The high cost was never related to the plastic or distribution. Probably the entire DVD, case and booklet came in under $3. It has always been simply the price the publisher thought they could sell it for with regard to consumer demand.
Retailers get a cut. Digital lets them keep a bigger portion of the pie. Sony / MSFT are probably more likely to give them a bigger portion of the pie given that by releasing exclusively on consoles it will move more console sales (and thus other game sales on their platform) given how large this release is.
If consoles didn’t give them a sweetheart deal we would see a PC release day 1.
The high cost was never related to the plastic or distribution. Probably the entire DVD, case and booklet came in under $3. It has always been simply the price the publisher thought they could sell it for with regard to consumer demand.
Retailers get a cut. Digital lets them keep a bigger portion of the pie. Sony / MSFT are probably more likely to give them a bigger portion of the pie given that by releasing exclusively on consoles it will move more console sales (and thus other game sales on their platform) given how large this release is.
If consoles didn’t give them a sweetheart deal we would see a PC release day 1.