Sony Really Wants You to Pre-Order PS4 Games on the PlayStation Store

A pre order discount of 20% won't happen but even if it did, this would be bringing the titles in line with retail offers, there would still be zero incentive.

"There's still no real reason to buy retail games digitally."

There's many reasons... I love digital. I know that isn't a popular opinion around these parts but I do.

I just pre-ordered The Witcher yesterday off the PS Store.

I will never understand peoples strong hate for digital...

Pre-order Killzone? A game that's already been out for a 1 1/2? I'm kinda confused by this.

@get2sammyb - Convenient,less wear and tear,can't get scratched,can't get stolen,doesn't take up shelf room. I have never went on the PS Store to buy a game and had it been sold out because it can't.

I do agree that price is an issue on older games but day one is the same and some of the PS+ deals are great.

I have to admit I currently buy all of my RPG's digitally, I have Dragon Age, Bloodborne and pre ordered Witcher 3 this way. Only reason I do this is I know there will be loads of replayability with these games and I like the convenience of it. Other digital purchases have come when sales are good such as sleeping dogs and sherlock. However, apart from the fact that I do not have to change a disc in my console there is no other incentive currently.

If the price was lower than retail I would buy all of my games from the store. Currently this is not the case, and i also have the option to sell my retail copy if I do not like the game.

I can see the attraction for people with digital releases if there is not a retail store situated close by and you want the game for launch. I have several stores within walking distance so retail is just as easy for me.

I would love to see more demos on the store so i can try before I buy to get a feel if i will like the game. Then if digital was competitive with retail prices I would go totally digital as there are benefits. Currently the prices are not reasonable in the UK.

If you have BestBuy in your area with the GamerClub membership, you'll get 20% off new physical games anyway. Games I could still trade or sell after I'm done playing them.

With the ridiculous file sizes now, I dont trust many developers with my HDD space. Although physical games still install data, not all of them are as big as the complete digital download. Not to mention it could go bye bye if licensing issues pop up.

I will go digital when the price is reflective of what it should be, when you can get it for cheaper in a shop after retail/distribution get their cut something just isn't right.

I know it's probably artificially high as to not enrage the retail sector that sell the consoles and it won't go down as long as people keep buying them but I will continue to boycott them on this principle alone.

@Splat
"I will never understand peoples strong hate for digital..."

Its not a hate for digital, its a hate for the price - why should digital be more expensive than retail. The first sentence of the article was a bit misleading, but the rest of it was all about price. Why buy a game from PSN for £55 when you can buy from Amazon for £42 (those are today's prices for GTA V just as an example). Plus I can sell the disc once I've finished with it.

"I do agree that price is an issue on older games buy day one is the same"

It really isn't usually. Batman pre-order: PSN £55 vs. Amazon £44

I'll agree that PS+ deals are often good, but those are for games that have been out for longer and you're still more often likely to beat the PSN price if you shop about

I thought PS+ was a way of getting free games? Its not that much of an incentive if the free game offered is also one you own. Personally I much prefer physical editions and not just because its financially a better deal but because you can't replace that feeling of holding something, opening the case for the first time, reading the literature, seeing your collection grow on the shelf etc.I know its cheaper and the games are an 'asset' as they also have resale value but I would still buy physical if the prices were reversed.

On Xbox, they do a rewards system. This is based on your gamer score (achievements) the higher your score the more you get back (iincluding points for renewing Gold). They also have a VIP status so the more you do online (buying games, movies etc) the more your status improves earning up to 10% rebate. It still doesn't work out cheaper than physical copies but it does bring the effective overall cost down. Obviously this system benefits those most that buy and do a lot online.

I can see Sony doing something similar - some form of rewards programme.

Have they finally added a bloody wish list? Don't know how many times I've wanted to buy something later on the PS3 or vita

"Reading the literature."

Back in the NES days I would agree with you. Now most games come with a manual that just says the copyright info and "go to our website for more info." That's it...

New commenter here! I buy digital all the time now. Love not having to swap discs anymore because I'm lazy. To help push it though would be to allow some form of trade back system. If you could "sell" it back, which would really just be giving up your digital rights to a game, that would be great. Even a small amount of trade in value would be great. Another idea would be to lower the price, even by just a few bucks(I'm in the states). Wiitcher 3 is a good example, being only $53.99. And let me gift games to my friends Sony!

My issues with digital (coming from someone whose entire library minus gta and destiny is digital and has filled all but 200gb of a 1tb drive) comes down to price, psns download speeds of late (75/10 hardwired nets me mayybe 1mb downloads since 2.01 update), and the curse of buying a game, hating it, and having no way to recoup any money (looks at shadows of mordor, watch dogs, Thief, dead rising, rivals, unity in disgust). Sure it's convenient, and I love not having to put a disc in, but I'd also love to sell my used license to someone for some psn credit. Hell I'd take 10$ each psn credit, better than nothing. To be honest, it's primarily psn speeds that have not been fixed that is resulting in my upcoming games being physical copies more than anything, but I can understand, and emphasize with those that continue to buy physical.

I don't hate 'digital' however I can see a lot more advantages to buying physical. The option of playing games without needing to swap discs is not exactly a big deal from someone who has been playing games for over 35years. To change games then you needed to swap cassettes and wait 10+ mins for games to load up so swapping discs is hardly an issue. I have never lost a disc or got one scratched that made it unplayable either - maybe because I look after my games. I still have games that work far longer than the online option to re-download games will be available for. My games outlast my consoles generally too. During the 7th generation I went through 2 PS3's (due to YLOD) and 2 360's due to upgrading to larger HDD/slimmer version. Both had over 20 physical games that I didn't need to re-download.
I prefer to buy Ltd Edition versions where possible so there is often more literature too - things like Artbooks etc.
I don't buy any media digitally so gaming is no exception. I prefer books to ebooks, you can't beat the tactility and smell of a book. My Music collection is also important - I know cover art isn't the same these days since 12" LP's have been replaced by CD's but I still enjoy reading the inlays and looking at the cover art.
If I ever had to sell a console - what's going to be worth more? A console with 20 physical games or one with 20 digital games (that potentially can't be played as they linked to a gamertag/id)? I know if you took it to a store to trade in the one with digital games would be valued at the same price as a console with no games!
Like I said, I like seeing my collection grow on the shelf, like holding something for my money, like breaking the seal on the case and looking at all the contents - especially on ltd/special editions.
If I wanted to go digital, I would have bought 'Steam'. I am not anti-digital as I think its great that we are given the choice - however my choice is 'physical'

I dont hate digital, I've bought quite a few games Digitally like DriveClub and Injustice Gods of War, but they where under £20 for each of them and its great to have them there for instant convenience.

I pre-ordered the physical MK X with Goro for £34 and recieved it on the Saturday before release, on PSN prices started from £55 upwards plus additional DLC, There is just no way I would ever pay that for a digital game. Its ridiculous.

@Splat Pre-order can't be cancelled. And you can never return it and get your money back. I bought one game of the ps store before it came out. It ended up having game breaking bugs rendering it pretty much useless. Sony refused to give me a refund. So until they incorporate done kind of return period, I for one will never be buying digital again.

@Splat and how much did that cost you digital

that's why people hate it, they charge 50-60 quid on PSN for a game when the physical version of a game is up to £20 cheaper and you would think the physical version would cost more as you have to take manufacturing and distribution into account

and if you wait a few months it goes down for physical games for example some of the games released last year are still full price on psn but you can buy them NEW off amazon for as little as £20 (dependind on the game)

the problem is that the PSN has no competition if you want digital you have to buy off PSN where as shops have loads of competition so they lower the price to try and get you to buy from them

buying digital nowadays is dumb because your paying more but getting less yeah the game is the same but your not getting all the extra stuff like the game case and printed material, I know that doesn't seem much but what's a better deal £60 for a digital game or £45 for a physical one?

not to mention, no refunds, no trade in's you can't even take the game round a mates to play on their system

there really is no upside to digital at the moment apart from they don't take up room in your house

if they were cheaper than physical (which they should be) and had some kind of refund and trade option then yeah I would buy digital but while I can get a physical version cheaper and have many more options with how I use it then I won't

I made the decision to go 100% digital with the current generation (Xbox One, PS4). I don't buy day one anymore, so I tend to pick up digital sales on the both the UK and US store. I also buy the vouchers from cdkeys. On average I pay around £25 - £30 a game now.

Haha and pay an extra £10-£15! I'm sticking to Amazon

For me its my OCD kicking in and about value for money.

Example I have All the souls games and Bloodborne sitting on my shelf and (being rather sad) I like to stop and look at my accomplishments as well as what games/trophies I have next to attempt.

However I am missing Dark Souls 2 box as I bought it for £10 at the xmas psn sale. It may sound sad but I will have to buy another copy of dark souls 2 just so my OCD is not driving me crazy.

Another thing the PSN prices at times are crazy compared to Amazon, some games are £20-£30 cheaper on Amazon because the PSN prices feel as if they are jus not kept upto date.

Perhaps its just me, anyone else poor and suffering from the Same OCD? =)

Gone fully digital. Yes no resales, yes stupid prices, BUT I choose my games more carefully, I support Sony and most importantly: LESS clutter as I try to live as minimalist as possible!

@davothediv That's the good thing about digital, it gets knocked down in price by so many online retailers now and it happens often. I have quite a few digital games on my PS4 and all of the non-PS+ titles were bought at over 50% off their original price.

TLOU Remastered was sold for $20 digital on a few sites just over a month after its release. This is the strength in digital, the fact that it forces these stores to compete by trying to slash their digital library often. Look at the amount of flash sales that happen on PSN now as opposed to before.

@BAMozzy some good points there, I too feel happier buying games at a cheaper price from Amazon or whoever and then if the game is easily completed or I don't like it at least I can get some money back.

My problem is that when you buy a game it may be £45-50 and within a month later I was offered £13 as a trade in for the same game, I d rather ebay it ( which can be a pain) or stick it with the rest of my collection of too many games- I really am running out of space =)

@FullbringIchigo Shadow of Mordor is £21 on the online shops and psn want you to buy it for a discounted price of £35 ? ?????

What have Sony been drinking?

Having kids made me go digital over physical copies of games. Its way easier to just buy a game through PSN than putting the kids in the car, driving to the store, yada yada yada. Plus less clutter in the living room. Plus a small discount is nice (Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for example), but larger price breaks that reflect an appropriate market value for digital goods would be much appreciated.

@Clay_Davis83 - Plus at a place like GameStop you can't just walk in buy a game and leave. They are like pre-order this sign up for that blah blah blah.

Just let me pay for the game and leave all ready...

If sony want us to go digital its simple. No free games, no discount codes, no gimmicks, just make the games £10-15 cheaper to buy as a digital download than the disk costs on release day. Sony need to realise not only are disks cheaper but you can also get £10-30 back for your game once you have completed it so in reality the PS store is double te price of buying the disk in some cases.

Both me and my daughter have ps4's why would I buy 2 physical copies of The Witcher when I can buy one digital copy and share it between the two consoles as we share acounts. We can both play the game at he same time as if we went out and bought a physical copy each. Theres a good incentive at least to people with more than one ps4 per household, not to mention the fact we get the benefits of one PSN sub fee on both consoles.

@marston1983 thing is Sony only decide the price for games they publish all prices are decided by the publishers so in this case WB Games would be the one who put it at £35 but your point stands someone has been drinking something (in this case WB Games)

With a 2tb hard drive and a buddy to do game share with, there isn't any reason I don't do digital downloads. Having your whole collection in the library without having to insert discs is a great feeling.

@xMEADx exactly the same here, we have 2 ps4(kids have one, me and wife have one) so we just buy mostly digital now so we can share...saddens me a little bit to be honest because I enjoy having the cases(about 150 for ps3 and a load more across other consoles).

I don't even see why pre-ordering digital matters. It's not like they're going to run out of digital stock on launch day.

Now, if I could pre-order physical games on the Playstation store and have them shipped to me either with a small discount, no tax, or free launch-day shipping, that would be a good incentive. I'd love to go with the PS store over GameStop or Best Buy (both of whom have sold my pre-orders before), but only if I can get physical games on there, or exclusive special editions.

This still don't work for me..... Amazon pre orders it still is
Great look at this was...
Dieing Light... Ps store £55 / Amazon £39.85.
Borderlands The Handsome Collection... Ps store £55 / Amazon £39.85
The list goes on and on.... Lmao

I like digital and it works great but the prices are way too high compared with Physical copies, sometimes an additional £20 more expensive. If Sony matched the digital prices to the same level as the physical retail price then I would buy a lot more from them.......come on Sony get a grip please. I do want to buy more from the PS store as it's very convenient and with the pre-order download before the release date titles are great as you won't have to wait to see if Mr Postman delivers your physical copy on day of release as it's there waiting on your Hard-drive.

Totally different on my side of the world. I save 13% straight off on every digital game I buy from PSN because they don't charge tax. And if the game has a discount I $ave even more.

It just makes no sense to take on the cost of data storage and lose the right to resell your games and share them with friends.

Anything less than a 60% discount of standard MSRP isn't worth my time.

In my country (Argentina) retail games are much more expensive than digital games on the store. I never bought a physical copy of any ps4 game and I doubt I'll do anytime. Also, I think it's a lot better to have the games installed on your hard drive and don't have to swap the discs everytime you want to change the game. That's for me, but I'm sure if the prices here were different I'd think it twice.

I'm really surprised that people buy physical still. I'll never buy physical again. As pointed out, there are upsides in the form of constant sales, same prices but no tax, can't lose, coaster, or otherwise ruin disc. Can't get Xmas pan pipes in your bloodborne box, don't need to dedicate a shelf, cross-buy with vita, etc.

@Splat Some day 1 is the same, some are in fact cheaper than retail, but most are dearer.
Im like you though, Im a fan.
I had Dying Light a month prior to UK release and paid the same as physical.
I like to trade in though, so I generally only buy digital on games I really want.

@chris730920 Im with you there.
The reason, generally, physical is higher is due to overhead costs of a store.
The PSN is already paid for regardless of digital games, so a storefront is at minimum to no extra cost.
So I always did wonder why the cost was so high in many cases.

@FullbringIchigo ah I see, here's me thinking it was both Sony and the developer who negotiated the prices when the games were on offer 😊

I now buy all digital so I can't sell all of my games, like I will occasionally try to do in order to kick my video game hobby completely. So even if I sell my consoles, I'll still have my digital library waiting when I come back to my senses.

Take that, more mature future-self!

Is this about pre ordering digital games. Are we all morons??? Seriously if I don't rate retail pre orders, I really REALLY can't fathom why anybody would pre order digital. Get a grip people. If anybody does this take a long hard look in the mirror. Crazy.

If perhaps Sony did something similar to how sky let you buy a film and play it straight away and the box comes through the post a few days later and charged £50 for a new release I would be happy to go digitally more often.obviously £50 is slightly a bit too much for a film ofcourse

Digital game prices will kill the gaming industry one day i bet(once the day comes that the only way you can buy games is digitally) Well that is what i think I got Far Cry 4(PS4 disc) for £30 a few weeks back & it's still £54.99 on PSN?!?! Hmm

@bloodhound89 gifting games is really an awesome idea. I am 100% sure they will sell a boatload more games if you could gift them to someone. Maybe even send them as a birthday thing on a specific day (so not necrssarily the day you buy it) and with a personal message.

I buy all my games digitally, did on the PS3 too. As for games being more expensive digitally it varies. Sony have so many sales going on it's easy to get stuff cheaper than store prices if you have a little patience. I have Alien Isolation, Tomb Raider Definitive and Second Son waiting to be played having bought them in Sony Store sales far cheaper than the retail stores or Amazon are currently offering them for. If I really want a game early I'm willing to pay a bit more for convenience and the ability to play it earlier than anyone buying physical copies. But that's usually only for multiplayer games. With Single Player games I am willing to wait for the inevitable Sony sale. Patience is a virtue and not having to change discs is a godsend.

I don't prefer digital over physical and never will. Unless if I don't have a choice, which I might not have in the future. (Sadface)
There's nothing like that new game smell! :G

Why digital prices on new games are much more expensive is a mystery to me. Since it obviously must be cheaper to hand out a license than to actually include a disc, a cover and a case while sharing profits with the retailer.

Buying digital requires download bandwidth & time, Have to re-download when wanna replay, cannot resell... And we still have to pay more for it.. doesn't make sense...
I only do digital for smaller/indie games...

@thahammerman333 One of the common misconceptions of digital downloads is that there are no distribution costs. Whilst there are no physical distribution costs, actually getting that 20 to 50 GB download to your PS4 requires a lot of IT infrastructure. First you've got to store it somewhere. And that's not going to be a laptop or USB hard drive. You're talking fast, expensive, redundant SAN storage. And you'll need tens if not hundreds of copies around the world to ensure that people get a quick download.

Second, you need the web servers which will allow you to connect and download the software. Again, you're going to need a lot of redundancy built in to ensure these servers are always available, and people can get a connection as soon as they click into it. Again, hundreds of these will be dotted around the world to server everyone who owns a PS4, plus those connecting in through a web browser / their mobile phones.

Finally, you need the internet bandwidth to server the hundreds if not thousands of people who are going to be trying to download the product all at once. Think of how many people tried to download GTA V on release day! That's one hell of a lot of bandwidth required (and why it took so long for so many people that day).

I work as an IT architect, and when you add up the cost of all the above, it's extremely expensive. Cloud computing and utility pricing is driving these costs down, but given the very low price of manufacturing and distributing physical copies to stores (remember, games are very small and stack well, so distribution costs are minimised), I wouldn't be surprised if it still actually costs more to distribute digitally compared to physical copies at the moment.

@Splat Sony recently announced the shutdown for Playstation Mobile. Any games you bought through that digital store will no longer be downloadable soon. Walmart used to have an iTunes like service, shut down, no access to any of your music you bought there anymore. Sega used to sell game consoles. Imagine if Sega had a digital market place, how long do you think they would have kept it open? OnLive recently shut their doors, and customers will lose access to every digital title they bought. Digital means you lose access to your games at some arbitrary point in time when the platform holder decides its not worth letting you access them anymore. No thanks.

@thedevilsjester Ever heard of backing up your hard drive? It's easily done and allows you to reinstall lost games any time.

@Eldritch

This is a non solution for a number of reasons.

First you have to restore to the same system you backed up (so that system craps out, no replacing it). This is compounded when you have multiple systems in your house, you cant share.

Second, I have over 100 retail PS3 games and about 15 retail PS4 games. At the current size of the games (they are only going to get bigger) I would need many, many, HDDs.

Third, when you want to play a different game, instead of just grabbing the disc and playing, you have to find which of your HDDs has the system backup with that game, and then do a system restore.

So much for the convenience of digital.
For these reasons and many others, its not a viable solution.

@thedevilsjester Firstly although you cannot just swap over your hard drive to a new system the backups sync to the user and can therefore be placed on a new system.

Secondly I have around 75 games on my PS3's 1TB hard drive and there's plenty of room for more, not that I'm likely to buy any now I have the PS4.

My next purchase will be a 2TB hard drive for the PS4 which should be able to cope with 60 - 70 games. And with the sparce rate at which decent games are being released I think it's a fair while before I need to worry about running out of disc space. And I'm sure by then Sony will have implemented the ability to store games on an external drive.

Each to their own but I find all my games available, as soon as I turn on my PS, to be a better option for me.

@Eldritch a single point of failure for 70+ games? The number of HDDs I have had fail in the past 15 years is probably in the 20+ range, so thats not a very useful feature.

@Splat oh i fully agree plenty of reasons , love it too , , , right up until they bugga up stuff, like wolfenstien pre download, project cars pre download, pre download for wolfenstein started pre downloading at an hr b4 release here in australia for a whooping 40 gig nearly, yea right, and looks to be doing the same with project cars!, , so much for incentives, no wonder no one wants to touch the sh#@t

Digital is the way to go I'm tired of getting robbed trading 60$ games in and only getting 5 to 15$ back then the game stop turns around and sells my used copy for 40 to 50$ never again with digital I never worry about scratched lost or stolen disk I can delete and redownload as much as I want is perfect and when the next system comes out I can still sell my old system with every game with it for a great price to another person it's a win win especially when sony takes games off of psn but you can keep them on your console and they become rare commodities right now I have P.T on my ps4 sony took it off the network and people want it like crazy

heh, im in AU and im preordering Battlefront for AU$99 on the psn store, when JBHIFI (tech company) is selling it for AU$68. i would cancel and get the cheaper option, BUT, i spent AU$100 on psncards for the game, and that money would go to waste. inless, i get my mum to preorder Battlefront and i use the 100$ for PSPLUS 12months so it save her 70$ which so she doesnt lose anything, and it she actually saves, because i pay 10$ a month.