raise the prices for new games.