Well, it took longer than expected, but Ryse: Son of Rome is finally available for its advertised sale price of $39.99. Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed it was "testing" digital deals on the Xbox One, perhaps as a way to combat pre-owned game sales from retailers like GameStop.
When the discount was first announced, Xbox studio manager Mike Ybarra even went so far as to specifically call out GameStop.
That’s far better than the used price at GameStop and others! Go digital!
— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) February 17, 2014
Whatever the real reason, I'm just glad Microsoft is finally recognizing that digital downloads should be cheaper than physical copies of a game. Hopefully sales of Ryse: Son of Rome encourage the platform-holder to offer more of this type of discount in the future.
You can purchase the discounted Ryse: Son of Rome from the Xbox Games Store.
