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Forums - Sony - Sony explains PlayStation Vita game price strategy

Aj_habfan on 13 February 2012
KylieDog said:
kitler53 said:
Aj_habfan said:
KylieDog said:
kitler53 said:
KylieDog said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
63 dollars for UC: Golden Abyss? Damn.

(£40 = 63$)


This is how PS3 games are, £40 for a new release here, $60 in US.  Somehow Sony think that a $40 in US being sold for £40 in UK is a good pricing strategy, it is if people are stupid enough to actually pay it I suppose.

I'm hoping the Vita tanks here because this is insulting.


omg -- how many times do we have to have the US prices don't include tax and your taxes are high conversation.  blame your government..


That has nothing to do with anything, games for PS3 and Vita same price in UK...difference of $20 in US.  No matter how you slice it and blame taxes if a game is the same price for both in UK it should be in US too.  The taxes apply to both Vita and PS3 games in both countries.

Not quite - the 40 pounds is already including the VAT (20% or something?) while the 40 dollars is what we pay before taxes, meaning close to $50 if taxes were the same. It's still not equal, but not quite as skewed. 

this,...is what i was trying to say the first time.  it's no where near as skewed as it first appears when you stop comparing apples to mangos.


You both fail to understand, I really do not know how.

$60 PS3 game in US = £40 PS3 game in UK.
$40 Vita game in US = £40 Vita game in UK.

Do you not see what is wrong with this, I will not explain it, if it needs be explained it is going to go way above your heads because the answer is in plain sight.  Taxes apply to all examples equally so taxes can be removed from the equation.

Wow, sorry somehow I completely missed the point.

That is strange... also meaning Vita games will be the same price as PS3 games?

Could be just Uncharted though, I think the official price might be $50.



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UltimateUnknown on 13 February 2012
Degausser said:
It should be noted £40 is the RRP in the UK and that no game ever costs RRP. Golden Abyss was avaliable for pre-order at £25 a few weeks back and is £35 at the moment. Further, all games in the UK crash in price a lot faster then anywhere else, GA will be down to £17.99 in a month or so from one of the online retailers.

I think Sony's strategy is fairly sound to be honest - I definitely struggled when I had a DS with the pricing as I just couldn't spend what most games cost. The challenge for them is making the pirces actually correct, a full Uncharted for £40 RRP (So as I said, around £30 - £35) at launch is just fine imo, it gets a bit worrying though if games like Dungeon Hunter start trying to charge that (Which they arn't atm).

We'll see, I always really struggled with the pricing of DS games... they just never went cheap enough for me to bite. For some reason.

That is very true, game prices here in the UK never cost full price of £40, I always tend to buy new games around release date for £30-35 tops online, the only exception to this is COD which tends to be anything in between £35-40 and doesn't drop for a fair few months. All other games go down in price by 25-50% by a month's time. Heck I just bought King of fighter 13 the other day for £9.99 BRAND NEW (from game online not an auction), and the game's been out for like 2 months.

Anyway as for handhelds go, I really think the sweet price is between £20-25, but if its absolutely huge £30, nothing beyond that. £30+ should be console game territory. I think one of the reasons the 3DS is doing so well is because the games are very well priced just like the hardware as most games are around £25 new on release. You need to sell value products for a decent price, and as far as I can tell Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart are all value products you can't find elsewhere for the asking price.



 

Degausser on 13 February 2012
KylieDog said:
Degausser said:
It should be noted £40 is the RRP in the UK and that no game ever costs RRP. Golden Abyss was avaliable for pre-order at £25 a few weeks back and is £35 at the moment. Further, all games in the UK crash in price a lot faster then anywhere else, GA will be down to £17.99 in a month or so from one of the online retailers.


Except if you look in stores and online £40 is the selling price, so the RRP is likely higher than £40.  Cheap pre-orders before official pricing released do not count, hence why all those stores have since increased the price.  Not all games drop in price heavily either, UC3 still has not hit that price point, so unless the Vita bombs and stores need shift excess stock it is unlikely UC GA will price drop anytime soon.


 Golden Abyss is £35 from shopto right now and will be £35 in Morrisons on Vita launch day. You'd know it'll hit at least £25 within a month, but undoubtedly lower, if you follow hotukdeals.com.

 Uncharted 3 hit £17.99 on play.com before Christmas too - but has gone back up to £24 for now.

 I dunno if you're from the UK but EVERY game (Except COD and Nintendo games) tanks in price within a month. Skyrim was literally £22 2 weeks after launch, Saints Row 3 was £20 early December. No games actually launched in Janurary so there are no examples i can really point out here of relevance - but compairing US pricing to UK is stupid as the markets are very different, was my point.



Degausser on 13 February 2012
KylieDog said:
kitler53 said:
KylieDog said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
63 dollars for UC: Golden Abyss? Damn.

(£40 = 63$)


This is how PS3 games are, £40 for a new release here, $60 in US.  Somehow Sony think that a $40 in US being sold for £40 in UK is a good pricing strategy, it is if people are stupid enough to actually pay it I suppose.

I'm hoping the Vita tanks here because this is insulting.


omg -- how many times do we have to have the US prices don't include tax and your taxes are high conversation.  blame your government..


That has nothing to do with anything, games for PS3 and Vita same price in UK...difference of $20 in US.  No matter how you slice it and blame taxes if a game is the same price for both in UK it should be in US too.  The taxes apply to both Vita and PS3 games in both countries.

 PS3 games are RRP £50 - £55.

 Golden Abyss (Highest priced Vita game) is RRP £45.

 You're clearly not looking around enough if you truly believe Vita games in the UK cost the same as PS3 games... I can point you right now to a Wipeout / Everybodys golf preorder at £27... good luck getting SSX that price day one.



sethnintendo on 13 February 2012

Seems like most users are having a hard time explaining their pricing strategy.



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kitler53 on 13 February 2012
KylieDog said:
kitler53 said:
Aj_habfan said:
KylieDog said:
kitler53 said:
KylieDog said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
63 dollars for UC: Golden Abyss? Damn.

(£40 = 63$)


This is how PS3 games are, £40 for a new release here, $60 in US.  Somehow Sony think that a $40 in US being sold for £40 in UK is a good pricing strategy, it is if people are stupid enough to actually pay it I suppose.

I'm hoping the Vita tanks here because this is insulting.


omg -- how many times do we have to have the US prices don't include tax and your taxes are high conversation.  blame your government..


That has nothing to do with anything, games for PS3 and Vita same price in UK...difference of $20 in US.  No matter how you slice it and blame taxes if a game is the same price for both in UK it should be in US too.  The taxes apply to both Vita and PS3 games in both countries.

Not quite - the 40 pounds is already including the VAT (20% or something?) while the 40 dollars is what we pay before taxes, meaning close to $50 if taxes were the same. It's still not equal, but not quite as skewed. 

this,...is what i was trying to say the first time.  it's no where near as skewed as it first appears when you stop comparing apples to mangos.


You both fail to understand, I really do not know how.

$60 PS3 game in US = £40 PS3 game in UK.
$40 Vita game in US = £40 Vita game in UK.

Do you not see what is wrong with this, I will not explain it, if it needs be explained it is going to go way above your heads because the answer is in plain sight.  Taxes apply to all examples equally so taxes can be removed from the equation.

well uncharted GA is $50 in the US, not $40.



Xenostar on 14 February 2012

£40 is the RRP, only idiots and people that dont know better will pay that, its the same RRP as most 3DS games, yet you never see them at that price. Seems to be only uncharted is carrying that RRP, alot of the other launch titles are coming in much lower.

I think its a decent pricing policy Sony have got, and if your willing to wait 2-4 weeks, youll get all games clost to half price just like PS3 and 360 games.



rutea7 on 14 February 2012

if you dont want to pay full price wait for a price drop or look for a better deal, no need to bitch about it.



Xenostar on 14 February 2012
KylieDog said:
Xenostar said:
£40 is the RRP, only idiots and people that dont know better will pay that


Yeah because all major retailers selling for £40 (or as good as) means it isn't the actual price?  Tesco, GAME, Gamestation, Amazon, Play and so on are selling it for £38-40.  That is the price, please do not pretend it isn't.  A couple minor retailers that do not even have physical stores selling for less is not where 95% of people will be shopping.

Gamestop UK are selling Uncharted GA for £43, I doubt they exceeded the RRP so the RRP is likely higher.


Fair enough most retailers are selling it for 38-40, but it will be alot less than that in as little as 2 weeks, if it follows the trend of most games in theUK, But also everyone seems to be focusing very heavily on one title being the top price, so many other titles are alot cheaper, and the digital price of games like Motorstorm RC are amazing. 

Judging by the range in pricing on the first party games, it would seem Sony are making it clear that Games should be coming in at what the publisher thinks the content is worth, rather than the 2 tier system of pricing weve seen on consoles for so long. This should encourage competitive pricing between publishers, 



Degausser on 14 February 2012
KylieDog said:
Degausser said:
KylieDog said:
Degausser said:
It should be noted £40 is the RRP in the UK and that no game ever costs RRP. Golden Abyss was avaliable for pre-order at £25 a few weeks back and is £35 at the moment. Further, all games in the UK crash in price a lot faster then anywhere else, GA will be down to £17.99 in a month or so from one of the online retailers.


Except if you look in stores and online £40 is the selling price, so the RRP is likely higher than £40.  Cheap pre-orders before official pricing released do not count, hence why all those stores have since increased the price.  Not all games drop in price heavily either, UC3 still has not hit that price point, so unless the Vita bombs and stores need shift excess stock it is unlikely UC GA will price drop anytime soon.


 Golden Abyss is £35 from shopto right now and will be £35 in Morrisons on Vita launch day. You'd know it'll hit at least £25 within a month, but undoubtedly lower, if you follow hotukdeals.com.

 Uncharted 3 hit £17.99 on play.com before Christmas too - but has gone back up to £24 for now.

 I dunno if you're from the UK but EVERY game (Except COD and Nintendo games) tanks in price within a month. Skyrim was literally £22 2 weeks after launch, Saints Row 3 was £20 early December. No games actually launched in Janurary so there are no examples i can really point out here of relevance - but compairing US pricing to UK is stupid as the markets are very different, was my point.


Yeah I use hotukdeals, but the problem with basing pricing on this is that not everyone uses the site and when there is a price crash on a game it is sometimes for a single retailer only and often only online and not in a store.  Christmas offers and such that last 24-48 hours is not a games price tanking either.   Neither of these is a nationwide lower price like what the Vita needs. 

Not all games tank very low in price either, I picked up Batman AC before christmas for £18 when amazon reduced price for literally about 2 hours before hiking it up in the 30s again, it has never been below £25 since except with discount codes.  Skyrim hasn't been as low as it was during the GAME/Gamestation short time deal and is still full price most places.


 But I think the inflated initial price model is exactly how the UK games industry works and pretty much why it works. If you don't consider it then you're missing the key point to why they can get away with charging more here then most places. It's pretty much designed to exploit money from the people who spend money without thinking and give savings to those who won't pay as mch - it's great. And with that in mind, the fact people like me will be able to get GA for £20 about a month after launch, means the pricing strategy is good.

 I think the point is though, in the USA GA is $50 and a PS3 game is $60. In the UK GA is £45 RRP and will cost you about £35 on launch. A PS3 game is £50-£55 RRP and will cost you about £40 on launch - so there is no price hike anyway lol.