The Digital Future

[Jizz_Beard_thePirate]

I think in terms of pricing, there's advantages and disadvantages to both.

Imo in General, Physical should be cheaper than digital to a certain extent. The reason is shelf space and inventory. Because Physical takes up shelf space, the goal is to get rid of it before the next batch arrives. It's one of the main reasons you even see e3 pre-order sales from the likes of Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and etc where you can pre-order physical games with 20% discounts, sometimes even more before the game is even out and then have pretty significant discounts as the weeks go by after launch. There are some exceptions but I'd say most third party AAA games follow this route.

Digital on the other hand generally has a higher price because it's just sitting on a server. Sometimes you go to the store and buy a new game after 2 months, costs $20 but you look up the same game on steam, full price unless it goes on sale. With that being said, pricing wise, Digital has it's own advantages such as the potential of getting games for free. On PC, you can get games for free on Steam, EGS, Humble Bundle, etc as well as part of bundles. You can also get it as part of services like Gamepass, PS+ and Origin Access where you can pay like $5-$15 a month and get 100s of games. That also includes new games and ultimate editions that can costs $100s of dollars. Sure there are rental services for Physical but not 100s of games for that cheap.

So I don't think it's as clear cut as Physical is Cheaper or Digital is Cheaper. I think it mainly depends on what you are looking for and how long you are willing to wait.