reason posted...If anything, digital should be wholesale cost. If Amazon/Best Buy can sell a PHYSICAL copy for $45 then a digital should, at the very LEAST, be that price.
It's a delicate balancing act of making money and not pissing off retailers. So right now new AAA titles will never go for less than full msrp on Sony or Microsofts online services.
Simply put, retailers have to charge more as they have more overhead. If Sony or Microsoft came along and said "All digital games are now half the cost of their physical counterparts", there would be a potentially catastrophic backlash from the retailers.
The biggest problem right now is that Sony and Microsoft need someone to sell their hardware. Stores don't make much off the sale of a PS4 or Xbone, but they expect to make more money off the sales of games. If that's taken away, they won't really care about making their $10 on the sale of a console when it won't turn into more sales later.
If they can find a better way to get consoles into the hands of consumers, you can pretty much guarantee you'll see digital games cheaper (as Sony and Microsoft would love to see more money going directly into their pockets)
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Assassins do it from behind.