Digital biting point

[VR46]

Thread is purely about price, nothing to do with getting a game early or which machine you would buy on etc.

Picture the scene, new game is out next week on PS4 & XBone. You could walk in to a GAME store and buy it for ?45 on release day, pre-order for ?38 from Amazon/Shopto etc or you could buy digitially on release day, at what price point would you buy the digital version?

Genuine discussion, I'm not a collector at all, buy a game, finish it, then sell it on, usually within three weeks so I always go physical for the resale value.

So at what price would you bite?

[charlesr]

I went for 25-29, but this is for MP only games like Battlefield that are server / time limited (players dropping off after a few years). For single player games, I'd still just get the disc. Unfortunately, they aren't that price ratio.

[VR46]

I went one lower, really think prices need to be pretty low to get the majority of the UK to bite.

Sure it's nice not to have to swap discs to play different games etc, but it's only takes 20 seconds out of your life.

[Brad]

I went with ?30-?34. I currently wouldn't actually do this because my internet speed is too low. It's actually the remote play on PS4 that makes me want this. In the living room I don't care about putting a disc in and I prefer physical copies. I like having the box on my shelf, the ability to lend to friends and to sell on anything I'm not that enamored with but would give that up if the game was a tenner less than I could get it elsewhere from just so that I could launch it from my Vita.

[buster_broon]

Less than ?20 for me

I've only bought one full release digitally and I only bought it because the digital sale was much cheaper than the physical copy plus I have a playstation balance I hadn't used for months (need for speed rivals)

But my sweet spot for games nowadays is ?17.99 and generally wait for that price to happen but will have to break that with yoshi and donkey kong wii-u

[DeathAdder]

The only digital game I have bought at full price, apart from a load on J0e Musashi's 3DS, was the second Everybody's Golf on PS3. That was the same price as the physical copy, and that really is convenience, as I almost always play a few holes of that before playing what I wanted to play when I turned the machine on.

Otherwise I'm with David - the resale value is what does it for me. Not usually bothered about getting up to change disks - once that's done, I settle down for an hour or two on the game. I suppose it would be nice to have more storage space, but I prefer the peace of mind of having disks that are definitely mine, and if my machine packs in, I can just grab another second-hand one and I'm away, without worrying if my account and all my digital purchases are going to be transferred over or not.

Golf aside, I'd register some interest in Physical games if they were about half the price of retail ones. Then I might buy the latest releases that way, but for ages the only game I have bought that had only just been released is GTA5. Most other games I can find cheaper second-hand copies of before too long, so I think I will probably be hard-copy until there really is no other choice.

[wakka]

Potentially ?45. It all depends on the game and the system. There is a clear benefit with handhelds of having everything in one place - I was more than happy to pay ?35 for Pok?mon X because I knew it'd be something I dipped in and out of, so I wanted it on the system and ready to go any time.

Home consoles are a different matter. I would only buy a digital version then if the price beat Amazon etc, plus I felt it was a game I wouldn't want to trade in.

[DeathAdder]

It really baffles me that people buy, say, Fifa as a digital game, unless they have the rare self-control to buy one and keep it for years, resisting upgrades. It would be great if EA offered a discount to customers who had bought the last-year's version.

[QualityChimp]

I think they need to address the price structure because, at the moment, there's very little to tempt me to digital.

For example, I bought Max Payne 3 for a fiver when it was on offer, but usually digital versions never drop in price whilst physical versions get cheaper.

I recently bought Black Ops off eBay for the whopping sum of ?2.05. How much is it on XBox Live? ?44.99!!

Most other games I bought for about a fiver seem to be retailing at around ?15, but it's not cheap enough to rope me in when I know you can get such bargains elsewhere.

[teddymeow]

If you're only talking price then ?30 - ?34 for me.

I've paid more in the past for certain PSVita games but all my Vita games are digital except for my JPN only titles like Miku & Utakumi575.

Cost price to retailers for PS3 & 360 games was about ?25-?30 for a ?50 RRP game so ?30 for a digital title means that developer and publisher are making the same money as they would have from the physical copy.

Plus, there'd be none of the stupid half price after a few weeks syndrome that you get with certain publishers when their games don't sell (I'm looking at you Sqeenix!)

[eastyy]

held out from getting arkham city for ages then picked it up on the steam sale for only about 7 euro

[J0e Musashi]

I'm happy to pay full RRP. I'm not much into selling games anymore, because I buy much less than I used to.

I prefer digital due to space saving. Plus load times are faster, and I can get the game without waiting for it to arrive with added Customs taxes. I care not for pretty boxes on shelves.

Also, on the extremely off chance that I wanted to return to something I could.

[Neon Ignition]

Exceptions aside it would have to be ?25ish to offset resell value but even that wouldn't be a blanket rule. For most peeps the benefits just aren't there and there would need to be dramatic increases in storage space and an unsustainably low rrp on games to pull off a digital only console gen.

[VR46]

Exceptions aside it would have to be ?25ish to offset resell value but even that wouldn't be a blanket rule. For most peeps the benefits just aren't there and there would need to be dramatic increases in storage space and an unsustainably low rrp on games to pull off a digital only console gen.

That's what I'm thinking, but I would say ?20 for a digital copy for me. Which I suppose is tight if I might get 10 or 15 hours gameplay out of it.
J0e made a good point about being much more selective about what he buys nowadays, I'm the same, fussy gamer/buyer really, though always try the free PS+ game even if it's a genre I wouldn't normally dip in to.

[MrKirov]

Unless it's digital only, I won't bother. If it's so good that I would never sell it, I'd want a physical copy so I can play it in years to come. If it's a one and done, or something that isnt a keeper, I want to sell it on.