Looks like you’re comparing an eBay listing (“or best offer”) of a used copy with the MSRP on the digital storefront where no sale is going on.
If you bought the physical copy at launch, you’d pay MSRP; pretty much the exact same price as the digital copy. Conversely, digital copies often see deep discounts, so you’d probably eventually see the price drop this low on the PS Store.
You’d have illustrated your point better by pointing out that digital and physical MSRP are often the same. I agree that cutting out the middle man did very little, but also, in both realms, there’s plenty of opportunity for deep discount, be it with used games or inventory liquidation in the physical, or bundles and seasonal sales in the digital.
It’s was $7.99 on the PlayStation store last month
This is such a ridiculous post, it's not even funny. I've gotten so many games for so much less in digital form than anything I ever got in physical form. There's absolutely no competition, unless you're looking strictly at full-price games.
Edit: swypos
Your point isn't without merit, but your framing of it certainly is. The comparison made in the initial post is apples to oranges, but your experience is nothing more than anecdote and implying digital is universally cheaper is absurd. Allow me to counter your anecdote with one of my own:
Only a few months after release, I picked up an Xbox copy of Cyberpunk 2077, brand new from a big box retail chain and with a complimentary steelbook case, for $5.
Fair enough.
I agree that this is ridiculous. But I think the issue is that the "middle men" are the retail stores that are used to doing retail things like lowering the price of older goods. Digital storefronts don't have anybody going over "inventory" and checking if it needs to be marked down. And corporations being corporations, they don't care about this oversight. Why spend time/money on lowering the amount of money they'll make?
Give it a few weeks and it'll be $7.99. Maybe even $5.99 depending on how many sales they got last time it hit $7.99.
They keep it at this price because it allows them to advertise an '80% discount' several times a year, which gives them better visibility in the sales.
Which is a wholly different level of suck. But hey, ho.
It bounces to $9.99 https://steamdb.info/sub/321376/
That is utter bull. That is directly saying that we want to make more money for less work! Also have in mind that they will fuck us over as soon as physical copies are gone as they will have no reason to reduce the price if there is no second hand market. And if you think they will keep reducing games to 80%, you need to have better dreams. Look at Nintendo, most games still at their MSRP, and there are physical copies that are literally 1/8 of that MSRP price on the second hand market.
You know PC doesn't have physical games and tends to have the biggest price drops despite that?
PC has multiple marketplaces and the most competition.
The problem isn't digital vs physical, it's monopolies vs healthy markets. The market for physical media tends to be healthier for consoles because it's at least a lot closer to being impossible to monopolize compared to consoles' online stores, which are monopolies by default with no aftermarket for competition
EGS gave that for free... after I bought it for $15 on Xbox 😡
Comes and goes. Cyberpunk was $10 physical for me which is cheaper than any digital sale but then I've had some AAA games just given away digitally too.
