Op-Ed: Rip-Me-Off….On Demand

A couple of weeks ago Games on Demand was launched on Xbox LIVE all over the world, and after some initial excitement I smelled a rat.  A big, fat, dead, decomposing, maggot infested rat.

What if I want to buy a used car and the dealer gives me a decent price, then the manufacturer offers to sell me a stripped down version with no seat covers and no outside shell.  Just a cushion, steering wheel, four wheels and an engine.   Sure the car still works and it’ll still gets you where you need to go but it just doesn’t look as nice does it?  What if the manufacturer asks almost twice as much for this version than the dealership?  Why on Earth would I choose to buy this stripped down version and pay twice the amount if I can get the full deal for half the price?  Let me explain this in plainer terms.  Why would I buy a downloadable version of a game at twice the amount I would normally pay for a copy in a store that comes in a case, complete with manual and on a physical format?

If there’s one thing I simply hate it’s got to be overpricing, be it in stores or online.  I just can’t stand it when a shop or online service puts an extra high premium on a certain product, even though its available for €10 less elsewhere.  Of course then you might say it’s easy to just go to another shop or website and purchase said item for a lower price, but how else can you acquire a downloadable version of a 360 game?

I’ve ended up thinking that it’s probably best to go and research this, so off I went and checked the stores in my local area and each and every one of them charges at least €5 less for each title that Games on Demand offer.  Heck more than fifty percent of the games I managed to find in stores, that are also on Games on Demand, don’t even cost me nearly half as much as I’d have to pay over Xbox Live.  Here in Amsterdam, each title on the service costs me exactly €29.99, which is about $43 for you Americans, be it Prey or Need for Speed: Pro Street, Kameo or Battlefield: Bad Company.  Yes, seemingly each game the service offers is the same price, and yes you did see a launch title Kameo listed there…

Now here comes the crazy part.  Like our readers in the States will probably know, on their store there is a difference between the pricing of titles.  Even though the prices are still on the high side, the American Games on Demand service has older games priced $10 lower than newer games.  So whilst we get to pay €29.99 for the privilege of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on demand, in the states gamers are only asked to pay $19.99 – which equates to €14!  That’s right!  Only half the price of what we would-be-suckers in Europe are asked to pay!  That’s Europe by the way folks, not the United Kingdom because although they pay the same price for all their games – they only have to pay £19.99 (€23 or $33).  Oh and the most expensive game on the US marketplace is only $29.99 (€21 and £18).

So, dearest Microsoft who I’ve given a great deal of my cash to, I have one question.  What the hell is going on here?