That's why I buy mostly physical.

At launch and during the first months (or even years), physical is always cheaper. Digital only gets cheaper once it hits sub 10€ or something like that.

Digital could be much cheaper if they wanted it to be, but since there's only competition between games and no competition between sellers, prices aren't that attractive.

There's no competition, so people just buy them anyway. The prices will come down when people stop buying the games, which is probably never going to happen unless the competition somehow becomes harder. Also, it might be that they still want to have at least some goodwill among retailers, and lowering digital prices wouldn't help with that.

The thing about Steam though is you don't have to purchase from their store... There are dozens and dozens of retailers who will sell you the exact same game, that activates on Steam, cheaper.

If you ever buy a PC game at full price, then you are doing it wrong.

On console... It's very much a "deal with it" scenario.

They won't.

As people have said, they won't. If the prices did go down, the sales (discounts) would become worse.

I only buy digital games when they are on sale, if steam's taught me anything it's how to buy digital games.

i can only speak for my region (n. america) but so long as you shop sales digital is cheaper than physical. not sure about how it compares to steam but it is very economical to be digital on ps4 instead of physical.


maybe that doesn't help you much if there is just one specific game you just have to have but i play a wide range of games so i don't have that problem. i buy games when they are cheap and i always have waaay more games in my backlog than i have time to play them.

I don't think digital prices are going down any time soon, at least as it concerns new games, around the launch window. Sales are another matter. I prefer physical, but buy digital games on sale, especially on the Vita. Have gotten great deals on PSN over the years. Got the Vita version of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath for $3.50 during the last flash sale, just as an example.

Another reason why I buy most of my games as retail.
I only buy digital games when they are digital-only or in a good sale in the store. If the price of a game was 10€ cheaper as a digital than the retail version of the game, maybe I would consider buying more digital games during launch. But buying games from retailers will be always the main way for me.

If I want a game day one physical is always $10 cheaper for me and in a few months the gap tends to be $20-30 in favor of physical.

Also, I have borrowed or lent games to friends which is a nice plus physical offers.

I have stacks of games for PS3, Vita, and PS4, that I bought brand new for $20-30. Some as low as $2.50. It's easy to find games at 60-70% off at retail on consoles.