Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2019, 1:33 pm
If I'm wrong here, I'll happily stand corrected as I'm only guessing, but wouldn't it not make a difference when buying a game physically whether it was full price or in a sale, to the devs. The shop would buy so many at a given price, and that's when the devs get paid isn't it? The amount of money the devs recieve wouldn't depend on the price the shop then decided to sell the product at, would it? Digitally I can totally see how that could make a difference, but using Yakuza as an example, surely it wouldn't make a difference to Sega whether I bought Yakuza Zero physically for £49.99 or £15 in a sale?
I suppose the shop would then judge how many copies it was worth buying to sell next time maybe which I guess may affect things, I'm not sure how it works really.
It actually depends. A lot of "sales", such as when a slate of newer Ubisoft releases go on at the same time, or when everyone has PS4 controllers $30 off, these are actually part of a rebate program. EA and Ubisoft in particular are extremely reliable for their rebates - paying full price for Ass Creed or Battlefield is irrational, because they will always go on for $20 off within 3 months of release. The trick here is that EA and Ubi both have heavy microtransactions and seasonal releases (esp. with FIFA, NHL, etc.). But have no doubt, these are exactly the same sort of calculated manufacturer rebates as on PC parts.
Interestingly, if you look at how Square-Enix does similar rebates, it actually reveals their corporate structure a little bit... The Eidos branch of their business frequently rebates their newer titles - your Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc. But the Japan end of the business is *extremely stingy* with rebates, with their titles often only going on sale due to poor sales relative to copies shipped(Bravely Second and Lightning Returns being two examples that come to mind).
When it comes to a game having poor sales (again, relative to stock), the discounts tend to be less predictable and the retailer is taking a hit. Back when I worked at EB Games, Mercenaries 2 was like, the textbook example. Every location had dozens of copies, and even discounted to $8.97 brand new, they wouldn't move stock. The last store I worked at had to destroy something like 36 copies of that game.
Mirror's Edge was a similar case, which is why I'm shocked it ever got a sequel at all. I think my store received something like 250 copies on each console, and after a couple months, we had so many freaking copies we stashed them on shelves mounted up near the ceiling, where they sat until it went on clearance for $9.89 for Boxing Day the same year it launched. Prince of Persia was a similar situation, though not quite as bad.
You probably weren't expecting such a lengthy response, but I really wanted to highlight just how dubious sales figures can be. Like. Whatever VG Chartz has for Mirror's Edge numbers, I'd be shocked if even 10% of those sold for full price. And something like Resident Evil 6, something stores STILL have brand new PS360 copies of for like $10, that "11 million sold" number is guaranteed BS. Would quite seriously not be shocked if 2-3 million of those are still inventory.