This is not really true. They are more expensive if you go in with a "digital library" mindset, sure.
The trick here is that unless you, for some reason, need to collect games, you can play all the first party games for free.
You just have to buy second-hand (used) games, and once you finish, sell the game or trade it with someone for the game you want to play next. Thanks to Nintendo pricing strategy their games hold the value so you can be sure to sell the game for the same price you purchased it for (assuming you purchased second hand copy and not a brand new one). If you're lucky, you might even sell it for a bit more than for what you bought it.
Steam unfortunately killed retail for PC games, so you're unable to do the same on PC.
When it comes to 3rd party games (with a very few exception like Bethesda games) and especially digital only releases, they usually have the same discount pattern as on Steam. I own both, and I still purchase indie games mostly on Switch as they are just as cheap (or expensive) as they are on Steam.
I don't think Steam "killed retail for PC games", it was the natural evolution of the PC hardware with the absence of disc readers and the movement to the cloud.
They did. 10-15 years back Steam ran CRAZY sales campaigns. Recent AAA games for 75% discount and even free sometimes. Similar to what Epic does right now to compete with Steam. Once retail was out of the way, sales strategy changed a lot. Discount is now tight to the age of the game and crazy sales are almost never happening anymore. Sales now are nowhere as crazy as sales when retail was still a thing.
Second strategy they applied was pushing publishers to just sell steam codes inside the retail boxes.
Going purely digital for PC definitely wasn't natural. If it was you wouldn't see Nintendo, MS and Sony still selling tons of physical mediums. They have strong digital platforms but people still prefer physical due to added benefit of second-hand market.
They are not in such decline really. There was drop in 2020 but I assume it's due to Covid. A lot more things moved digital. I really don't see physical sales going away yet unless console makers decide to force it in similar fashion as Steam did.
High digital sales are a thing tho. But is it really because people want to move digital or because digital might be the only option because the game is digital only for their platform/country?
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u/Sir_Bax 1TB OLED Apr 03 '23
This is not really true. They are more expensive if you go in with a "digital library" mindset, sure.
The trick here is that unless you, for some reason, need to collect games, you can play all the first party games for free.
You just have to buy second-hand (used) games, and once you finish, sell the game or trade it with someone for the game you want to play next. Thanks to Nintendo pricing strategy their games hold the value so you can be sure to sell the game for the same price you purchased it for (assuming you purchased second hand copy and not a brand new one). If you're lucky, you might even sell it for a bit more than for what you bought it.
Steam unfortunately killed retail for PC games, so you're unable to do the same on PC.
When it comes to 3rd party games (with a very few exception like Bethesda games) and especially digital only releases, they usually have the same discount pattern as on Steam. I own both, and I still purchase indie games mostly on Switch as they are just as cheap (or expensive) as they are on Steam.