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Originally Posted by JostVice Hey Tony, just curious how digital game stores work: you actually buy a number of keys from the publisher or how does it work?

This, I'm curious about it too, I thought the store buys a lot of keys at a reduced price first so they can make discounts on the sale.

Originally Posted by Genocidal That last post wasn't referencing The Sims in particular, but the same idea applies.

People have been asking specific questions about games throughout this thread. Sometimes Tony answers, sometimes he says we're still talking to publishers.

I'm just trying to give my business to Amazon...

And I gotta be honest, some of the hostility I've seen between people on this thread is starting to turn me off on how I feel about purchasing from Amazon, particularly the mini-Tonyies yelling at other Amazon customers. So far I've defaulted to buying from Amazon and racking up $170, in large part because of the marketing strategy Tony employed. Now I'm having to wade through a lot of ugly posts, getting snark for posting a question to a marketing employee of a company, and feeling generally unpleasant about my purchasing experience...

Screw it, buying this one from Steam regardless.

I love bundles, Id love a Sonic bundle that just had the 16bit games through to the DC games, not the first time Ive mentioned it this thread, Tony if you make it happen I will have your babies.

Re: keys. I don't believe they 'pre-buy' a set amount of keys. Rather, a publisher provides a set amount of keys and the revenue is split accordingly on each sale.

I prefer smaller bundles, but I'm getting to the point that there aren't a lot of games that Amazon carries that I still want. My library has grown to the point that I'm only buying games I'm desperately in love with or are priced at 75% off or more.

The stuff I desperately want is typically new, and I almost always buy it from GMG because they have the best pre-order prices by far. The only new game I've ever bought from Amazon was Battlefield 3 and you guys ran like, a 42 dollar pre-order promo on it or something.

I think Amazon DVG is pretty much the best at everything but new release pre-order incentives. There you guys are about average. You probably don't have the pricing freedom that GreenManGaming does, so my suggestion would be to work in your strengths to supplement your weaknesses.

Example: Tomb Raider is coming out this year. It's been $35 dollars or lower on GMG a lot. I realize you guys can't meet that price. But you could get it at $45 and offer older Tomb Raider games free at the time of pre-purchase to make up that $10 difference. If I feel like catching up on new releases that I haven't played the old entries of, that deal becomes very enticing, because I'll be able to do that while I wait to play the new one I've already bought without paying anything extra.

Originally Posted by Mooby Re: keys. I don't believe they 'pre-buy' a set amount of keys. Rather, a publisher provides a set amount of keys and the revenue is split accordingly on each sale.

Must make what's going on behind the scenes between GG and Bethesda pretty interesting then...

Any ideas on how much Syndicate is going to be? I got one more EC credit after buying Desert to Sea and Hotline Miami.

Originally Posted by Tolyngee Must make what's going on behind the scenes between GG and Bethesda pretty interesting then...

Understatement of the year... well of 2012 at least

Originally Posted by Tolyngee Must make what's going on behind the scenes between GG and Bethesda pretty interesting then...

That's why my thinking is they don't pre-buy keys. If that were the case Bethesda and 2K wouldn't care. They would already have their money by virtue of GG 'buying' the keys so both publishers would shrug if off: 'we sold you the keys and it's your fault you goofed up and re-sold them at a loss.'

A 'per-sale/transaction' case invites the ire of publishers for selling their IP off at a 'loss' to them -- they obviously don't actually lose money but it's more of a lost-sale-at-X-price sort of thing.

Originally Posted by JostVice Hey Tony, just curious how digital game stores work: you actually buy a number of keys from the publisher or how does it work?

Originally Posted by Estbarul This, I'm curious about it too, I thought the store buys a lot of keys at a reduced price first so they can make discounts on the sale.

They make payment upon sale, here's the quote.

Originally Posted by Amazon DVG Deals FYI there are several parts of this statement that are 100% untrue: 1. Because, in the digital marketplace, we have no inventory, we don't "buy keys" we get keys and make payment upon sale. There is no unhealthy inventory that needs to be liquidated. So there are no Bioshock keys "to dump". Cheers, Tony

so...
apparently hitman: absolution is 23gb
i'm pretty sad
need to figure out how to download it
what to uninstall...
how is skyrim and the dlc only 10gb?

Originally Posted by tham1988 Dark Souls is not THAT hard (the key is remembering that leveling your character scales enemies, but leveling your equipment doesn't) Also, when you die, it is fun, some of the most fun i have had in recent years is getting killed in crazy ways its kind of like the first time you get your head cut off by the dude with the chainsaw in resident evil 4 except it happens more often (the big thing that sold me on dark souls over demon'e souls is that every time you die in darksouls, you go back to a checkpoint with a certain number of health items you never run out of health items so it is never impossible Dark Souls is AMAZING!

Hrm... Dark Souls doesn't have level scaling.

Originally Posted by Mooby That's why my thinking is they don't pre-buy keys. If that were the case Bethesda and 2K wouldn't care. They would already have their money by virtue of GG 'buying' the keys so both publishers would shrug if off: 'we sold you the keys and it's your fault you goofed up and re-sold them at a loss.' A 'per-sale/transaction' case invites the ire of publishers for selling their IP off at a 'loss' to them -- they obviously don't actually lose money but it's more of a lost-sale-at-X-price sort of thing.

I figured GG was negotiating a lower rate on the remaining keys needed to fulfill the partially-fulfilled orders.

I still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that apparently GG (according to their CEO) is the largest DD on the planet.

Originally Posted by nosferatu51 I wouldn't trust them right now..... too much shenanigans going on. I know I will likely never use them again.

Why? Because they didn't honor obvious pricing errors? Personally, I love it when hoarders are denied. Which is primarily who got in on that deal. People on Slickdeals bragging they bought 50 Bethesda packs. I am sure it happened here too. I just didn't waste the time reading the GamersGate thread here.

Originally Posted by nategator This is exactly what I mean. What a crappy thing for a customer to have to read. I know Tony doesn't control any other people on this thread, but he chooses this method of delivery so it's hard not to be annoyed at the situation, as a paying customer, although definitely not with this particular purchase.

Seriously dude, stop whining. This is a forum of rabid game buyers, not amazon customer service. If you act like an ass ppl will call you out for it.

I've actually started to wonder is Tony is really a group of amazonianites, because based upon how often he actually answers questions, complaints, etc, he can't possibly sleep, and certainly isn't having sex as no woman would put up with his dedication.

And yes Tony, I would really like to know

Originally Posted by Tolyngee I figured GG was negotiating a lower rate on the remaining keys needed to fulfill the partially-fulfilled orders. I still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that apparently GG (according to their CEO) is the largest DD on the planet.

As I think someone mentioned before, they meant the 'largest' in terms of games they offer/inventory which is probably true.

Originally Posted by Iron Angel Any ideas on how much Syndicate is going to be? I got one more EC credit after buying Desert to Sea and Hotline Miami.

None.

Nategator for Worst New Poster of 2012. His prize is a copy of Toilet Tycoon.

Originally Posted by Mooby Nategator for Worst New Poster of 2012. His prize is a copy of Toilet Tycoon.

I don't know about that. There are a lot of awful new, and old, posters in this thread.

Originally Posted by Mooby As I think someone mentioned before, they meant the 'largest' in terms of games they offer/inventory which is probably true.

Yeah, I can't be bothered to look up the interview again but the CEO made it pretty clear that he was speaking in terms of catalog size, not sales or revenue. I think he said they carried something like 4,000 titles. Awesome if you're into Euro-Toenail Clipper Simulator 2009.