@johnlewis107: They do, but so does Steam, and GOG, and Origin, and every other digital distribution platform. He's saying blaming full retail physical copy prices with zero price degradation on a service fee is silly.
@Chyld989: If you think maintaining a server that literally does nothing but distribute a games to pieces of hardware comes even close to manufacturing/shipping costs....I have some magic beans to sell you.
@RobDev: Because if you get the urge to play it again say a year later. You have to buy the game all over again. This is a problem because almost every digital platform has ZERO price degradation. When I can go buy a physical copy of a game that's well over a year old for literally 1/3rd the cost of the still full priced digital version....getting a paltry $6 in credit for a digital trade-in is insulting.
Hell no. You would need to talk at least 25-30%. Otherwise the loss of being able to play the game without having to buy it again isn't worth the $6 in credit from a FULL PRICED GAME. As someone else already said, how about stop trying to charge full retail prices for digital products that have zero manufacturing/shipping/vendor costs.
@jtthegame316: No "good enough" is not good enough when you spend several hundreds of dollars on a supposed "next gen" piece of hardware. 1080 isn't some absurd high end standard anymore. Monitors and TV's that can run 1080 aren't exactly cutting edge expensive, therefore It's not unreasonable to people to expect that.
That being said, I still think the game looks fun. I still want to play it. But I can tell the difference between 720 and 1080, just like I can tell the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps. Therefore it does make a difference in the overall game experience.
Every time Sony has a flash sale I can't help but shake my head, as it feels like Sony doesn't want my money. There are a TON of PS3 games I would buy up in a heart beat....if they were playable on the PS4. Then the one game I would buy is a dollar, but they can't charge me just a dollar, they want $5 and give me $4 in credit. How about no.
@Richardthe3rd: I think it has a lot to do with the company culture for each. Blizzard has never done anything by half measures, they are always extensively involved in everything they do. With extensive research, data, and testing.
Valve has always been more about refining one really good base idea, releasing it to the masses, and letting them tweak it, change it, and really do whatever they want with it. Then taking what they like from the community, and implementing it.
This is all just theoretical (I could be just talking out my backside), and neither business model is wrong or worse than the other. But in a case like this, It's not unreasonable to think Blizzards overall direct involvement could be a big reason.
@hermitkiller: Right It's all the pirates fault. It has absolutely nothing to do with Jonathan Blow openly saying he doesn't like the direction Microsoft has gone with their very insular and close off network model and heavy restrictions and guide lines they impose on indie developers.
This also ignores the fact that The Witness has already surpassed Braid in terms of comparable sales figures, and years ago Blow stated that Braid made him "quite a lot of money."
@stev69: How exactly do you judge a game based on it's own merits without something to compare and contrast it to?
Besides that, It's already been pointed out that "It's for kids" isn't a valid argument for lack luster games. If encourages the idea that kids can be shoveled any old crappy game and they'll be okay with it. Give young gamers a little more credit than that, they know the difference between a good and a bad game when they play one.
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