I haven't payed more than 54 dollars for any digital game on my PS3. And, when I do pay that much, it comes with over 30 dollars of DLC. Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate, for example. I wont be getting any more DLC for that game for a nice, long while, though.

Assassin's Creed III was another 50 dollars, with all the DLC included. Such a terrible game. I only played through it start to finish to get my worth out of the game, if that's possible. I absolutely hate it, though. I was seriously interested when it was announced, and looked like a great game, but... It, like every assassin's creed game, as I would later find out, is garbage that I should never play.

The next most expensive games on my PS3 right now are Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (all DLC included) Grand Theft Auto V, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. $30 for each one of them. I'd argue that TTT2 cost me more, considering I have the disc version of that game which cost me a full 64.64. Tax included.

So, add the DLC pack I got with it, it makes TTT2 a 100 dollar game.

Why did I get the digital version? My disc reader was acting up. One thing people seem to forget is that it's a lot harder to get your disc reader fixed on an older PS3 (I've already changed disc drives on super slims). If the HDD fails, you just pop a new one in. But, the disc reader is a more problematic thing to deal with.

And, now, my disc reader is working perfectly again for some reason. Sweet. But, I'm not going to risk it. The only disc based game I'm even interested in playing right now is Beyond: Two Souls. Everything else is either old, or I have it on my HDD too.

I'd rather have a failed HDD, and take the stress off my disc reader. And, I'm not paying full price on top of it.

I got Ni No Kuni, L.A. Noire, Borderlands 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Grand Theft Auto IV, Max Payne 3 and several others for $4.99. I haven't even played Borderlands 2, Dragon Age or L.A. Noire yet. But, for 5 dollars, do you think I care? They are there in case I ever decide to play them.

I'm not going to miss the five bucks each I spent on those. I'm not going to care about trade-in value, or not having a physical disc. It was FIVE dollars. Other games, like the recent Tomb Raider, which I forgot about until it went on sale, cost me $9.99.

You guys can complain about digital prices all you want. After GTAV, I now own every PS3 game I was ever interested in, apart from maybe 3, or 4 games which have escaped my mind right now.

They cost me well below 60 bucks. The 4 dollars and 64 cent tax cost almost as much as the entire game did for some of my digital titles. Glad I forgot about them until I saw them on sale.

Anyone paying 60 bucks for a digital game is getting ripped off. I will never do that. My brother got GTAV digitally, and thought he'd be playing it the same day. He doesn't know crap about computers, and didn't know he was suppose to use an Ethernet cable to download the game in 2 hours, and instead waited the next day on wifi, and still had to install it.

Then, he let me borrow his PS3, and I beat the game in about 3 weeks. He still hasn't finished it. So, imagine how he felt when i told him I got it for 30. From the same PSN.

However, to make an even bigger shave on the sale cost, I get discounts on PSN credit, so what I'm paying isn't even money out-of-pocket very often, so, I end up buying more stuff... Which, I probably should stop doing.

TL;DR: Wait for weekly sales, flash sales, etc. get discounts on PSN credits. Games will become very cheap that way and you can buy even more for the same price out of pocket. Disc games will kill your disc reader eventually.

Yeah, I know what you mean.  Even though I listen to my stereo content at home through my HTPC, I still like to buy the CDs and DVD-A's and rip them myself.  I have a nice ASIO sound card so I don't have to worry about unnecessary resampling going on behind the scenes.  I was really skeptical about this at first, but I think the DACs in that sound card actually sound a little better than the ones in my receiver.  That wasn't even the reason why I bought that sound card, so I considered that to be a nice bonus.  I just wanted something that could automatically change the output sample rate to match the source file.  All my 5.1 content is handled by my DVD-A/SACD player, though (including my 5.1 remixes of NES music!).

Anyway, just to give an example, I backed the Video Games Live: Level 3 Kickstarter, but I didn't give enough to get the CD as a reward.  I figured I would just pick it up after it released.  Much to my disappointment (maybe I missed the fine print somewhere), the CDs were only offered as backer rewards and the album was released in digital only.  I still haven't picked it up yet, even though CDBaby has a FLAC version.

Because publishers want to keep the retailers happy.

Anyway, why would you be interested in buying a license instead of a disc?

Steam is a "Platform". - A Software platform, It's more than a storefront and DRM system.
Keep in mind, Steam has been around for a long time, long before it ever had competition as it was the first of it's kind that had any kind of remote popularity, prices havent actually shifted since it gained more potent competition from the likes of Origin and uPlay.

And sorry, I have to disagree after seeing publishers blame retailers for the need for high prices/price matching when the Australian commission made enquiries into the higher prices, that I am more inclined to beleive than someone on the internet that hasn't provided factual evidence to back something up.

You're buying the same thing when you buy a disc? omg, people today...

What evidence? You have provided none, I have done so, check the links in my post a little farther back.

Thanks for finally agreeing, we know they don't price match, hence the issue at hand.
The higher prices are because publishers are required to do so in order to keep the retailers content.
There are many back-room deals, assumptions and financial reasons in order to do so.

It's akin to the Game of Thrones issue, they don't release the show widely in Australia, you cannot legally purchase it on the day it becomes available, instead because of the (In this case "Retailer") having made back-room deals, all other legal alternatives are essentially blocked, if you wish to watch it, then you need to sign up for a pay-television package. (Which I can't get because of my particular location anyhow.)

If it was digital, all problems would be solved for everyone, but just like retail video games, the archaic business models need to be supported to maintain current status-quo.

So what you are saying is that these publishers lied in front of a Government tribunal? Do you have any evidence to support such a claim? If so, then please forward it to the Australian Competition Tribunal here:
http://www.competitiontribunal.gov.au/about/contact-us
(Note: I am still not taking you seriously, yet.)

It could also result in legal action that could cost those companies millions/billions.

If you wan't some farther reading on what those companies "Lied" about, see here:
http://games.on.net/2013/08/legal-opinion-can-the-australia-tax-be-stopped/
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=ic/itpricing/report.htm#chapters

Yes PC still has physical sales.
Yes PC digital competes with physical.
Yes PC digital competes with digital.
No, Digital wasn't always a competitive landscape on the PC, you only had Steam at one point, prices are the same back then as they are today.

Xbox Live and Playstation Network can have the same kind of competition that exists on Steam with digital retailers selling Steam games.
For example: Green Man Gaming. (Sells Steam games, often cheaper than Steam.) or Humble Bundle. (Sells Steam Games, often cheaper than steam) or the plethora of Key sites.

I will not bother going into the fact that Valve is a private company not a public one, so it's staff is not constantly harassed in order to have ever-increasing profits regardless of the consumer in order to appease shareholders, their interests are more aligned with the consumer than some other multi-billion dollar video game companies.

I shall twist that logic... Can you play Playstation 2 games without a Playstation 2? Yes you can.

Steam is also an Operating System.
Steam is also a Community.
Steam is also a DRM scheme.
Steam is also a Storefront.
Steam also has various API's and features for various functionality.

If we were to compare Steam to a console, it's essentially an Xbox or a Playstation with less standardised hardware, you choose and assemble the hardware or go to a retailer like Dell instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_(hardware_platform)
And I quote:

Note the wording of "Platform".
It's more than just a "Store front and DRM scheme" that you so lazily imply.

"PC" is not a platform, Windows, MacOS and Linux are. ;)

You should also look at the from another angle. It's safe to assume the value of a game is $59.99 USD. Whether you agree with it or not, that's what we pay. To say we should pay less for digital is wrong. We should pay more for physical. It costs way more to create, ship, etc physical media and ultimately publishers and developers make less money on physical discs. I'd rather they make more money and help keep that price at $59.99. It would probably never fly, but it's very possible physical games could go up in price, while digital remain at $59.99.

Yeah. I have maybe 12 games on Steam. I think I've beaten one of them. The rest, all great games mind you, just sit there. Sometimes I'll think about that when console releases are slim or I'm short on money or whatever and I'll open Steam up to play and it just, I can't get into it. It's the same exact thing with ios games. I think I've beaten like 2 since 2011. 

I have done alot of thinking about this and my hypothesis is two part. First, for most of us (I'm in this group) who grew up in the pre iTunes/Steam/Netflix era of video rental stores, CD walkmen and NES carts, there will always a challenge enjoying virtual media vs. physical media because it's just burnt into our brains. Secondly, I think there might be an evolutionary link at play as well. Nature did not intend for our survival drive to account for things that don't exist/can't hold in our hand. You can't hunt or gather virtual food. Early man knew they were the owners of something buy seeing and holding it. Downloading does not give one the feeling of ownership. You can SEE it, but it's behind glass. It's behind some wall or screen that I can't get to. I can't HOLD it and set it on a shelf etc. I think that is part of the problem as well. We have all these songs and games downloaded, but are they really...there? 

Exactly... so why pay more and have to rely on a network for your games when you can just get your own copy to access from disc at any time for less?

omg, people today...