need more competitive pricing on digital games - physical retail selling for much less than ...

I have become quite a fan of the digital ecosystem for a number of reasons. No disc swapping, and with an external HDD I can keep more games installed than I know what to do with. It's a lot easier to install digital too, everything installs in background
so I can play my other games while I'm waiting. And, because I buy a lot of games (and I mean A LOT of games) digital means I don't all the burden of managing and storing a large physical library. Because of this, I almost never buy my games on disc. So, it
really frustrates me that when I really want something, it's often much cheaper at retail than it is on the digital store, sometimes games I find physical copies going for $20 or less brand new (not used) still sell for $60 on the Xbox One digital store.

Since I've pretty much gone all digital this gen, this means I'll simply wait for an opportunistic sale to jump on, or I just skip games that refuse to go cheaper on the digital store. I think Microsoft has done a remarkable job building their online store
this generation, but this is their next big hurdle they need to address.

It should be noted too, Microsoft's Windows 10 / Universal Window's Platform is something Microsoft seems committed to seeing succeed. It's opening new markets on the digital frontier for both console and PC gaming. However, that storefront mostly seems
limited to first party titles and third party exclusives. For MS to expand UWP into something greater, they need to pull in more third party multiplatform publisher support for the PC end of UWP, and for that to be viable to consumers, it's gotta have the
kind of competitive and flexible pricing that services like Steam and GOG offer their customers.

Maybe there's some kind of solutions to consider in the meantime. For instance, most physical retailers of games offer price matching, reason for this is that publishers often subsidize sales by giving partial refunds to cover the limited time sales for
a particular store chain on sales made during the promotional period. And because of this, if one store offers a sale that the others don't, other retailers will often price match because they will also get reimbursed by the partially publishers. I don't see
why digital distribution should be any different. If publishers of physical games offer these same deals with retailers, so too should they offer Microsoft the same benefits on their digital storefront. But, for physical retail, this is achievable because
sales associates have at their disposal the ability to check online the prices of games at other stores to match prices, and utilize their own discretion on that choice to match prices. There is no way to appeal to Microsoft representatives to okay discounted
purchases of digital content. I realize Microsoft Store offers online chat assistance, maybe there's a way to work into that a system to appeal for discounted purchases of digital content, maybe?

Another option might be to utilize Microsoft Store locations to allow for disc swapping of physical copies for access to digital rights. I think this is quite a viable option. I've often heard it said that one of the reasons publishers don't offer discounts
on digital titles is because they're trying to sell off their remaining physical copies in circulation. After all, they have to front their royalties on published disc copies, said to be an industry standard of 30% of the MSRP sales price goes to such companies
as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, or digital PC services like Steam or GOG. As that MSRP drops, they offer retailers partial refunds to keep the games priced competitively. Digital competitive pricing might undermine that and cause them to lose money on physical
publishing. By allowing consumers to buy physical copies and swap them in for digital rights, it could help move more physical inventory while and allow digital gamers the same flexibility on pricing. It also has the added benefit of taking physical copies
off the market that might otherwise undermine publisher sales in the used game market.

:)

 

Digital Vs. Physical

I prefer retail disks as they are cheaper. More places, competitive pricing and more sales. if a digital sale is on and there is a game I am interested in playing and it is cheaper than retail I will buy.

 

Would love a way to Pre-Order and download digital games.

I liked what Sony did with PS Vita digital pricing being 10% cheaper.

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I doubt we'll get that from MSoft tbh.

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Do you reckon we'll get RRP pricing for retail competitive pricing?

 

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