TheSixthAxis

Yesterday we reported that Sony were selling Resistance: Burning Skies on the US PSN Store digitally for the full RRP of the game – $40. Here’s the original story.

Shortly (very shortly) after that post, Sony dropped the price, down $4 to $35.99. That’s better, but still a poor show given the massively reduced manufacturing costs of the digital version.

Although the time period that the game was ‘full price’ was short, naturally people bought the game, but according to one customer service rep, Sony aren’t giving out refunds for the difference.

There’s a post here on GAF apparently detailing an email reply regarding the $4 difference.

“Unfortunately, we cannot offer a credit due to the price decrease. I know how frustrating this is for you and I sincerely apologize,” says the rep.

The email then goes on to remind the gamer about a warrantee…

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/05/30/resistance-vita-drops-in-price-sony-not-offering-refunds/

That's a little crazy. Retailers wouldn't like that one bit.

I bet Sony planned on releasing the game at 35.99, but decided to release it initially at 39.99 to steal $4 from gamers. I reckon this is how Sony plans to recover their losses.

What I find appalling is that people actually paid full price for a downloadable game. They literally got less content for the same price. I guess it's true that " a fool and his money are soon parted"

Bet they wish they went with the physical.

Not a bad plan. Not good either, but certainly not bad.

heh

Full price on a digital download is ridiculous. If you cut out the manufacturers and all the shipping costs, cut out the retailers cut and cut out the costs of an sd card + case only to add the cost of hosting a server or however the internet works then I expect to pay at least 20% less.

Don't agree with that sentiment, a downloadable game is not less content, unless you really like cover art.  I do agree it costs them nothing to manufacture so it should in theory be cheaper, but many people do not mind paying convenience fees for products (have you ever bought a cold soda at a check out line instead of buying a much more cost effective 2-liter in the store?) and downloadable games have the added benefits of not taking up room and be re-downloadable, meaning you can't break of lose them.

Sucks for the people that paid $40, but you pay for something if you think it's worth the price, if a company changes prices on you it's their perogative.

Digital copies do contain less content then physical copies.

1. Physical copies come with a case, physical instruction manuel, and the physical copy of the game.

2. Digital games come with none of the above and there by offer you less content.

3. Owning a physical copy allows for more freedom with the game. You don't like the game and wanna sell, well you can do that. You wanna let your friend borrow the game, well you can do that too.

4. Digital copies don't offer these luxuries.

They make not take up physical space but they do take up more memory space. So the people who bought this game for full price are actually paying more in the long run since they'll end up having to buy/use up more MB/Gigabyte space.

I do agree that there are benefits to going digital like you stated. I just think that it's a waste of money to pay the same/more for less content. If people prefer to pay more money just cause their to lazy to go out and buy a physical copy that's their choice.Because of this I feel no sympathy for these people. I guess Sony is smart enough to realize that there are lazy people out there who they can make a quick buck off of.

While I do agree with you concerning pricing (digital should be less), I still don't consider a case and cartridge extra content.  I case could be made for an instruction booklet, but it's like saying that a canned soda has more content then a fountain soda.  The things you mentioned add nothing to the experience of playing the game, which is why people play games.  It's just a delivery method.  This is especially true of portable games, where many people just store (or throw away) the case and put the games in a carrying case.  Extra stuff isn't extra content.