Due to new tariffs, many more physical game discs may “simply not get made” - Ars Technica
Due to new tariffs, many more physical game discs may “simply not get made”
I wasn't aware that there was still a really big physical market, I haven't personally purchased an actual disc in over 6 years, the sales that the stores have never match the steam sales, and I never really bought hard copies on my pc anyway. Consoles have been more hard pushing digital as well, with locking down the disk reader on cheaper iterations.
If physical game prices go up as a result but digital stay the same I'll believe it, but if both game prices go up, I'm not going to assume it's due to the Tariffs, I'm going to directly correlate that to the company's greed and that's going to impact my future decisions as a buyer to buy their goods.
If physical game prices go up as a result but digital stay the same I'll believe it, but if both game prices go up, I'm not going to assume it's due to the Tariffs, I'm going to directly correlate that to the company's greed
That's silly. You're ignoring the possibility that disc prices will go up due to tariffs and that game companies will use that as justification to raise prices on digital goods. Tariffs would be the root cause for both, greed would be the additional factor for the latter only.
Companies will use every opportunity to rob you, but tariffs are going to hurt. Don't let Trump get a pass just because companies are opportunists.
I'm not giving Trump a pass, I think these tariffs are one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in years.
However I'm not going to blame tariffs on something that aren't affected by tariffs. I'm going to blame the company who is deciding to raise the price of a good that isn't impacted by the tariffs,
It's two separate ongoing issues and I'm not about to give the company a get out of jail free card by blaming tariffs for it.
I've been buying physical PS4 and PS5 games for a few years now, at consistently (and usually considerably) lower prices than their digital counterparts. You just have to look for sales. Walmart, GameStop, Best Buy and sometimes Amazon will always have games on sale on their site at any given point. They regularly go (or I guess went, at this point) for $10-20.
Same goes for Criterion Collection Blu-ray DVDs. Often 50% off or more.
I haven't been to a GameStop in quite some time, but I can say it's generally better off not to waste your time looking for a deal at walmart, at least at the store level. According to the markdown policy, they want you to try to run 10 to 15% per markdown and you can only do two markdowns before you're supposed to dispose/claim. So for a $70 game, my first markdown would have been 60$, my second markdown would have been around 50$
Many times I would have tons of clearance games that I wouldn't be able to sell because of those restrictions, during those times I would mark it down further than that, but many times when you went to mark it down further than that they would actually rather you dispose on the second markdown because for some stupid reason, their claim system has it so you can dispose/claim for full cost, so financially it makes zero sense store side to sell the game for 50% off when you can send the game back for about 80%(or even full cost at times) of what was paid
It was a really stupid system, but I assume they're getting some sort of Kickback from game Studios to discourage physical media
ofc this also assumes they are on top of dealing with markdowns, 0/
It makes sense that there still are physical games. There are many people with no internet or slow internet. You can gift them to your children or friends on their birthday. You can sell them/pass them on after you've finished the game
Man my home area is that way, they can't get anything higher than a 5/5 internet wise. I go over to my parents and one YouTube video seems to take the whole network down. I feel bad for them, they can't get anything better. We really need a complete overhaul in this state. Sadly the current trend is physical disks still have a day 1 update that downloads most the game. When I bought my dad a game for events, I give it to him a few days prior to the event so he can download it beforehand. It's rediculous
Granted this was back on the PS4 but I'm sure it hasent got better.
I prefer buying physical (for console) when possible. Part of it is I just like the physicality of it. But also, it’s the less-DRM option. Games I bought on the e-shop on my switch can’t be shared with my brother, and once the servers are down, I’ll lose the game forever if my Switch breaks. Meanwhile I’m still playing my old GBA games on my Analogue Pocket.
On PC I prefer buying GoG over Steam for similar reasons (although when it’s more practical, like when I want Steam’s multiplayer infrastructure, or GoG just doesn’t have it, I still buy on Steam)
Even a 25% tariff on the import value of a physical is still only like $0.20, even if it had a 100% tariff it would only increase the price by like $2 because tariffs are not based on final sale price, it is based on the import value which is way lower than MSRP. MSRP is set to give importers profit after paying import fees, tariffs, shipping from the port to distributors, etc.
If someone is paying 25% more based on MSRP "because of tariffs," you are 100% getting scammed.