Paper and plastic cost money...

[Curado]

SO why is it the same price to buy retail as it is through steam? Why would anyone buy a new launch game through steam?

retail I get:
1) disc
2) booklet and sometimes nice artwork
3) Box/case to display and have something tangible
4) option to sell later on when I am done with the game.

Steam I get:
1) .......?


only time I understand buying through steam is when they have their bomb sales. other than that....ripoff?

[Kabump]

The disc, booklets and box all cost the company nearly nothing in the grand scheme of the cost of developing the game. The real money invested in a project is the development, research, and advertising of the game. That still costs money.

That being said, its understandable to not want to pay 10 more dollars for a game. But think about it, Ps3/xbox games are 60 bucks a pop: do you REALLY think those discs/boxes/manuals are what push the price up from 50 to 60 bucks? Nope, increased development costs.

I dont like it any better than most people, but I handle it by being more picky about the games I choose to spend my money on.

[Bane2087]

Bandwidth also costs money, with steam you can redownload your game at any time on any computer as many times as you want. Games are pretty large downloads too. I prefer this as it allows me to have a huge game library on any computer with an internet connection with no physical media to worry about. Disks wear out, get scratched, lost to be honest I haven't really missed manuals and pretty game boxes at all since they usually just sit on a shelf gathering dust.

[JK_DC]

This game is Steamworks so it is on Steam either way. Retail copies will have a real map as well.

[Bane2087]

This game is Steamworks so it is on Steam either way. Retail copies will have a real map as well.

Fair enough I didn't know it was a Steamworks game. In that case there is no advantage buying on Steam might as well get the box for free too. I'll still get it on Steam since I am not bothered about the box... I hope they will give us a preload though or the Steam servers will meltdown on release day.

[mnomaha]

But why is it twice as much on Steam as what I paid for, including delivery from the UK to New Zealand?

[Bane2087]

Regional pricing is screwed up sometimes. I don't think Steam sets the prices; the publisher does as far as I know so it's probably something to ask them.

Here in the UK games on Steam are usually roughly the same price as retail, sometimes more, sometimes less. That is to say usually £30-40 for AAA depending on the game.

[mnomaha]

It terribly unfair to us in NZ and Australia. But I have found a shop or two that sell games at reasonable prices.

I've preorderd Skyrim, map included, for over half the Steam price from the UK.

[Thanshin]

retail I get:
1) disc
2) booklet and sometimes nice artwork
3) Box/case to display and have something tangible
4) option to sell later on when I am done with the game.

Steam I get:
1) .......?
retail:
1- Disc -> Useless once installed. Degrades with time.
2- I don't read paper. booklet can't be loaded in ebook/phone.
3- Box to occupy space in my paid-per-square-meter home.
4- I already have a job and have no interest in spending my valuable time in a second job as a second-hand salesman.

Steam:
1- I don't spend my valuable time in going to a physical shop.
2- I don't risk using ♥♥♥♥ty physical transport means (USPS, Seur, etc) to have my game.
3- I get my game the first day. Always.
4- My game is always there and never degrades.
5- I can't lose my game.
6- I don't have to store my game.
7- I can contact with my friends playing my game in a single way for any number of games. i.e.: It takes 1 second to invite my TF2 friends to my Portal2 game, etc.
8- The update system is common to all games.
10- The file tampering protection is common to all games.

[noodlesoup]

SO why is it the same price to buy retail as it is through steam? Why would anyone buy a new launch game through steam?

retail I get:
1) disc
2) booklet and sometimes nice artwork
3) Box/case to display and have something tangible
4) option to sell later on when I am done with the game.

Steam I get:
1) .......?


only time I understand buying through steam is when they have their bomb sales. other than that....ripoff?

Its quite simple, the service itself ie, steam servers, bandwidth etc, all that cost is shifted on to you. Then theirs also steam's cut on each sale, which is again added on.

[peteed1985]

retail:
1- Disc -> Useless once installed. Degrades with time.
2- I don't read paper. booklet can't be loaded in ebook/phone.
3- Box to occupy space in my paid-per-square-meter home.
4- I already have a job and have no interest in spending my valuable time in a second job as a second-hand salesman.

Steam:
1- I don't spend my valuable time in going to a physical shop.
2- I don't risk using ♥♥♥♥ty physical transport means (USPS, Seur, etc) to have my game.
3- I get my game the first day. Always.
4- My game is always there and never degrades.
5- I can't lose my game.
6- I don't have to store my game.
7- I can contact with my friends playing my game in a single way for any number of games. i.e.: It takes 1 second to invite my TF2 friends to my Portal2 game, etc.
8- The update system is common to all games.
10- The file tampering protection is common to all games.

1- Disc -> Useless once installed. Degrades with time.

Can install from disk rather than having to backup steam game and maybe burn it to disk or something to restore if you have to format or upgrade which saves you gigs of download limit depending on yours if any limit.

2- I don't read paper. booklet can't be loaded in ebook/phone.

True I feel the same.

3- Box to occupy space in my paid-per-square-meter home.

See answer to number 1.

4- I already have a job and have no interest in spending my valuable time in a second job as a second-hand salesman.

Steamworks so can't be sold 2nd hand so becomes a moot point

Steam:
1- I don't spend my valuable time in going to a physical shop.

Depending on the country the saving for dropping into store when you are close can be like $40 which is half the price in that country. Guess it depends if $40 is not worth 5 to 30 mins depending on where you are.

2- I don't risk using ♥♥♥♥ty physical transport means (USPS, Seur, etc) to have my game.

Agree'd

3- I get my game the first day. Always.

Can always pre order early but I see your point. Depends also on server load cause if ya can't pre download ya might have it added to library on the right day but take 3 days to download. Plus sometimes they don't unlock at the time it was meant to cause of errors.

4- My game is always there and never degrades.

Unless your steam account gets banned or steam gets shut down one day.

5- I can't lose my game.

Unless your steam account gets banned or steam gets shut down one day.

6- I don't have to store my game.

Storing it on your HDD is still storing and you pay for every gig or HDD space same as the space in a house just not as much :D

7- I can contact with my friends playing my game in a single way for any number of games. i.e.: It takes 1 second to invite my TF2 friends to my Portal2 game, etc.

Being steamworks its the same either way and as Skyrim is single player joining ya friends game isn't gunna be an issue with Skyrim.

8- The update system is common to all games.

One awesome thing to steam :)

10- The file tampering protection is common to all games.

Not sure what ya mean lol. DRM? Steam is a DRM but alot of steam games use 3rd party DRM too making it not common to all. If you mean tampering with the game files on PC then there are ini files ya can modify and games you can mod which in a way is tampering.

[Roenick92]

Well, steam vs retail is an interesting question. As far as I can tell, skyrim has no multiplayer to it. I find it's pretty good to go offline when playing a single-player game on steam, just because the immersion is pretty much blown every time I see someone is now playing TF2, etc. The recent hurricane made me ask this question about skyrim: Why do I need an always-on internet connection to play a single player game? If I've got power, but no internet, why shouldn't I be able to play a single player game? Does the boxed PC version suffer this fate as well? A console doesn't have to be connected to the 'net in order to play.. Yeah steam achievements are nice, but if you lose your internet for a week or so (which happened to me), you are locked out of all the games you paid for.

[alehm]

Also it's just business.
For example Nokia has phones sold in other website stores but Nokia also has their own website. Obviously they could sell their phones cheaper than their vendors because they own the phones and it's all in house. However if they do that then nobody would bother to carry Nokia phones because Nokia would always sell the same product at a price lower than they possibly could.

Steam could effectively do the same thing but if they did then no retail stores would carry the same games. So that is a big reason why Steam sells at the same retail price as stores.

However Steam also has incredible sales you never ever ever ever see in retail stores.

[Cammalleri]

Well, steam vs retail is an interesting question. As far as I can tell, skyrim has no multiplayer to it. I find it's pretty good to go offline when playing a single-player game on steam, just because the immersion is pretty much blown every time I see someone is now playing TF2, etc. The recent hurricane made me ask this question about skyrim: Why do I need an always-on internet connection to play a single player game? If I've got power, but no internet, why shouldn't I be able to play a single player game? Does the boxed PC version suffer this fate as well? A console doesn't have to be connected to the 'net in order to play.. Yeah steam achievements are nice, but if you lose your internet for a week or so (which happened to me), you are locked out of all the games you paid for.

If you tick that checkbox option to remember your password , you'll always be able to use steam even if you have no internet .
You can also mess around in the friend settings so that friends pop-up aren't as annoying , heck you can handpick which friends you dont mind getting a notification from

:D

[snapcase]

SO why is it the same price to buy retail as it is through steam? Why would anyone buy a new launch game through steam?

retail I get:
1) disc
2) booklet and sometimes nice artwork
3) Box/case to display and have something tangible
4) option to sell later on when I am done with the game.

Steam I get:
1) .......?


only time I understand buying through steam is when they have their bomb sales. other than that....ripoff?

This is why I buy retail. This is also why I wish it wasn't a steamworks game. I only buy through steam when they have those massive sales, otherwise I much prefer retail. And yeah, I'd consider it a ripoff to pay the same price for a digital copy as a retail copy.

[breadmeatbread]

Minimum wage is Australia is what.. $20 an hour? Ofcoruse the rate of living and goods is going to be higher as well, it just makes sense.


You're whining about us Americans and our $60 games, the minimum wage here is 7.25 in some states.

[peteed1985]

Minimum wage is Australia is what.. $20 an hour? Ofcoruse the rate of living and goods is going to be higher as well, it just makes sense.


You're whining about us Americans and our $60 games, the minimum wage here is 7.25 in some states.

About $15 for most jobs is minimum.

$50 US games end up as $110 and $80 collectors end up as $150+ here. Strikes me as odd how it works out like that when the exchange rate put our dollar as better than american dollar the other month xD had no idea you guys had such low wages.

[ravage386]

If your physical copy gets lost/destroyed, you are left with nothing.

If Steam's servers have some sort of data loss, that can be repaired/restored at no cost to you.

[avidwriter]

If they did that no one would buy retail? I mean day 1 there isn't much reason to go Steam over retail unless you just like not having to put another box in your closest. However Steam one-ups the retails with sales 99% of the time.

[Peckpogydah]

1- Disc -> Useless once installed. Degrades with time.

Can install from disk rather than having to backup steam game and maybe burn it to disk or something to restore if you have to format or upgrade which saves you gigs of download limit depending on yours if any limit.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean DL limit? I know cell phones have DL limits, i've just never heard of Cable having it.

I pay 40bux for 30mbps DL speed, which allows me to DL threw steam @ 3.6mb/s. I think i'm getting an amazing deal, kidna scares me if cable companies are doing what cell phone companies did. Could you even play games like BC2 or Wow? Heck could you even stream netflix HD with out hitting your limit?

(30bux for basic cable, no digital box, then 40bux for internet.)

[noodlesoup]

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean DL limit? I know cell phones have DL limits, i've just never heard of Cable having it.

I pay 40bux for 30mbps DL speed, which allows me to DL threw steam @ 3.6mb/s. I think i'm getting an amazing deal, kidna scares me if cable companies are doing what cell phone companies did. Could you even play games like BC2 or Wow? Heck could you even stream netflix HD with out hitting your limit?

(30bux for basic cable, no digital box, then 40bux for internet.)

He means bandwidth, as in, your contract only allows you to download say 1 gig a month. Some internet providers do have it.

Btw, I think the likes of BC2 and wow use less bandwidth than netflix tbh. All it is, is data exchange. Not entirely sure about that though.

[peteed1985]

He means bandwidth, as in, your contract only allows you to download say 1 gig a month. Some internet providers do have it.

Btw, I think the likes of BC2 and wow use less bandwidth than netflix tbh. All it is, is data exchange. Not entirely sure about that though.

a youtube video can be 150mb for half hour whereas iirc WoW uses 5mb an hour or so.

[Ecirp]

retail:
1- Disc -> Useless once installed. Degrades with time.
2- I don't read paper. booklet can't be loaded in ebook/phone.
3- Box to occupy space in my paid-per-square-meter home.
4- I already have a job and have no interest in spending my valuable time in a second job as a second-hand salesman.

Steam:
1- I don't spend my valuable time in going to a physical shop.
2- I don't risk using ♥♥♥♥ty physical transport means (USPS, Seur, etc) to have my game. (not possible with steam games...KEY + Steam = Download)
3- I get my game the first day. Always.
4- My game is always there and never degrades.
5- I can't lose my game.
6- I don't have to store my game.
7- I can contact with my friends playing my game in a single way for any number of games. i.e.: It takes 1 second to invite my TF2 friends to my Portal2 game, etc.
8- The update system is common to all games.
10- The file tampering protection is common to all games.

Steam:
+ pre-load (no install needed, ready at launch day)
+ the shop is open 24h/7days the week which is in my mind, the best of steam.

[Thecodexnecro]

retail I get:
1) disc
2) booklet and sometimes nice artwork
3) Box/case to display and have something tangible
4) option to sell later on when I am done with the game.

Steam I get:
1) .......?

retail I get:
1) disc which I could lose and never find it again, or it could break.
2) Booklet and nice artwork which just takes up space around my house
3) Box/case - Same as above. Un-needed clutter.
4) I don't want the option to sell it. When I am done with the game, I will mod it and enjoy it all over again.

Steam I get:
1) Fast downloaded game which keeps itself up to date with latest patches
2) A game, along with my many others which I can access from ANY computer with a single logon.
3) In most cases, no DRM.
4) No waste and no god damn boxes laying around in my house.

Profit!

Steam > all.

Please, get rid of all discs and books. Turn everything digital.

[Eek!]

retail I get:
1) disc which I could lose and never find it again, or it could break.
2) Booklet and nice artwork which just takes up space around my house
3) Box/case - Same as above. Un-needed clutter.
4) I don't want the option to sell it. When I am done with the game, I will mod it and enjoy it all over again.

Steam I get:
1) Fast downloaded game which keeps itself up to date with latest patches
2) A game, along with my many others which I can access from ANY computer with a single logon.
3) In most cases, no DRM.
4) No waste and no god damn boxes laying around in my house.

Profit!

Steam > all.

Please, get rid of all discs and books. Turn everything digital....What? I mean that's cool and all, but he was comparing the retail version of this game, as far as I'm aware, not games in general that don't use Steam. If you buy it through retail you get it cheaper, you get the physical copy, artwork, etc, and you get it digitally since it's added to your Steam account. In this instance there is seriously no benefit to buying it solely through Steam. Oh, wait:

Steam:
+ pre-load (no install needed, ready at launch day)A lot of games don't use pre-load regardless, and to be honest it'd be a pretty weak reason anyway. If I can't survive spending ten or fifteen installing a game I need to be locked up in a padded cell.

Edit: I have to say having read them back Thecodexnecro's reasons are pretty weak anyway. I can understand losing discs (although breaking them?), but the rest not so much. It seems to mostly revolve around not wanting the box (totally subjective as I love the old boxes) and not wanting to have the option of selling the games, which frankly is just bizarre. Who the hell actively wants options taken away from them?

[Aedn]

I have shifted to digital sales for PC games, books and other media which can be produced easily in digital format.

most us retail stores no longer carry any decent selection of PC games, they have all shifted to consoles. The two stores here which do are FRY's and Best Buy, both of which have delay on most PC products, they are rarely on shelves on release day.

Internet sites like Amazon, newegg and other internet game shops generally have better prices then steam. however they often charge significant money for next day delivery, or even 2 day delivery. Very few offer reasonable delivery rates, which lets met get the game on release day.

As far as hard copies, its just clutter to me, and the fact that i do not have to deal with it just saves me the effort of storing games. I already have 3 2' boxes full of old games, i do not need more.

[OurSacrifice]

That being said, its understandable to not want to pay 10 more dollars for a game. But think about it, Ps3/xbox games are 60 bucks a pop: do you REALLY think those discs/boxes/manuals are what push the price up from 50 to 60 bucks? Nope, increased development costs.

No, but the royalty fees that publishers must pay to Microsoft and Sony are the reasoning behind the higher game pricing. Those fees do not exist on the PC platform.

Publishers quickly realized that gamers are, for the most part, sheep. They'll follow the crowds, pay whatever they're told to pay, and will deal with whatever garbage developers can produce. What started as a 3rd party fee only, transitioned into "all games can cost this much because those guys will pay it" on the consoles, and now many publishers are doing that in the PC market because of EA and Activision's success at charging $60 a pop.