2017. Why is digital still more expensive than physical?

Because people fell for the ''digital is the future xD" meme

>>387637405
because it's always cost pennies to produce physical copies and now people dis-proportionally want digital copies

>>387637405
because physical stores need to compete with the practicality of digital.

>>387637405
Because Nintendo

>>387637405
Both are free if you know what you're doing.

>>387637405
Hell if I know

>>387637897

This is every game published physically.

>>387637897
You'd have a point if it were just Nintendo doing it.

>>387637405
Give me 3 good reasons why physical vidya should continue to exist

>>387638264
muh plastic discs

>>387638264

Publishers only need 1. People will buy them.

There is also the fact that some countries have terrible internet.

>>387637897
Literally who?

>>387637405

convenience charge

>>387638264
Resale value.
Not being fucked by DRM shit.
Not having to put in personal information on unsecured shit like PSN

>>387637405
Nintendo has the "you pay for the software" mentality.
No, you don't pay for the box and cart, you pay for the game.
Selling their digital games for cheaper to them is "degrading" the game's value.

That's why Nintendo rarely, once in a blue moon, puts their 1st party games on sale. And if they do, it's something shitty like 10% off

>>387638264
if I talk smack to them my game does not disappear. Only a full blown retard uses his own ID to shitpost.

Why would you buy digital through a 3rd party?

>>387637405
No idea, probably has to do with publishers/download services wanting a bigger cut when its digital to offset the costs of hosting. The prices might also be inflated so as not to completely fuck over physical retail. New games are typically sold to retailers at around $40 in big bulk sales (the more a retailer purchases the cheaper it costs per unit). If digital games were priced similarly i'd imagine retailers would get furious and stop selling games period. This would hurt game sales as consumers aren't ready to completely go digital.

>>387637405
For real. I'm going all digital with my Switch and I'm already feeling the pain. Could have saved a combined amount of $24 on Splatoon and Mario Kart if I got it from Prime. Not a lot but its a little irritating

>>387638264
>Resale value.
>Can lend/borrow to/from friends.
>Collecting Apparently this is bad on /v/ now.
>Box art, new game smell, tactile satisfaction.
>Installation is faster downloading
>Bans are not attached to your gamekey so it doesn't become immediately useless.
>A reason to crawl out of your shithole basement that smells like old semen socks and body odor and interact with humans..

>>387638930

Autism much? The point is the price. The vendor doesn't matter. A game on Steam, Origin, Uplay, GOG, PSN, Xbox, eShop is 20% more expensive than its physical counterpart in most cases.

>>387639058
>>A reason to crawl out of your shithole basement that smells like old semen socks and body odor and interact with humans..
That's kind of invalidated because delivery is a thing anon.

>>387638264
1. Point of First Sale.
2. Immunity from platform ban, or account theft.
3. Lending to friends is dirt-simple.

Put simply:
physical = you control your media.
digital = someone else controls your media.

>>387639017

That's why I buy console games as physical from Best Buy. With all of their deals it is usually around 40-50 percent off.

Supply and demand. The store buys physical copies in bulk and gets a bulk rate, so they can sell some at a discount (not all are being sold at a discount, only people with Prime/GCU get this discount).

Digital has unlimited supply. In theory this means its price should be $0 but they have artificially fixed a price for it. When there is a limited supply of keys, you can get a discount (see: key resellers).

>>387637405
http://www.eurogamer.net/amp/2017-03-10-why-nintendo-switch-games-are-ending-up-more-expensive

>>387639446

Has nothing to do with Nintendo. All publishers have this problem.

>>387639264
You own the medium in both cases, be it an optical disc, cartridge or hard drive. The software is licensed though. Purely technically speaking

>>387639541
>You own the medium in both cases
It's hilarious that you think you own a digital copy when they can take it away from you at any point in time.

>>387639240
>Invalidated.
Sure, if you assume 100% of people who buy games never buy them at brick and mortar stores.

>>387639669
I meant the medium on which the game is downloaded.

>>387639798
That you do but they can easily make it useless for digital games.

>>387639017
>I'm going all digital with my Switch
Why?

>>387639714
Do you think a basement dweller is going to go outside or do you think they're going to have it delivered anon

>make physical more expensive than digital because of shop space and all that shit
>digital becomes more prevalent
>start making less money because you are charging less for something more people are buying
>increase your digital prices
>people continute to buy your games for the price of a physical copy even though they have none of the benefits of a physical copy
>the new digital price becomes the norm