Digital Game Downloads, Good News or Bad News?

Digital game downloads, good for us or good for them?

Since the current generation of consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One and their respective updated live digital marketplaces,  Digital downloads of games has become more prevalent. Essentially, what is happening is the powers at be (Sony and Microsoft) are attempting to increase their stranglehold on the buying and selling of pre-owned games at local gaming stores. They would argue it damages the games industry and its counterparts (publishers and developers) when in fact it seems completely beneficial to the everyday gamer and ill explain why.

For anyone who has a current generation console will be aware of the standard retail price of games these days, £49.99 and that's without season passes and various DLC packages! Games are a form of Art and like other media formats such as movies and music production costs demand a price. The issues lies with comparing production costs to other forms of media and what you pay to experience a movie or buy an album. The average cost of a 'AAA' title can be between £10 million to £50 million and we pay upwards of £50-£100 over a games life cycle. Compare this to a block buster movie with production costs of £300m and you pay £10 to see it at the cinema or can buy it for £15 on Blu-Ray.  A movie with between 10x to 30x the production costs is costing upwards of 5x less to access. It seems to me that the industry should be doing fine??

Some may argue that Games sell in less quantity but at the same time game studios tend to be smaller and have less employees. The industry has landed on this £50 benchmark for current Gen games, £10 more than last Gen games (which many are still in production). Digital downloads can even be pre-ordered and actually cost £54.99, that's £5 more than a physical copy. That makes no sense! The issue with digital copies is that they cant be returned if the game is short, bad or bugged, where as physical copies can be sold back to shops for cash or credit and used to trade for other games after you have completed it. 

People need to remember that these companies are a business and any new trend they try and invest in, like digital downloads, is in their best interest and not the average gamer. Games are the same as any other purchase, especially if you're expected to pay £100, an investment that can bring a return if you need to trade it or sell it for whatever reason. The industry will continue to find ways to get as much out of people as possible, as long as consumers are foolish enough to buy into it.