Why don't companies just sell CD keys?

T

Tribalbob

Contributor
Veteran XV
think about it. how many games lately have you gotten off of torrents? that costs the producer nothing in overhead. retail has both production & store overhead costs, something like Steam has major bandwidth and server maintanence costs... but when you get something over a torrent, except perhaps for the initial seeding bandwidth (which you could run off a fucking cable line) it costs the company nothing.

so say you go and get quake 4 off a torrent. but you can't play online because of no CD key, right? just buy one! $10-15 for a cd key, that's $10-15 cash that goes STRAIGHT TO THE COMPANY'S POCKETS.

it's like how napster is legal now, and the success of things like itunes. why not legalize this form of piracy and implement a way to make money off it.
 
this has been brought up before, but as corporations are stupid fuckers it has never been put in action really.
 
pretty sure they'll lose money by only selling cd keys for 15 bucks.You would think compared to everything that goes into making a game, shipping+ect is relatively low.
 
umm
that $15 is supposed to cover THE ENTIRE COST OF PRODUCING THE GAME
ie staff cost?

wtf are you stupid?
 
Mafo said:
umm
that $15 is supposed to cover THE ENTIRE COST OF PRODUCING THE GAME
ie staff cost?

wtf are you stupid?
Click to expand...

how much of that $50 do you think actually gets back to the company? maybe $20? also include increased sales due to both lower cost and no supply issues. i couldn't buy civ4 because it was sold out.

and the problem with steam is that it's all done off of valves servers, thereby costing them money.
 
because not everyone knows how to use newsgoups and torrents and they can make more charging $40-50 for the game because of "higher packaging costs"

and not everyone plays online. a lot of poeple do singleplayer.
 
ayzianboy said:
because not everyone knows how to use newsgoups and torrents and they can make more charging $40-50 for the game because of "higher packaging costs"

and not everyone plays online. a lot of poeple do singleplayer.
Click to expand...
 
they could say, lost cd key? buy new for 15 dollars
gives them SOME profit off of warez
and people who will buy will probably buy off stores anyways
 
Remember how ThraxPanda said that in T:V they used non-automatic inventory stations because the automatic ones tested poorly in focus groups due to a lack of player-interaction and feedback with the inventory station?

That's why.

People like buying things, especially when they are shiny and fresh-off-the-shelf. If the industry started making it obvious that when you buy software you are licensing intellectual property instead of "buying a game" people would start feeling ripped off and buy less and also pirate more.

Customers need a positive physical interaction with a concrete object in order to psychologically justify a purchase.

Of course this leaves the non-retarded people out in the cold because we aren't the demographic with the loosest wallets.
 
TribalBob is completely right... instead of paying millions of $$$ on stocking shelves throughout the country, make a game completely available off torrents and maybe a dedicated download (a couple of servers... not expensive at all) and then let people buy CDKeys online. This way, they can pocket all the money and charge less for the game (less overhead from all the other crap)... it's a win-win situation
 
Forensic said:
Remember how ThraxPanda said that in T:V they used non-automatic inventory stations because the automatic ones tested poorly in focus groups due to a lack of player-interaction and feedback with the inventory station?
Click to expand...

remember when ThraxPanda told us how awesome T:V was
 
ayzianboy said:
remember when ThraxPanda told us how awesome T:V was
Click to expand...

yep, and then it sucked dick

and then i downloaded an autoaim and changed my name to ayzianboy and went on 5150e and whored down slut over and over and taunted him teehee and then he made a thread
 
Steam Silver was a better buy than retail iirc. Yes I agree that on-line prices are too much compared to retail particularly music.

but not by that much
 
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