Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam : $50

• Sold direct from the creators (Valve), no middle men.
• No physical packaging or disc.
• No rent, no shipping, no inventory, no store employees, and no shoplifting.

Left 4 Dead 2 at Gamestop: $50

• Gamestop has to purchase from Valve (or other middlemen)
• Comes in a box with instruction booklet and the game on a DVD.
• Gamestop has to pay for store rent, employees, shoplifting, surplus inventory, and markup from Valve.

So why are these the same price when you get more from Gamestop and they have more costs?

I know Valve has to pay for servers and employees, but it's nothing compared to the total overhead all the Gamestop stores have.  Shouldn't Valve sell their games to us for the same price (or less) than they charge physical distributors?  </rant>