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Forums - Sony Discussion - Sony will no longer allow retailers to sell digital codes for games, add-on cards and PSN$ cards will remain

abronn627 on 23 March 2019
V-r0cK said:
I never understood that, do people actually go to retail stores to buy digital codes for a specific game? Wouldn't buying a PSN card just do the same thing anyways?

I’ll give you some  contexts where buyers might want to use retail code.

They have games to trade and the game they want isn’t available in store, they can buy the digital code if they want to use the credit immediately.

The game they want is 80$, but in Canada, PSN cards are in the 20$ and 50$ range, they don’t want to buy for 90$ in cards and have a 10$ extra in their PSN, they rather buy the exact price.

This is not common, but it’s an example of situations where it might occur. 



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V-r0cK on 23 March 2019
abronn627 said:
V-r0cK said:
I never understood that, do people actually go to retail stores to buy digital codes for a specific game? Wouldn't buying a PSN card just do the same thing anyways?

I’ll give you some  contexts where buyers might want to use retail code.

They have games to trade and the game they want isn’t available in store, they can buy the digital code if they want to use the credit immediately.

The game they want is 80$, but in Canada, PSN cards are in the 20$ and 50$ range, they don’t want to buy for 90$ in cards and have a 10$ extra in their PSN, they rather buy the exact price.

This is not common, but it’s an example of situations where it might occur. 

Seeing as we're both Canadians so this would be easier to relate :) 

I never bought a retail game code in store but would you have to pay taxes?  You buy the physical game in store you'd have to pay taxes.  I dont think we pay taxes when buying on PSN.

If the game they want is $80, can always buy 4 $20 PSN cards, whereas your $90 example is 3 PSN cards of 1 $50 and 2 $20.  

Also I've seen these in Canada all over where Sony has $80 gift cards with a game on the card as advertisement.  So that $80 is just $80 PSN credit, but can be used to buy that new game that just released and on shown on the card, or you can use that $80 for whatever you want.  So again, I dont see the big deal.



forest-spirit on 23 March 2019

No matter how you slice it this means one less option for consumers.



VAMatt on 23 March 2019

MS has never sold digital game codes in stores. They sell XBL credit on cards that advertise specific games. So, this change by Sony could just put them in line with the MS policy.



dharh on 23 March 2019

I haven't legitimately been inside a game store for non used games for almost a decade.



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Darwinianevolution on 23 March 2019
VAMatt said:
MS has never sold digital game codes in stores. They sell XBL credit on cards that advertise specific games. So, this change by Sony could just put them in line with the MS policy.

https://www.game.es/buscar/juegos-digital-xone



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DonFerrari on 23 March 2019

I wouldn't buy codes on a store anyway, I would still buy physical.



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Azzanation on 23 March 2019
thismeintiel said:

What an odd response.  Physical still accounts for 60%-70% of sales of each game.  Why the Hell would they get rid of physical?  And this isn't really taking away options.  If for some reason you don't want to buy directly from the store that you have to go to anyway to get the game, there are still $X PSN cards to purchase.  They are just doing away with the cards for specific games. 

To me this may be a response to people pissed that they bought a $60 game card, but the game goes on sale in the store for $50.  People are probably complaining to Sony, wanting that $10 back.

Its not a odd response, its a odd business decision because why would you remove digital codes when it offers another form for purchasing games or maybe they just want to boast more about there physical media sales by cutting out the cards which I don't believe count as a game sale.. not entirely to sure with that.

My point is if there planning on making gaming stores obsolete than it would make sense to just remove all media from the stores and start making your customers buy online. Because right now it feels like they are on the fence with weather or not they support digital or physical. I doubt game cards is costing the company big. Heck Xbox this generation isn't making as much money as PS yet they still offer the options.



LudicrousSpeed on 23 March 2019
thismeintiel said:
LudicrousSpeed said:

Nailed it. CDkeys is full of digital games cheaper than retail or digital store price.

I'm going to have to call BS on that one.  I went through several games and didn't really find anything discounted enough to bother talking about.  Most were either the same price or basically the same price.  One big thing I did see, however, is that these cards DO NOT reflect any kind of sale going on in the store.  RDR2 SE, for example, is being sold on CDkeys for $78.99, a MASSIVE 1% off.  Go to the actual store and...the special edition is on sale for $59.99, and $51.99 if you have Plus.  Actual discounts.

I'm sticking with my theory is that this is just a move to cut down on people bitching that they paid nearly full price for a game code, only to find out later that that game was on sale at the time for $10-$30 off.

lol whut? Not enough to “be talked about”? 

Gears 4 for $5

Ass Creed for $2

MGSV for $4

Horizon Complete was $10 as recent as a couple days ago.

Dark Souls III for $10. 

Those are just what I see on a quick glance. Those are cheap as fuck digital prices. And there are many other websites like it that sell digital codes for games and do so at cheap prices.

And of course they don’t match current sales on PSN or XBL, just like PSN doesn’t match a price GameStop or Best Buy is having. And who do you talk games with where you hear a lot of complaining about buying digital when the games are on sale? Digital buyers are typically more hardcore gamers who are much more likely to be aware of sales and promotions.

Per usual this is just about money with Sony. One less avenue and option #4theplayers to get games.



LudicrousSpeed on 23 March 2019
abronn627 said:
V-r0cK said:
I never understood that, do people actually go to retail stores to buy digital codes for a specific game? Wouldn't buying a PSN card just do the same thing anyways?

I’ll give you some  contexts where buyers might want to use retail code.

They have games to trade and the game they want isn’t available in store, they can buy the digital code if they want to use the credit immediately.

The game they want is 80$, but in Canada, PSN cards are in the 20$ and 50$ range, they don’t want to buy for 90$ in cards and have a 10$ extra in their PSN, they rather buy the exact price.

This is not common, but it’s an example of situations where it might occur. 

Plus retailers can offer promos with trades and stuff for specific games, which usually includes digital copies. Like GameStop.

People won’t get these bonuses for generic PSN cards.