f13.net

So I played for a few weeks in December and then let my trial expire, mostly for lack of free time.  Now I'm thinking of getting back in.  I go to my turbine account and they want to charge me $39.99 for a digital download.  Technically I already have the download, so they're really charging me 40 bones to flip a bit in my account settings.  I understand they want an up-front fee and all.  But when I go to Amazon, I see they're selling the physical Moria box for $29.99.  And I've read that people are getting it at Best Buy for $25.

That's just stupid.  How can Amazon undercut the company who makes the game, especially when they have to actually send me a box and Turbine just has to poke their database?  It's enough to turn me off the whole project.  Stupid, stupid.

Virtually every form of digital distribution does this.  I can only assume it's greed or mismanagement.  Steam is about the only one that actually runs 'sales' on their digital downloads. 

Hell, Age of Conan actually charges $2.99 if you need to download it ON TOP of the game. 

Right, but even Steam typically charges more than you pay in-store when not on special offer. IIRC, Steam wanted £10 more than I paid for DoW2 on release day.

And now that I've registered the game with Steam, I can still download it again if I need to.  :uhrr:

Steam at least has to take their cut.

If Turbine charged me $25, their profit on that sale would be. . $24.  Because it costs them almost nothing to 'sell me the game' by giving me an access code.  They don't even have to pay for bandwidth, since I already downloaded the trial.  The credit card processing fee would be just about it.

On the other hand, if I buy it from Best Buy for $25, BB will take its cut ($4-5?  Total guess), plus they actually had to press a disc and produce all of the goop in the box. . instruction manual, etc.  Then ship it to Best Buy.  Maybe another $3.  So now their profit $17.

So they're losing $7 a sale to make me drive to Best Buy and fill up landfills with crap I don't want.

Brilliant business model.

Steam's cut should be no more than BB's, or any other retail store's.

But yeah, I agree with what you're saying on Turbine. If it isn't greed (sorry - a 'convenience surcharge'), then perhaps they have an agreement with the likes of BB not to sell lower than price X and undercut them? I have no idea if agreements like that exist.

They do that cause otherwise the B&M retailers would get all pissy and stop carrying the boxes.

And no sooner do I point out the foolishness (okay, over a month later) and I can get the serial for 10 bones.  Take that, you brick&mortar beeyotches.

Signing up this eve.

Brandywine.

Indeed.  One of my dudes (Snowbones) is still in the kinship from the trial.