| shams said: - retailers typically buy product for "around" half the retail price. A $49 title would be purchased (in bulk) for around $23-$25 - but sometimes a lot lower ($15-$17) US per unit. This is typically done in bulk (by a chain HQ, which then distributes to stores as needed). The units are usually non-refundable as well. A $60 title could be a bit more, edging $27-$30US. $30 purchased by stores would be rare.
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Retailers buying for roughly half the retail cost of games would mean this branch follows the same principle as most retail in general (like clothes, furniture, food etc).
But why do I very often see here on VGC people say that game retailers practically sell at cost (only adding max 20%), and that they really only make money from selling used games? They say that they've heard this from local store salesmen etc, and for example for games that cost $60 in a store, the retailer pays $50 to the publisher/distributor (there's a huge discrepancy between 50% and 83%). And following from this, you see numbers like $35-40 for each sold copy reaching the developer, according to many people.
So let's take a game like Heavenly Sword. It had a dev budget of $20 million, and people on the Sony subforum claimed it would break even at 500,000 sold copies, because 500,000 x $40 = $20 mill.
What to believe?
