Sony's PS3 has struggles moving hardware especially in the North American and US markets. Everybody blames the systems price $399 and $499 for the respective models. I see another reason behind Sony's sales slump in the US. Sony first party exclusives never seem to drop in price.

Lets look at the facts:

Heavenly Sword --> Released September 12th, 2007 --> Price still $59.99

Rachet & Clack Future: Tool of Destruction --> Released October 23rd, 2007 --> Price still $59.99 with a sequel on the way.

Resistance: Fall of Man --> released November 14th, 2006 --> Now $29.99 price was dropped only due to impending sequel.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune --> Released November 19th, 2007 --> Price still $59.99 with sequel on the way

MotorStorm --> Released March 6th 2007 --> Now $29.99, only dropped due to impending sequel.

Lair --> released August 30th, 2007 --> Still $59.99

Is this what we're left with waiting for a sequel to come out for the price to drop. Look at the 360 and Wii, games tend to drop in price a year after a games initial release. Halo 3 dropped to $39.99 after 14 months, certain Wii first party exclusives have dropped $10-20 anywhere between 10-14 months after released. Why is Sony waiting to drop prices on these titles. My point is people looking to buy a PS3 would love to buy more games with it. If games were $29.99 you could purchase two versus spending $59.99 for one. People are turned off that the best games on the system which are all over a year old are still selling for the prices of new releases. By the way I own 4 of the 5 games I listed.

Zelda TP (a launch title)--> 59.99 at any Canadian Retailer.


seems like this is quite an universal practice.

In Europe those are all platinum and sold at €29

Great so what you're trying to say is Sony is screwing the Americas?

I agree though there are some great deals online or flyers weekly but still there are not a lot of info on specific game sales. I usually come here to check http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=95aa437d72963194c55db06237078731&f=56

In the UK, resistance 1 and motorstorm 1 are £7.99

This has been a pretty bad generation for "budget" gamers regardless of the console manufacturer ...

One of the reasons why Sony was so successful in previous generations was that (after their console was on the market for about 2 years) anyone could walk into a store, pay less than $200 for the console, and buy from a display of games that were (mostly) pretty decent quality games for under $20 ... when you add the cost of "saving" games from being a $19 memory card to being a $50 Memory card or $100 hard-drive, and the price of controllers going from (about) $25 to $50, this generation has translated into the cost of gaming (almost) doubling regardless of the platform you choose.

It's not just sony dude, the original xbox hit halo 1 was 49.99 for like 2years until the sequel hit. I think it is more about people paying for quality vs the crappier games that people "expect" to be sold for less. And mind you everyone one of those games sold more than 2 million with the exception of Heavenly sword and ratchet and clank, so I guess the price barrier is not preventing these games from being more than profitable.

Where are these first party Wii games that have dropped?

I bought a new copy of dk: barrel blast for $10. that might be second party though.