Downloading digital games for the Xbox One is more expensive than buying the discs in some cases, despite their being no physical product to manufacture, no distribution costs and no middle men. Thankfully it appears that Microsoft is well aware of the ridiculousness of the above paragraph is and is working on redressing the balance for gamers who wish to have instant access to new titles.
In the years since Valve launched its digital games distribution hub, Steam, the service has demonstrated that prices of video games could be drastically reduced by eliminating brick and mortar retailers as middle men. Anyone that doubts the extreme nature of the deep discounts available for PC games needs only to visit the Steam catalog during one of the legendary, record-breaking seasonal sales. With both Sony and Microsoft making an effort to beef up their respective digital stores on the PS4 and Xbox One, console gamers have been hoping that they would start to see the same kind of discounts that PC users have been enjoying for the past few years. So far, the savings have yet to make an appearance on next-gen consoles. As a matter of fact, Xbox One exclusive prices actually went up over the holiday season.