Hey, I always had a big hope to see the console space move forward to a digital future, altough I totally respect collectors and would love to see digital and physical side-by-side this hope has been crushed the last few years by the pricing in my country (The Netherlands).

Now I own a PS4 and a PC and I generally like playing on them equally but I will decide to buy a game on the platform where it is cheapest (or on rare occations just runs a lot better on one platform, like the witcher, fallout on PC and No Mans  Sky, Batman on PS4)

Now I have a lot of time for gaming since I live in a Militairy barracks and I have 6 12 hour night shifts gaurding air control, where I have the option to play games for a few hours, you can imagine I love taking my PS4 with me but prefer not having boxes and just having everything on the (2TB) console.

Ok now to the point, pricing, I really wonder why Sony has never looked at steam or any online PC platform and see how to really market and sell online, right now the prices are sooo high I don't think I ever decide to buy a game on PS4, gamekeywebsites make this an even harder sell.

Please note the average price for a new PS4 game in my country (with the box) is somwhere between €50 - €56,-

Here are some games I want to buy in a comparison

Deus Ex: Mankind Devided
Price on PSN €69,95
Price on Steam: € 49,99
PS4 cheapest BOXED: 43,49
Price on Kinguin.net (PC, Steam): € 33,95

Attack on Titan
Price on PSN: € 59,95 (lowest for new games)
PS4 cheapest BOXED: € 49,89
price on Steam: € 49,75

Fifa 17
Price on PSN: € 69,95
Price on Origin (PC): € 59,95
PS4 cheapest BOXED: € 52.50
Price on Kinguin.net (Origin, PC) € 42,98

For me, since I use a controller and I play on a television with both devices, I just like to buy the cheapest option and I wonder, what do you guys think

1) Will the prices drop the next few years?
2) Why are the prices so high to begin with?
3) Do YOU ever buy new games for these prices on PSN?

and I would just love to hear your opinions on this overall :) but I have really been wondering why Sony & ofc also Microsoft don't sell their games more competatively, I would deffenitely buy a lot more personally.

Maybe the prices are different (lower or higher) where you live?

DISCUS! :)

I hate digital games as I can't resell them again.

Reselling games is a good way to make some money as a teen lol

I think it's a regional issue, because games on the US PSN store are way more competitively priced. Plus there are tons of sales and PS+ deals. A lot of times waiting a month will see new games at 50% off for a limited time as well. In addition to all of that there is no tax on digital software, so that instantly saves $6 on every new game where I live.

As far as digital falling bellow retail, it will never happen. Firstly no one wants to burn bridges with retail parteners, and second, no one is going to give up the extra $15 per sale that can be made by being = to retail.

Steam doesn't rely on retailers to move hardware, if the console manufacturers started undercutting retailers they lose that and potentially lose that connection to the customer. Look back at the start of the generation, Microsoft wanted digital only but they had to compromise in part because of retailers.

Ultimately they'd rather sell their games at the same price as it would mean more people downloading and more control for them and reduce the second hand market. Right now though I don't see any of them wanting to take that risk and the additional logistical effort.

I am all digital. More out of necessity than choice. And I'll say this much. its a fucked up situation.

I don't know what Sony or MS are thinking, but digital sales is the flat out worst way to buy games. Outside the fact that you can never sell them, they are always the most expensive way to buy when in truth they should be the cheapest way to buy.

Personally if the digital prices would go down me buying a new pc would probably never happen, I would love to have all games on one space, I do hear that in some countries the prices are better and I am not saying the prices should be less or equal to the lowest boxed version but in most cases the digital version is the most expensive version of the game, this seems unacceptable.

Even during deals when you browse the game in regular stores sometimes the digital version is STILL the most expensive version since 50% of a game that is priced 69,95 doesn't really do it any help when the game has dropped to around 20 in stores or pre-used :(

I just buy digital when it's on a good cut.

And looking at your situation, perhaps making a Brazilian account could give you a nice cut... our new games are between 200-250 R$... which would be 40-45 pounds for you if you are willing to buy digital... on flash games I had several good ones for under 5 pounds.

When physical games become 99% obsolete like they are on PC.

Well in the USA buying games digitally is always the same as physical release: $60

Digital will always be a rip off and should always be cheaper than digital since you have to take into account there is no trade in or preowned with digital and a lot of copies are not going to get traded in a further 10 times to what could of been potential new buyers.

Physical should be £39.99 vs a Digital price of £24.99. Will never happen as companies want the initial big up front profits from inflated digital prices rather than a larger profit over 12 months by cutting out physical trade-in's but in the end it ends up been like £32 for Deus EX Mankind Divided vs £49.99 for a digital copy.