PC The end of ZeniMax studios (Bethesda/id/Arkane/Machine Games) titles on Steam appears to be nigh

[crispy4000]

All these competing PC launchers are mostly an inconvenience IMO.  It's terrible and I hate it, but at least I can still launch outside games from Valve's client with many of Steam's perks (big picture mode, native DS4 support).  I think the problem will always be manageable, unless Microsoft gets too heavy handed in the next Windows revision.

 

With Epic entering the ring, I think we'll see many indies launch there first, then later on Steam with a higher than expected price tag.  Hopefully we'll see independent entities like Humble, Fanatical and GMG offering big cuts in these cases, because I think Steam sales will only get worse from here out.

The bigger shit is coming later.  Competing storefronts won't hold a candle to the future we're heading into with subscription services.  Jumping from one of a dozen popular gaming subscriptions will be end result if publishers have their way.  Juggling your auto-renewal settings across those services would be an infinitely greater pain in the ass.  The gaming industry should take heed from where TV/film subscriptions have gone as of late... but it won't.

At least on the PC, the free market should keep doing its thing for a while.  I definitely prefer the current system of owning all my games and paying firesale prices for most of them.  My hope is that more launchers won't change that.
 

1 hour ago, mikechorney said:

I don't understand why people think that Steam is so good....

Big picture mode, built-in PS4 controller support, earning money back playing games (trading cards), gaming the marketplace, good game organization features, 3rd party outlets can compete directly with Valve by selling their own Steam keys, etc.

It's led to PC games typically being much cheaper than their console counterparts, and opened avenues to insane bundle deals.  As someone who hates the idea of portions of my library being subscription walled (in multiplayer, or otherwise), its been a refuge from the rest of the industry's bullshit.  That's somewhat ironic considering that there's a layer of persistent DRM underpinning the thing.

Steam isn't perfect.  Curation efforts are misguided, forum communities are toxic, etc.  But the positives still hugely outweigh the negatives.
 

[AbsolutSurgen]

1) Steam either doesn’t have a significant chunk of the games I want to play, or they are more expensive on their storefront. 

 

2) Console games are regularly much cheaper to purchase at Best Buy/Amazon than Steam is charging. 

 

At at one point, Steam may have been a preferable solution. But, IMHO, that time is in the past. 

[Keyser_Soze]

I think Steam has a lot of features people take for granted. Not just the games but they've got a marketplace, they have card drops that you can sell or craft, they even have games during the sales that can get you more games.

 

Sure for some people a "storefront" is just a game receptacle but for others it is much more.

[AbsolutSurgen]

I have generally ignored the cards/badges on Steam. What do they get me @Keyser_Soze?

[Keyser_Soze]

Just now, mikechorney said:

I have generally ignored the cards/badges on Steam. What do they get me @Keyser_Soze?

 

Nothing you'd care about. But you get emoticons, profile backgrounds and can increase your friend's list size. You can also sell the cards, foils are usually worth a lot. I think if you craft one you get coupons too sometimes.

[DemonEyesJason]

29 minutes ago, mikechorney said:

1) Steam either doesn’t have a significant chunk of the games I want to play, or they are more expensive on their storefront. 

 

2) Console games are regularly much cheaper to purchase at Best Buy/Amazon than Steam is charging. 

 

At at one point, Steam may have been a preferable solution. But, IMHO, that time is in the past. 

 

Funny that your point 2 mentioned console games are cheaper to purchase from BB and Amazon than buying from the Steam store, but forget that Steam keys can be bought from a lot of different stores (actual price competition) that Steam doesn't benefit from as they get $0 revenue from keys sold outside of the Steam store.  GMG, CDKeys, Humble Store, etc., we've benefited greatly from Steam's function of letting developers create as many keys as they want and sell them to whoever they want as long as they also sell through Steam.  I rarely buy AAA games from Steam because there are so many cheaper options from third party stores that I can still use the Steam environment.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

27 minutes ago, DemonEyesJason said:

I rarely buy AAA games from Steam because there are so many cheaper options from third party stores that I can still use the Steam environment.

Seriously - who the hell buys AAA titles through Steam anymore?!?

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 hour ago, DemonEyesJason said:

 

Funny that your point 2 mentioned console games are cheaper to purchase from BB and Amazon than buying from the Steam store, but forget that Steam keys can be bought from a lot of different stores (actual price competition) that Steam doesn't benefit from as they get $0 revenue from keys sold outside of the Steam store.  GMG, CDKeys, Humble Store, etc., we've benefited greatly from Steam's function of letting developers create as many keys as they want and sell them to whoever they want as long as they also sell through Steam.  I rarely buy AAA games from Steam because there are so many cheaper options from third party stores that I can still use the Steam environment.

 

My Destiny 2 is on the Blizzard store.

My Ubi games (Far Cry 5, AC:O) are purchased on GMG, but they give me Ubi keys.

FH4 is on the Windows 10 store.

I'm expecting to have to buy Rage 2 on the Bethesda launcher and Anthem on Origin.

At this point,  other than Square-Enix games, there barely seem to be any Steam AAA keys sold anymore...

 

(For the record, CDKeys prices don't seem to be that great anymore...)

[Xbob42]

5 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

Seriously - who the hell buys AAA titles through Steam anymore?!?

I was about to say that I do on occasion, for games I'm not sure about, but even then if it turns out the game was good I'll typically refund it and get it via GMG afterwards, provided they have a sale. They usually do, those chunky 20-25% pre-launch discounts are great.

[Jason]

I just realized that this balkanization of services is going to make it really fun trying to avoid accidentally repurchasing games you've forgotten you bought during a previous sale. 

[Keyser_Soze]

8 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

Seriously - who the hell buys AAA titles through Steam anymore?!?

 

3 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

I was about to say that I do on occasion, for games I'm not sure about, but even then if it turns out the game was good I'll typically refund it and get it via GMG afterwards, provided they have a sale. They usually do, those chunky 20-25% pre-launch discounts are great.

 

Yeah if they have good preorder incentives like a discount and some other item that you can't get anywhere else like Nioh had.

[crispy4000]

12 hours ago, mikechorney said:

1) Steam either doesn’t have a significant chunk of the games I want to play, or they are more expensive on their storefront. 

 

2) Console games are regularly much cheaper to purchase at Best Buy/Amazon than Steam is charging. 

 

At at one point, Steam may have been a preferable solution. But, IMHO, that time is in the past. 

I disagree with almost everything you've said about pricing.

Steam keys are consistently the cheapest way to buy most games.  There tons of reputable Steam key storefronts undercutting Valve these days.  Purchasing console games on Best Buy/Amazon etc typically won't match those lows unless you're buying used-physical (and even that's not always the case).  Indies too, where the price differential is even more obvious.

As for PC games exclusive to different launchers, they also tend to slash their prices more dramatically than on consoles.  You're still going to pay less going through those launchers than resorting to Best Buy and the like.  Plus you can still add shortcuts to Steam for big picture mode, library management, etc.  Not perfectly ideal, but still cheap.

The biggest exceptions I find are games that launch on consoles first, PC later.  Those do tend to drop in price sooner on consoles, which is logical.  For pretty much everything else, buying games on PC is the cheapest route, and Valve's key distribution policies have driven most of that.


... Almost forgot about selling trading cards.  If you really want deeper discounts, it's easy enough to generate them yourself.  If I'm buying anything on Steam itself, I'm using stored up wallet credit.

[AbsolutSurgen]

8 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

I disagree with almost everything you've said about pricing.

Steam keys are consistently the cheapest way to buy most games.  There tons of reputable Steam key storefronts undercutting Valve these days.  Purchasing console games on Best Buy/Amazon etc typically won't match those lows unless you're buying used-physical (and even that's not always the case).  Indies too, where the price differential is even more obvious.

As for PC games exclusive to different launchers, they also tend to slash their prices more dramatically than on consoles.  You're still going to pay less going through those launchers than resorting to Best Buy and the like.  Plus you can still add shortcuts to Steam for big picture mode, library management, etc.  Not perfectly ideal, but still cheap.

The biggest exceptions I find are games that launch on consoles first, PC later.  Those do tend to drop in price sooner on consoles, which is logical.  For pretty much everything else, buying games on PC is the cheapest route, and Valve's key distribution policies have driven most of that.


... Almost forgot about selling trading cards.  If you really want deeper discounts, it's easy enough to generate them yourself.  If I'm buying anything on Steam itself, I'm using stored up wallet credit.

Most AAA games (which I was specifically talking about) aren't available on Steam (or are cheaper from key resellers):

1) Activision /Blizzard games aren't on Steam

2) EA games aren't on Steam

3) Key resellers are selling Ubisoft Uplay keys for cheaper than Steam keys

4) Microsoft games aren't on Steam

 

You are absolutely wrong about prices dropping on PC digital storefronts faster than physical copies of console games (examples from today):

Call of Duty 4 -- Amazon $39.99 versus Battle.net $47.99

Battlefield 5 - Amazon $35.99 (PS4 Digital Code) versus Origin $39.99

AC:Odyssey -- Amazon $40.19 versus  GMG $50..99

Far Cry 5 -- Amazon $23.99 (PS4 digital code) versus GMG $26.99

Fifa 19 -- Amazon $29.99 (PS4 digital code) versus Origin $35.99

FH4 -- Same on Amazon as Windows 10 store

 

Steam Comparisons

WWE 2k19 -- Amazon $29.99 versus GMG/Steam -- $59.99

NBA 2K19 -- Amazon $30.00 versus GMG/Steam $59.99

Monster Hunter World -- Amazon $24.99 (PS4 Digital Code) versus GMG $56.38

Soulcalibur 6 -- Amazon $47.70 versus GMG $53.99

Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- Amazon $30.00 (XB1 digital code) versus $46.19 on GMG

 

When you include the Black Friday sales, I am consistently seeing AAA console games available for cheaper than their PC counterparts. (For the record, I looked at the best selling games of this year, I didn't cherry pick, the above list is EVERY game I looked up).

[crispy4000]

44 minutes ago, mikechorney said:

Most AAA games (which I was specifically talking about) aren't available on Steam (or are cheaper from key resellers):

1) Activision /Blizzard games aren't on Steam

2) EA games aren't on Steam

3) Key resellers are selling Ubisoft Uplay keys for cheaper than Steam keys

4) Microsoft games aren't on Steam

 

You are absolutely wrong about prices dropping on PC digital storefronts faster than physical copies of console games (examples from today):

Call of Duty 4 -- Amazon $39.99 versus Battle.net $47.99

Battlefield 5 - Amazon $35.99 (PS4 Digital Code) versus Origin $39.99

AC:Odyssey -- Amazon $40.19 versus  GMG $50..99

Far Cry 5 -- Amazon $23.99 (PS4 digital code) versus GMG $26.99

Fifa 19 -- Amazon $29.99 (PS4 digital code) versus Origin $35.99

FH4 -- Same on Amazon as Windows 10 store

 

Steam Comparisons

WWE 2k19 -- Amazon $29.99 versus GMG/Steam -- $59.99

NBA 2K19 -- Amazon $30.00 versus GMG/Steam $59.99

Monster Hunter World -- Amazon $24.99 (PS4 Digital Code) versus GMG $56.38

Soulcalibur 6 -- Amazon $47.70 versus GMG $53.99

Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- Amazon $30.00 (XB1 digital code) versus $46.19 on GMG

 

When you include the Black Friday sales, I am consistently seeing AAA console games available for cheaper than their PC counterparts. (For the record, I looked at the best selling games of this year, I didn't cherry pick, the above list is EVERY game I looked up).

I can already tell most of those comparisons you just posted are botched because you're not taking into account historical lows.  Use isthereanydeal.com.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider gave that away immediately.  That game got a TON of attention for dropping to $30 on Steam the month of release, where it was first cut to that price.  With all its storefronts, PC gaming does require shopping around a bit for a good deal.  But it's really not that hard with that site, Enhanced Steam, r/gamedeals, etc.

 

With off-steam platforms too, several of those comparisons are also fucked.  Historical low for AC Odyssey is $25 on Uplay.  Fifa 19 has been $27. Etc.

... Yes, there are games like SC6 which get Black Friday sales that beat out PC.  Or Monster Hunter World, which saw a late PC port.  But again, those are exceptions, not the norm.  From time to time, console games will be cut to cheaper lows.  But not generally.

[AbsolutSurgen]

40 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

I can already tell most of those comparisons you just posted are botched because you're not taking into account historical lows.  Use isthereanydeal.com.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider gave that away immediately.  That game got a TON of attention for dropping to $30 on Steam the month of release, where it was first cut to that price.  With all its storefronts, PC gaming does require shopping around a bit for a good deal.  But it's really not that hard with that site, Enhanced Steam, r/gamedeals, etc.

 

With off-steam platforms too, several of those comparisons are also fucked.  Historical low for AC Odyssey is $25 on Uplay.  Fifa 19 has been $27. Etc.

... Yes, there are games like SC6 which get Black Friday sales that beat out PC.  Or Monster Hunter World, which saw a late PC port.  But again, those are exceptions, not the norm.  From time to time, console games will be cut to cheaper lows.  But not generally.

The console prices weren't historical lows either.  They were today's prices on 1 retailer -- Amazon.  Feel free to do an analysis that proves me wrong.

[Keyser_Soze]

21 hours ago, mikechorney said:

2) Console games are regularly much cheaper to purchase at Best Buy/Amazon than Steam is charging.

 

Then you compare prices to battle.net and origin....

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Then you compare prices to battle.net and origin....

I compared both.  Which other AAA games should we compare then?  (My other comment that, for the most part, was that AAA games have abandoned Steam.)

[Keyser_Soze]

13 minutes ago, mikechorney said:

I compared both.  Which other AAA games should we compare then?  (My other comment that, for the most part, was that AAA games have abandoned Steam.)

 

They haven't abandoned steam, most games you are mentioning won't come to steam because someone like EA only wants them on their platform.

But really your beef was with Steam to being with so you shouldn't really be talking about Origin, they have horrible deals 99% of the time. However, they did have a good deal shortly after the launch of Titanfall 2, November 18 2016, you could get it for $32.99 (off Amazon of course)

That being said, Steam generally has better deals than other storefronts.

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

They haven't abandoned steam, most games you are mentioning won't come to steam because someone like EA only wants them on their platform.

But really your beef was with Steam to being with so you shouldn't really be talking about Origin, they have horrible deals 99% of the time. However, they did have a good deal shortly after the launch of Titanfall 2, November 18 2016, you could get it for $32.99 (off Amazon of course)

That being said, Steam generally has better deals than other storefronts.

We're going in circles now.

When Activision, EA and Bethesda have now abandoned Steam -- that is a significant portion of AAA content.  Add to that, the fact that Uplay keys are cheaper than Steam keys for Ubi games, and you're pretty much left with Square-Enix, and Warner (if you count them) and Take 2 on Steam for AAA games.  (I recognize that Capcom, Bandai Namco, THQ Nordic and other tier 2 publishers are still on Steam).

I don't have a "beef" with Steam -- I just don't understand the love for it.  Because a) it's missing a ton of AAA content, and b) it's prices aren't that great (particularly when you compare them to CONSOLE prices).

[crispy4000]

On 12/9/2018 at 9:24 AM, mikechorney said:

The console prices weren't historical lows either.  They were today's prices on 1 retailer -- Amazon.  Feel free to do an analysis that proves me wrong.

 

You first need to explain why historical lows aren’t more relevant to this discussion than today's prices.

 

If this is about finding deals and saving money, it only makes sense to look at the former instead.  If Amazon sells a console game for $30 today when it was $25 on sale last week on PC, that doesn’t equate to console games being cheaper. 

Instead, we should be comparing historical lows, price depreciation over time, quality and frequency of bundles, etc.  Even used game pricing, if we truly want to get into the nitty gritty.

[Xbob42]

Speaking of AAA games on Steam for low prices, hope everyone's got Resident Evil 2 down for $46.79!

[AbsolutSurgen]

13 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

 

You first need to explain why historical lows aren’t more relevant to this discussion than today's prices.

 

If this is about finding deals and saving money, it only makes sense to look at the former instead.  If Amazon sells a console game for $30 today when it was $25 on sale last week on PC, that doesn’t equate to console games being cheaper. 

Instead, we should be comparing historical lows, price depreciation over time, quality and frequency of bundles, etc.  Even used game pricing, if we truly want to get into the nitty gritty.

Feel free to do an analysis on historical lows.  You're putting forward a position that using "historical lows" will provide a different answer without actually demonstrating it.

 

My experience buying AAA games would suggest that Amazon/Best Buy/Target/Ebay Black Friday deals will show the historical lows for console disks are the best deals, but I don't have the time/inclination to research it.

[crispy4000]

2 hours ago, mikechorney said:

Feel free to do an analysis on historical lows.  You're putting forward a position that using "historical lows" will provide a different answer without actually demonstrating it.

 

My experience buying AAA games would suggest that Amazon/Best Buy/Target/Ebay Black Friday deals will show the historical lows for console disks are the best deals, but I don't have the time/inclination to research it.

 

You might dismiss the examples I give as cherry picking, but I'll go ahead and do it.

I'll check console digital prices on psprices.com for the PS4.  Used games, I'll use the 'complete' value on gamevaluenow.com.  Retail is almost never cheaper than the ebay average, but I'll check for Black Friday listings while I'm at it.

Big Box Retail (Default editions)
Titanfall 2 - $5 Origin, $6 PS4 digital, $6.45 Ebay
Shadow of War - $12.50 Fanatical, $30, $20 PS4 digital, $11.63 ebay, ($10 Black Friday)
Doom - $6.59 on WinStore, $15 PS4 digital, $12 ebay, ($15 Black Friday)
Battlefront 2 - $8 on Amazon (PC), $10 PS4 digital, $12 ebay
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - $30 Uplay, $40 PS4 digital, $36.59 ebay, ($27 Black Friday)
Assassin's Creed Origins - $24 Steam, $24 PS4 digital, $22.29 ebay ($25 Black Friday)
Wolfenstein II - $14 on WinStore, $20 PS4 digital, $13.82 ebay ($15 Black Friday)
Ni No Kuni II - $25 GameBilet, $36 PS4 digital, $25 ebay ($20 in other sales)
Mad Max - $3.39 Fanatical, $8 PS4 digital, $8.41 ebay
Fifa 19 - $27.00 on Gamestop (PC), $30 PS4 digital, $41.51 ebay, ($27 Black Friday)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - $30 on Steam, $30 PS4 digital, $37 ebay
Rise of the Tomb Raider - $12 Winstore, $17 PS4 digital (PS4), $13 ebay
Dark Souls 3 - $6 Indiegala, $15 PS4 digital, $13 ebay

If you really want to save the most on console games, you'll need to resort to buying used online in most cases.  Or wait for Black Friday and possibly shop in-stores for some deals.

The PC has the downside of different launchers if you really want to save every penny you can.  But for being all digital, PC is cheap as heck.  Prices are close to if not better than console used.  And for games 2+ years old, the difference can be dramatic.  Plus you'll sometimes see big box games in $5-12 bundles.

Occasionally putting up with different launchers (ie: manually adding their games to the Steam client) is a small price to pay for a cheap digital library.  Yes, you might miss out on the handful of Black Friday console deals that cut deeper than PC historical lows.  But there's always the winter PC storefront sales around the corner in December that often match or better them.

Indie
... I shouldn't even have to make a list here.  PS+ and XBLG are the only good argument on consoles for indie game pricing.  And IMO, you can stretch that $30-50 further with PC indie bundles of your choosing.

[TwinIon]

Personally, I don't want feature parity with Steam. I want storefronts to be dumb terminals where I make a purchase and they leave me the hell alone. When a storefront is the source for reviews, for social interaction, or for some sort of over-the-top gamification, there's room for abuse. More than that, it introduces more avenues for competition beyond the stuff that I want storefronts to compete on. I want them to compete on price and security and reliability, not on their social graph or client side gimmicks. Storefront lock-in isn't good for anyone.

 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:

 

You might dismiss the examples I give as cherry picking, but I'll go ahead and do it.

I'll check console digital prices on psprices.com for the PS4.  Used games, I'll use the 'complete' value on gamevaluenow.com.  Retail is almost never cheaper than the ebay average, but I'll check for Black Friday listings while I'm at it.

Big Box Retail (Default editions)
Titanfall 2 - $5 Origin, $6 PS4 digital, $6.45 Ebay
Shadow of War - $12.50 Fanatical, $30, $20 PS4 digital, $11.63 ebay, ($10 Black Friday)
Doom - $6.59 on WinStore, $15 PS4 digital, $12 ebay, ($15 Black Friday)
Battlefront 2 - $8 on Amazon (PC), $10 PS4 digital, $12 ebay
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - $30 Uplay, $40 PS4 digital, $36.59 ebay, ($27 Black Friday)
Assassin's Creed Origins - $24 Steam, $24 PS4 digital, $22.29 ebay ($25 Black Friday)
Wolfenstein II - $14 on WinStore, $20 PS4 digital, $13.82 ebay ($15 Black Friday)
Ni No Kuni II - $25 GameBilet, $36 PS4 digital, $25 ebay ($20 in other sales)
Mad Max - $3.39 Fanatical, $8 PS4 digital, $8.41 ebay
Fifa 19 - $27.00 on Gamestop (PC), $30 PS4 digital, $41.51 ebay, ($27 Black Friday)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - $30 on Steam, $30 PS4 digital, $37 ebay
Rise of the Tomb Raider - $12 Winstore, $17 PS4 digital (PS4), $13 ebay
Dark Souls 3 - $6 Indiegala, $15 PS4 digital, $13 ebay

If you really want to save the most on console games, you'll need to resort to buying used online in most cases.  Or wait for Black Friday and possibly shop in-stores for some deals.

The PC has the downside of different launchers if you really want to save every penny you can.  But for being all digital, PC is cheap as heck.  Prices are close to if not better than console used.  And for games 2+ years old, the difference can be dramatic.  Plus you'll sometimes see big box games in $5-12 bundles.

Occasionally putting up with different launchers (ie: manually adding their games to the Steam client) is a small price to pay for a cheap digital library.  Yes, you might miss out on the handful of Black Friday console deals that cut deeper than PC historical lows.  But there's always the winter PC storefront sales around the corner in December that often match or better them.

Indie
... I shouldn't even have to make a list here.  PS+ and XBLG are the only good argument on consoles for indie game pricing.  And IMO, you can stretch that $30-50 further with PC indie bundles of your choosing.

If your point is that 3-5 year-old games can be found for cheaper on PC than on console (or that Battlefront 2 was $8 on PC vs. $10 on console for one day on Amazon), you'll get no argument from me.  It's hard to fathom that this is what you thought I was referencing in my comments.

 

[Zaku3]

15 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Speaking of AAA games on Steam for low prices, hope everyone's got Resident Evil 2 down for $46.79!

 

Where?

[crispy4000]

10 hours ago, mikechorney said:

If your point is that 3-5 year-old games can be found for cheaper on PC than on console (or that Battlefront 2 was $8 on PC vs. $10 on console for one day on Amazon), you'll get no argument from me.  It's hard to fathom that this is what you thought I was referencing in my comments.

 

 

When you say console games are cheaper, I didn’t know you weren’t referring to historical lows.  Except for Black Friday, when you’ve implied the historical lows should count.

 

My point is that PC game sales are generally better than for console games.  Digital games tend to go for cheaper.  Newer games tend to be cheaper.  Older games tend to be cheaper.  Big box games tend to be cheaper.  Indie games tend to be cheaper.  The bundles are better and more frequent.

 

The times when console games are cheaper than PC historical lows are either exceptions to the norm, Black Friday deals (for only a handful of titles really), or when PC discounts don’t outpace the used game market.

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

 

When you say console games are cheaper, I didn’t know you weren’t referring to historical lows.  Except for Black Friday, when you’ve implied the historical lows should count.

 

My point is that PC game sales are generally better than for console games.  Digital games tend to go for cheaper.  Newer games tend to be cheaper.  Older games tend to be cheaper.  Big box games tend to be cheaper.  Indie games tend to be cheaper.  The bundles are better and more frequent.  Etc.

 

The times when console games are cheaper than PC lows are either exceptions to the norm, Black Friday deals (for only a handful of titles really), or when PC discounts don’t outpace the used game market.

 

Here's a current example (though I'm already over this conversation)

 

SoulCalibur PC version $39.99 on indiegalia

 

Cheaper than physical and digital version of the console versions

https://www.amazon.com/SOULCALIBUR-VI-Standard-Xbox-One/dp/B077Y86FJP/?th=1 - $45 lowest

https://www.amazon.com/SOULCALIBUR-VI-Standard-PlayStation-4/dp/B077YDJYRY/ $47 lowest

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0700-CUSA09903_00-SC6GAME000000001 Full Price

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/soulcalibur-vi-playstation-4/6177201.p?skuId=6177201 Full Price

[crispy4000]

SC6 did have a crazy good Black Friday deal though, for $35.  It's one of those few games where retail did significantly undercut the PC market.

... It'll be down to $30 early next year, lol.