The cost of purchasing a new game: PCs, consoles, digital and retail

We’ve mentioned this before, and we’ll say it again: the Rand is in the ditch, although it is recovering somewhat, and gaming has gotten a lot more expensive for it.

Without wanting to scream and shout, ranting and raving usually being a specialty for us, we thought we’d put the new prices to the test – something practical for once.

Just how have new game purchases and pre-orders been affected by the clime of the Dollar.

Current Release Pricing

First up, purchasing currently released, but new, titles:

Unsurprisingly, PC games hold a solid lead over console games; that much hasn’t changed.

What has changed, however, is the overall price of PC games, which are at least R100 more than they were before the Rand tanked.

That said, the open platform nature of the PC means prices drop fairly quickly, outside of Activision games – because Activision.

Console games, unfortunately, have their prices lowered at a significantly slower rate, but this is largely because there are far fewer sales.

Still, R800 plus games many months after their release is an expensive proposition.

Pre-order Pricing

Here’s where the weaker Rand starts to really sting your backside and burn a whole in your wallet.

Rather unfortunately for PlayStation gamers, your PlayStation Plus discounts don’t affect pre-orders, so if you absolutely have to have the lowest prices, we recommend waiting for release.

The summation of all of the prices shows that PS4 is actually not a lot more expensive, for the most part at least, than Xbox One. There is a difference, though.

PC is unsurprisingly the cheapest, though a few games, Dark Souls III in particular, are very nearly the price of the console releases – that’s a disturbing aberration.

For those interested in differences in prices. There’s a difference of around R100 between retail and digital for Xbox One and PS4.

But, of course, many of you will purchase your preferred platform for the exclusives. The following table shows the price

Remember, retail outlets not only need a cut of the profits (a middle man), but there’s skill and labour put into manufacturing the disk and designing the art cover – that all costs money to do, which is passed down to the consumer.

What are your thoughts on the current state of prices in South Africa?

Have you recently bought anything you thought outrageously expensive, or that you thought was noticeably cheaper than you expected it to be?

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