this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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I've never understood the concept of pre ordering digital content, it's not going to run out of stock. And why pay extra for a few graphical items that don't change the way the game plays?
Also, surely digital games would be cheaper because there's no physical product to send to the customer? But there you go. Base copy of Diablo 4 is £70!! Wow!
Initially pre orders made sense back when physical media was the only way to get games. Nowadays though, you are absolutely right. Digital games have no right to cost around the price as a physical product (especially when even that physical product doesn't even have a cool manual and its just an empty plastic box with a disc in it).
I know right. What's the point of these new games coming with beautiful steel books but no discs.
I can see why because the games are so big, there's no point sticking a bit of it on a disc. That's why physical media is becoming redundant. All these games require patches to run and they won't be around for ever. Not even Switch games are complete on cartridge these days.
The reason, or at least part of it, is the retail stores themselves. They didn't want online stores to be a better option where customers could save money, so they made a deal with a bunch of the publishers that they can't sell their games online for cheaper than the physical copies in retail stores or the stores wouldn't carry them.
I'm not sure how much longer that deal will last, though the publishers probably aren't in any rush to get rid of it since they make better margins on their online sales because of it (and can say "not our fault!" if people complain). But retail stores will be less and less relevant over time I think and eventually someone will want the ability to undercut other AAA games and steal a bunch of market share. Or cut out the whole physical media supply chain entirely.
Im not one to be too hung up on the cost of games. They have stayed relatively stagnant for years and have undoubtedly grown in complexity and with that, staffing requirements. I mean Halo: Combat Evolved was $50 dollars from release well into 2003 and this was before internet based multiplayer games on console were really all that common.
So given how much costs have increased for other items....A 70-80 dollar game isnt necessarily outrageous. Especially given the amount of time some will play said games. 200 is a different story.
Im also not against paid methods to skip a grind. Some people have time to do repetitive tasks in games and may even get joy out of it. Others dont have that kind of time, so a paid option isnt necessarily out of bounds for me. Personally I get an hour or so a night to play, whereas most kids can get 6-8 hours a DAY... But my time is worth money, much more so than a kid, so if it costs me another 20 bucks to skip 8-10 hours of grind and be on an equal playing field, im all for that.
You've reminded me of when Battlefield: Bad Company was first released on Xbox360 (and maybe PS3, I don't remember) EA released a more expensive gold steelbook edition where everything was unlocked from from the start with an included code.
I vaguely recall it being a bit dramatic too. But that’s a great example.
In BF games weapons and attachments are behind some weird lock system. So in bf3 or bf4 here’s me getting my 1 hour a night unlocking a basic scope or playing with iron sights going against kids/young adults that have gotten my weekly leveling dont in a single session and just blasting me with IR scopes telling me to “git gud”. And I don’t even have the “non reflective” uniform yet thst counters it so I’m basically very easy to see.
That’s…not fun. Thus I won’t buy the game, especially with the recent chnages we’re team mechanics don’t matter. And like it or not, a large swath of people that play games are normal working class adults with absolutely normal lives.
You've reminded me of when Battlefield: Bad Company was first released on Xbox360 (and maybe PS3, I don't remember) EA released a more expensive gold steelbook edition where everything was unlocked from from the start with an included code.
Having something tangible can have perks. Steam bans you. Thousands lost. Online service shuts down. Games lost. I can still fire up this here super Nintendo... And nobody can tell me when it's going to shut down and stop working.
One of the reasons I prefer to buy on gog. I can just save all my purchases to an external hard drive
I agree about the content never running out. I disagree that the content isn’t worth more though. The quality is definitely getting up there and the design teams are grilled while getting ripped off. The corruption of Capitalism has rotted your brain. it is your choice to take the DLC. It shouldn’t be your choice to piss on slave driven developers. not ok.
I'm not pissing on DLC, that content can be fantastic additions to already great games. What I find pointless are the pre order bonuses when it's just a fancy red coat when the base game comes with a blue one.
You literally bagged on a game for being $70 for full cost. But now you’re saying it’s how it’s marketed? Pick an argument. Stick to it.