Loud_Hot_White_Box on 04 September 2009
Yep, it's so as not to undercut retail, which necessarily deals only with physical media. Some book publishers will sell to you direct from their website or whatever, but they'll almost never give a discount over MSRP. So you'll pay $24.99 for a hardcover from them, or $16.99 for the same book from Amazon.
In the case of book publishers it's the same physical media. In Sony's case, yeah, they are selling digital copies, but the logic remains the same: do not compete against all the retailers, let them do that and take your cut of retail sales, because retailers are important to you.
Any direct sales you get at through your website, whether you are a publisher or Sony, are gravy, but you don't want to alienate retail.
