Can somebody breakdown the $60 price tag for a game and explain why in most cases physical copies are the same price as digital ones?

[BuckStud]

kowenicki said:

Goatseye said:

AnthonyW86 said:
Completely the opposite really. If they undercut retail prices systematically retailers will go berserk, and you still need retailers to sell your consoles.

Isn't that price fixing?

yes, its illegal.

It's not price fixing and it's not illegal.  Many manufactures sell their own products, but keep their prices at the msrp (manufacture suggested retail price), because if they undersold the retailers that sold their products, they wouldn't have any retailer carrying their products anymore.  This is true in almost all industries.  

Now, as to why digital prices stay higher longer, that is also because the manufacture (or publisher in this case) hasn't lowered the msrp, but some retailers have excess inventory, so they lower the price to try and move them.

As for why games are $60, that's the price that most of them have settled on.  It takes many things into account, but doesn't benefit all publisher the same.  I see people complain that $60 is too much for a game, and for some games it is, but I paid $35.00 for Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 and $179.99 for League Bowling on the Neo Geo AES  when they first came out....$60.00 for a lot of the games out now isn't bad at all in comparison.