not once did i claim steam has
competition. "steam has alternatives" doesn't need to imply that these alternatives are any good, but if steam started ripping you off then there's absolutely other places to go on a pc; not so much if microsoft is ripping you off on your microsoft-locked console with no way to buy things not sold by microsoft.
i'm just going to be honest, these have not much to do with anything i said. digital and physical co-exist but don't necessarily have to compete; there simply being two markets, one of which is bogged down by the real world and contracts rather than potentially a single keyboard, in addition to a kind-of tertiary market that basically doesn't give a toss about what the big company wants, largely stops price abuse from happening. discs going wipe two of those out.
i also never claimed that physical was somehow holding back charging $80 for a game, because claiming so would make fuck all sense? your own price parity argument removes this (physical stopping a price rise) as a possibility anyway; microsoft just gets the retailers to charge $80 and nothing changes other than people getting angrier about price rises (which is almost entirely unrelated
except that second-hand games get even more attractive given digital storefronts' tendency to not adjust prices "properly"with time).
i genuinely don't know what you're saying here. if you just so happen to start checking out a game when it's on sale and then go to a second-hand shop when it isn't on sale, and the prices aren't very different, no shit you're not seeing value in the second-hand shop and conclude it's not better. games are almost always not on offer (playstation games particularly), so in that almost-always time, second-hand shops are the better deal both in immediate financial cost and resale down the line. i looked at a few examples (uk, so mileage may vary, and bear in mind CeX and eBay aren't even thought of that highly in terms of bargains):
- God of War Ragnorok PS5 - £43.39 (on offer, usually £70) on PS store, £38 in CeX, ~£30 eBay
- Demon's Souls PS5 - £70 on PS store, £25 in CeX, ~£23 eBay
- Pokemon SV (disgusting) - £50 on EShop, £38 in CeX, £25 on eBay (admittedly i didn't spend much time on eBay here due to 80% of listing being individual mon sales, but both were at £25 within the first 5 of the first page)
- Elden Ring - £50 in PS store / Microsoft store, £35 Xbox £40 PS5 CeX, £25 eBay
admittedly it's late as i write this and all of these are big releases, and i couldn't really be asked to look at indie games because the ones i did look for had shockingly low physcial presence for some reason (celeste in particular; all i could find on ps4 were limited run sealed boxes for £50+), but come on you know claiming they're rarely cheaper is complete bollocks. all common sense points to it being the case that they are cheaper. i also found rac rift apart for a whole £18 second hand while it's still full price on ps5 storefront so lol.
ok... and? i'm not disagreeing with you, but i also don't understand how this can be used as an excuse to downplay actual theft.
"sold back to you" never meant someone booting your door in, taking your disc drive, and then charging money for you to have it back. it's companies taking stuff off of the thing they sell to you initially (quite literally charging more for less thing) and then charging you again to end up with the same amount of thing as before. these are nothing more than financial transactions yet feel nothing less than a slap in the face from fat pricks in chairs; the entire argument is that it's a dick move even if they are allowed to do it.
put simply, people like having stuff. pixels on a screen saying you're entitled to use some software is not having stuff. companies want to keep moving towards that way because they're greedy bastards, so the fear (in context to physical) has never been "they'll take stuff away" but rather "they'll stop giving us the stuff". especially in an area like digital licences, which frankly nobody understands and are drowning in small print, it's understandable that people don't like corporate twats with fat pockets essentially being in complete and utter control of what they're allowed to play/own; "they'll take stuff away" may, and in many peoples' minds does, apply here.
