Anatomy of a $60 video game

[Alby_da_Wolf]

Chris Hu said:

Hephaestos said:
"Finally, not all games sell, so the expense of returning unsold inventory eats up another $7."


how is that higher than distribution + cost of goods???

Usually a lot less games get returned then sold and shipping costs get cheaper when you ship more.  So shipping a few copies back costs more then shipping a lot of copies out.

This. And add also that shipping is a regular stream, following the usual channels in their most used direction, while returning goes upstream and has a less regular and predictable rate that furtherly increase the costs.