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What's the digital download gonna cost?


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Wondering what the DL will cost for CMBN?

Gotta scrape some quick Ebay money together so I know what my target will be for the release. Can't get the hard goods for a while.

Mord.

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Well i wouldnt be expecting to get a price quote on a digital download yet, cuz they wont even give us a release date yet!!!! However they may be more concerned about taking your money than giving you a product so then again maybe they will give you a price.

as i learned here and on the official website, they maybe will say "something arround 62 usd or a few dollars more :)

dont ask me what this can mean .... "a few" looks like a very wide range here

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I thought I read somewhere where the price will be 55$ for digital download only.

Yup, you read right.

$55 for "download only"

$55 + S&H for "Mail only"

$65 + S&H for "Download & Mail"

The pre-order offer is like "Download & Mail" above, but costs $60 + S&H.

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As much as I love the CM games, there's something I don't understand about this, although it isn't limited to Battlefront - Steam and all the other digital download platforms do this as well.

If I'm paying $55 for a physical copy, with box, CD, and printed manuals, shouldn't the digital download which includes no physical components (and thus saving BF money) be at least a few dollars cheaper?

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As much as I love the CM games, there's something I don't understand about this, although it isn't limited to Battlefront - Steam and all the other digital download platforms do this as well.

If I'm paying $55 for a physical copy, with box, CD, and printed manuals, shouldn't the digital download which includes no physical components (and thus saving BF money) be at least a few dollars cheaper?

Server upkeep I guess. Hosting files is not free, but whether it's in the same cost category I don't know.

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Server upkeep I guess. Hosting files is not free, but whether it's in the same cost category I don't know.

I can almost assure you that the cost in bandwidth to download 1.6 gigs of data is substantially less than printing a couple hundred page manual, press and silkscreen a CD, and produce a box.*

*Unless you are downloading off an AT&T cell phone plan perhaps...

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As much as I love the CM games, there's something I don't understand about this, although it isn't limited to Battlefront - Steam and all the other digital download platforms do this as well.

If I'm paying $55 for a physical copy, with box, CD, and printed manuals, shouldn't the digital download which includes no physical components (and thus saving BF money) be at least a few dollars cheaper?

do you ?

i thought the preload price ist 60 usd + mail.

all in all it also belongs to your homeplace. if you are played f.e. in europe, you pay 60+20+ 19% import tax + custom >>> all in all over 100 usd.

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do you ?

i thought the preload price ist 60 usd + mail.

all in all it also belongs to your homeplace. if you are played f.e. in europe, you pay 60+20+ 19% import tax + custom >>> all in all over 100 usd.

Yup, you read right.

$55 for "download only"

$55 + S&H for "Mail only"

$65 + S&H for "Download & Mail"

The pre-order offer is like "Download & Mail" above, but costs $60 + S&H.

I read above as $55 for a printed copy only, and $55 for digital download only (not pre-order).

My point being, a digital only download should be a few dollars less than a physical copy which costs more to produce.

The whole argument that gaming industry made back when they were first starting digital only distribution was that by eliminating the physical media, they could cut costs, and therefore pass the savings on to the consumer.

Not that I'm whining that much, I still buy a lot of digital games via Steam and will buy CMN probably via digital, but it just seems from a logic standpoint that digital-only should cost at least a little less.

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I read above as $55 for a printed copy only, and $55 for digital download only (not pre-order).

My point being, a digital only download should be a few dollars less than a physical copy which costs more to produce.

The whole argument that gaming industry made back when they were first starting digital only distribution was that by eliminating the physical media, they could cut costs, and therefore pass the savings on to the consumer.

Not that I'm whining that much, I still buy a lot of digital games via Steam and will buy CMN probably via digital, but it just seems from a logic standpoint that digital-only should cost at least a little less.

ok ... then use my counting and reduce the result of about 5 dollars, then it fits :)

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I can understand the cost of shipping this to Europe with all the additional costs, but I am really hard pressed to fork over $60 for digital download (or even $55 for that matter).

It's more of a stand I have against game manufacturers pushing the $49.99 boundary ever since consoles came about, and has nothing to do with Battlefront at all, but $60 before S&H, no thanks.

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I can understand the cost of shipping this to Europe with all the additional costs, but I am really hard pressed to fork over $60 for digital download (or even $55 for that matter).

It's more of a stand I have against game manufacturers pushing the $49.99 boundary ever since consoles came about, and has nothing to do with Battlefront at all, but $60 before S&H, no thanks.

as almost all other companies, they take what they can, if they know people will pay it.

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I can understand the cost of shipping this to Europe with all the additional costs, but I am really hard pressed to fork over $60 for digital download (or even $55 for that matter).

It's more of a stand I have against game manufacturers pushing the $49.99 boundary ever since consoles came about, and has nothing to do with Battlefront at all, but $60 before S&H, no thanks.

I don't have a problem with paying 50-60 for a quality game, as all of the BF games I have bought have been.

My contention is that a physical media product costs considerably more to produce (CD, manuals, packaging, warehousing), than a bunch of 1's and 0's ;)

Edit: Before anyone brings it up, I know that the production cost of the game (ie programming) is the same regardless of the delivery method. I'm talking about the cost after the fact - the cost to produce and ship a physical copy of the game, vs the cost to host a download online.

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as almost all other companies, they take what they can, if they know people will pay it.
I understand, I don't think there is anything wrong with a supply/demand model. All I am saying is that it is beyond what I am prepared to pay, I'll wait to see if the price drops to my line-in-the-sand eventually
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Pushing the 49,99 boundary? I remember paying 100 $ for a game 20 years ago, and those dollars were quite a bit more expensive (in time it cost me to earn them) then they are today.

As to the manual and printing: printing isnt entirely free, but it is almost. The cost is in the putting together of the manual, the proofreading, the formatting, etc. This is regardless of the format it is delivered in. The actual cost of putting the resulting file on paper is just a dollar, a dollar 50, if you have a run of more then 1500 (the size of the run, regarding value for money depends a bit on paper used, print method and cover used). It might be even less now, my dad had a publishing bussiness, but he stopped about ten years ago.

Costs go up for handling, warehousing, shipping and wholesale discounts (for books the regular bookstores want a discount of about 40% of the recommended price - of course depending on how famous you are as writer).

So the same price for the game, regardless of it being download or physical isnt that strange - the actual difference in cost for the publisher is actually small (in the order of 2-4 dollar I would guess, depending on the size of the run) as long as S&H is covered seperate.

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as almost all other companies, they take what they can, if they know people will pay it.

That's Capitalism baby!! The little engine that provides the greatest amount of goods and services for the least money.

Martin, Steve and the gang gotta get paid. But, in return they give us gooey game goodness with a rich chocolate center.

:)

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I don't have a problem with paying 50-60 for a quality game, as all of the BF games I have bought have been.

My contention is that a physical media product costs considerably more to produce (CD, manuals, packaging, warehousing), than a bunch of 1's and 0's ;)

Edit: Before anyone brings it up, I know that the production cost of the game (ie programming) is the same regardless of the delivery method. I'm talking about the cost after the fact - the cost to produce and ship a physical copy of the game, vs the cost to host a download online.

So if the production cost of the game is $55 then are you saying $60 for hard goods is too cheap? By your logic BF should be charging $80-$100 for the pre-orders.

The way I look at it, the production costs are $55 and BF is giving me a sweet deal by selling the hard goods for $5 more. That must be why I jumped on the pre-order the first day. ;)

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That's Capitalism baby!! The little engine that provides the greatest amount of goods and services for the least money.

Martin, Steve and the gang gotta get paid. But, in return they give us gooey game goodness with a rich chocolate center.

:)

all in all, i dont feel 55 usd ist to much for such game.

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As to the manual and printing: printing isnt entirely free, but it is almost. The cost is in the putting together of the manual, the proofreading, the formatting, etc. This is regardless of the format it is delivered in. The actual cost of putting the resulting file on paper is just a dollar, a dollar 50, if you have a run of more then 1500 (the size of the run, regarding value for money depends a bit on paper used, print method and cover used). It might be even less now, my dad had a publishing bussiness, but he stopped about ten years ago.

<snipped>

So the same price for the game, regardless of it being download or physical isnt that strange - the actual difference in cost for the publisher is actually small (in the order of 2-4 dollar I would guess, depending on the size of the run) as long as S&H is covered seperate.

While I understand that print runs in quantity can realize a sizable discount, if the cost to the publisher to produce a printed manual (and I mean a real manual, not a 2 page quick install card that most companies put in now) was virtually negligible then you'd still see them in games (God I love my Falcon 4 ring binder!).

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