Diablo III pre sale far too expensive

[Imnick]

It's pretty simple really if you think about it.
Blizzard sells directly to customers from their site, however they also sell to retailers. They will get far more money from the retailers than they do directly from customers, because stores will buy copies of Diablo III in bulk and after that Blizzard just have their money regardless of whether the purchased copies are bought from the store shelves or not.
The retailers pay less than customers do because otherwise the retailers would make no profit and thus wouldn't bother buying the game to resell, so they probably pay something in the region of $30 to sell at $40.
Now, Blizzard also want to sell the game themselves, but if they price it at less than what retailers are offering then the retailers will stop buying hard copies from them because everyone would buy it online as it would be both cheaper and more convenient. The digital version's price is kept high because otherwise there would be no hard copies at all, and that is where a great deal of Blizzard's income comes from.

It is fairly confusing for the customer, yes, but while a physical market still exists then it is really the only way to operate.

[stuck4cash]

Cry me a river.

Games in Australia are $100-120. Our current exchange rate is 1USD = 0.94AUD so our games are double (or more!) than games in the US. Even compared to the Euro (1Euro = 1.2AUD) we're 1.5 times the price.

[Charge me Doctor]

The game will almost always be cheaper in stores than online, it is done this way for a reason. They jack their prices up to encourage people to shop at a brick a mortar, the stores are their #1 buyers and suppliers, if they undercut them they are just going to stop carrying their games, something they don't want.

kinda this, also, on release, all games costs more. So, you can get it cheaper if you will wait for ~2 months after release, go to shop, and buy it. If you want to play NAOW, you have to pay. Or you should get annual pass. Oh i remember people bitched about "paying whole year for WoW account and getting free diablo is BS" and now they wine about D3 prices -.-

BUT! again, i don't know anyone who has problems with paying 60eur once a year for a game that will enjoy them
and i saw comercial on the internet about russian diablo preorder costs 999rub (~~33$).

[Shruikah]

Cry me a river.

Games in Australia are $100-120. Our current exchange rate is 1USD = 0.94AUD so our games are double (or more!) than games in the US. Even compared to the Euro (1Euro = 1.2AUD) we're 1.5 times the price.

Agreed, the prices in Australia are ridiculous. Diablo 3 is $80 AUD and the collectors is $140 AUD

[Lysah]

How much will Heart of the Swarm cost?
We typically don’t provide details about pricing until the game is closer to release. We do view Heart of the Swarm as an expansion set, so for the regions that have a standard box business model such as North America and Europe, we will price accordingly. For other regions that have alternative business models, we’ll provide details at a later date.

This isn't ambiguous at all =p

[Caiada]

This isn't ambiguous at all =p

I know, they're kind of being intentionally vague there in case of changes or regions, etc., but I can't think of an expansion set in recent time that's been priced differently, nor any reason why D3 expansions would be different. Not that I'd be too surprised either, but still...

[celinamuna]

Everybody who likes Blizzard seems to forget that it's a business.

If they sold a long anticipated game - 10 years in the making for $10 do you really think they'd make desirable profits? Besides $60 is normal range for video games nowadays@.

This. Esp bolded pat.

[salkz]

Got the game for 47€ which is considerably 'ok' price for this game. 60€ is way too much in my opinion.
After all, I am a student and don't have time for a job since most of my time goes on studying (like really, MOST of my time).

[Kittahsmash]

You're complaining because a BRAND NEW GAME is the exact same cost as other brand new games? What in the heck is wrong with you

[Deleted]

Yes the limit i pay for a fun and enjoying game play is 50 euro.60 ish or more is nice for collector editions.This price range for me is not acceptable.

Tell us why you can afford 50€ but all of a sudden 10€ more is a lot expensive? Oo
And lol @ getting CE's for 60€ on release day

[malkara]

Yes the limit i pay for a fun and enjoying game play is 50 euro.60 ish or more is nice for collector editions.This price range for me is not acceptable.

Guess you are not going to play new 'AAA' games when they come out then, which is fine if it is your choice. Do not however expect prices to drop due to your unacceptability of €60.

[Joxer]

Haters gonna hate...

As soon as the official release was announced, i went out and bought the digital copy of the game..
I even got it pre-ordered in a normal store, but i rather have it available to me as soon as its out..
And the 60 Euro was worth it for me..

[Deleted]

Why this expensive price tag for a good franchise
I wanted to try out diablo as a complete new player bud now i see the price tag of this game 60 euro what is far to expensive to even consider buying this.
This price tag is insane.Its around the price of collector edition game realy asking 60 euro out of the go with no aditional feature's is just to expensive.
I was expecting it to be around 40-50 euro.
Who else thinks this is insane priced.I will not buy diablo untill i see a normal price range.
Im realy looking at that price tag.
(No wonder people go pirate game's)

so ur guna pass the greatest game coming out this year just cuz it costs 10 euros too much?

[Hyve]

So glad I got the Annual Pass \o/

[Slappers]

There are too many here that thinks that 60$ and 60 Euros are the same, but still, 60 euros isn't that expensive? I've paid about 50 euros for big titles since I can't remember how long. People talking about Annual Pass, you aren't getting the game for free, you have to pay for WoW for a year. For those who don't play WoW anymore and just want D3, it's cheaper to buy it alone, rather than paying for an annual pass for a game they have no interest of playing.

[volar]

This. Esp bolded pat.

No its not normal. I recently bought Mass Effect 3, SWTOR, Battlefield 3 and the witcher 2, none of these games were prices above 52 euros.
Maybe its normal for console games to be priced 60 or higher but its not normal for PC games at all.

Blizzard is just looking how much it can get for a game and most fanboys just blindly fall for it. They're becoming the Apple of the gaming market

[outflow]

Free is cheap to me

[Maelle]

So glad I got the Annual Pass \o/

Yup, it's one less thing to think about buying!

[Deleted]

snip

D3 will be (kind of) unpiratable like WoW. The only way will probably be private servers.
That means if you want to be part of the community / ladder / real money AH (and that's most of what D3 is about) you will have to buy the game.

Furthermore D3 has a huge fanbase so they don't need to expand the audience to get their investements back.

Let's look at the 3 possible outcomes:

1.) The game becomes a classic.
This means that the game will retain much of it's value (similar to D2). The good press and friends already playing it will attract more players independant of price.

2.) The game scores moderately.
This means D3 will slowly lose value and after 3-6 months be available for 10-20 USD/EUR cheaper than it originally was. You can always pick it up then.

3.) The game flops.
This seems unlikely considering it's made by Blizzard but it could happen after all the hype. Their profit from the presales to the fanbase (who do not care how much it costs) will probably make them a ton of profit even if most everyone quits right after.

Conclusion:
Blizzard profits largely from a high starting price (especially in outcome 3). It basically reduces their investement risk to nothing.

TL;DR:
Once the fanbase is big enough you can charge whatever and people will still buy it by the bundle. The best example are apple products.

[Deleted]

Imo most games today are crap and dont worth paying more than 10 euros. You pay 40 euros for a game you play 1 day or 1 week depending on your playstyle you reach the end of the game and then you feel like a moron for wasting your money. For a full game that might keep you entertained for more than a week you have to pay 40 euros for the game and then 1000000 euros for all the crappy dlcs. So 60 euros for a full game that wont have dlcs and all that crap thats in developement for more than 5 years at least i think its ok.