Topic: Why is Physical Cheaper Than Digital?

Just a quick point really but why with Nintendo is it that games are cheaper in General that are physical than digital. If I shop for a Switch game at amazon for a new lease the physical release is more often than not around £10 cheaper as a physical game than digital.
Surely that is a tad odd!?

That makes sense. I prefer physical anyway but just wondered.

One of the reasons we should fear an all digital future with exclusive releases: too easy for publishers to control the prices.

You also have to factor in convenience: It's much more convenient, generally, to sit at home and download a game rather than go to a store or have to wait to have the game delivered. People will pay more if they can play the game here and now.

In my experience physical tends to be more expensive than digital. Yoku's Island Express has been $10 on the eShop but it will cost me $40 if I want it physical. Death Road to Canada was recently about $8 but I looked into the price of the standard non-collector's edition and it was very pricey. I think My Time at Portia is going to be $10 more expensive physical than digital but I could be wrong about that.

Not sure whether this is true or not (perhaps someone can confirm/deny), but if you lose your Switch and replace with a new one, can you re-download your digital games to the same account? That would be a benefit over physical. Dislike the pricing strategy, but understand it.

@Shellcore yes you can

I prefer digital. I mean, it's 2019 and all.

Mostly just supply and demand. They start out at the same price. Then over time, the demand for the game drops lower than the supply of the retail copies, so they need to lower prices in order to sell their pre-existing stock.

Digital games have an infinite supply so aren't subject to the price system in the same way. There is no such thing as "getting rid of pre-existing stock" with digital products.

As long as your the account holder you can redownload the digital games. There is no benefit over Physical as you just plug that game in and play again. So not sure where you're implying but with Physical you don't re-download again as you have the physical at hand already.

And that means? So you get rid of the car and walk instead right? Going by that concept.

Would be more like ditching your car to buy a teleporter

Would rather learn instant transmission, it'll save even more space (and those teleporters would require cleaning)

Also, it usually depends on the game and the demand for it, however once it starts gathering dust and takes space, they'll slash the prices so they can make room for the next big game (or the next big disaster, those games usually get a price cut within a week).

@SwitchForce

I just don't see the point of physical. I can download and have it in X minutes, verses driving to the store or ordering online and waiting a couple days for it to show up. If something happens to the digital I can just re-download it. My entire world is digital at this point. It's nice. TV, music, communications, why not games? For those that enjoy physical by all means enjoy it. It's just not for me.

And yes, when teleporters finally come around I will be ditching my car!

@Dezzy There's also competition. Stores are competing for the best prices, whereas there is only one digital storefront on a system; no competition to drive the price down.

Notice how they already forgot what I said "you already own the Physical cart" but then again they hear only what they hear.

It's definitely worth waiting to buy a digital game until you're ready to play it, rather than just grabbing it day 1 to sit in a backlog.

Some of the deals in the eshop special offers section are pretty good, considering how Nintendo games hold their value in the shops.

I'm more of a physical game person. Can always resell it if you have to or don't want to replay it and I like holding the game in my hand. That said, if digital goes way cheaper (sometimes it does with ps4, not so much with nintendo it seems), than I will buy digital games.

I think it comes down to Nintendo's relationship with retailers. Nintendo want stores to stock the game, so they will come along with wholesale price and an RRP. Typical RRP £49.99 (and i think wholesale is around 50% of that). So Nintendo have to justify that RRP. If they sell it day 1 on the eshop for less than that the retailers will turn around and say this isn't a realistic RRP, and will either demand a cheaper wholesale price or not stock it at all. Then after that stores are able to discount games if they wish (Nintendo will still get the same wholesale price). So physical games end up cheaper due to store competition.

Nintendo does discount retail games on the eshop later in their lifespan, but I think they just don't want to upset the apple cart by undercutting retailers at launch.

@SwitchForce If you lose your physical copy, can you download it digitally again? Not sure what you're getting at here.

Then you obviously didn't understand ypur own reply here.