Say I were to develop an urge to play Red Faction Armageddon. The cheapest option would be to borrow it from a friend. But friends don't let friends play the poor-selling, 5.5-in-PSM3-scoring Red Faction Armageddon, so I could pick it up used for seven or eight quid.
At the time of writing, Amazon are selling it new for £9.99. If the urge were really desperate - I'd fallen on my head from a height, say - I could run to a high street shop such as HMV and buy it for under £30. And finally, if I'd simply gone entirely mad, I could download it from the PlayStation Store for a ludicrous £57.99.
Such prices are disastrously out of line with what consumers consider a game's real worth. And it's not just so-so games like Red Faction Armageddon that are caught in this madness.
Dead Space 2, for instance, is an inexplicable £47.99 (£17.99 in HMV and Amazon), Mass Effect 2 and its inter-species rutting retails for £47.99 (£17.99 on Amazon or Play), while Sony's own inFamous 2 is an electrifying £49.99, despite being just £27.99 from Amazon or Play.
So you can download these three titles for £146, or buy boxed copies for £64 and recoup around half that by selling them when you're done. £35 or £145? Hmm. Tricky. What the hell's going on?
To be fair, not everything is so unhinged. Many games are priced the same as their physical counterparts - PlayStation Move Heroes is £39.99, for instance - but even then, the price registers as unrealistic. There's no physical product. Where are the savings from the lack of materials or physical distribution costs?
Why aren't any of these savings being passed on to me, the customer?
Even harder to understand is the pricing for PSP titles. With PlayStation Vita arriving early next year bearing a touch screen, tilt functions and powers of telepathic suggestion, the PSP is being refashioned as a 'value proposition' - a budgetfriendly, DS-baiting kids' handheld.
Yet the new E1000 model can't even play downloaded games - a sure sign that Sony doesn't intend to support PSP's digital sales in anything but the short term.
This should be the cue for Sony to heavily discount PSP games before they become obsolete, but store prices are madder than ever. Ace Combat Joint Assault remains a defiant £31.99 (a mere £23.99 more than on Amazon) while FIFA 10 - 10! - also clings on at £31.99. That's the same price as FIFA 11 - which is itself £14 more expensive than a boxed copy from Play. This only highlights the Store's frustrating failure to update its pricing.
NAKED VIDEO
The problem is at its most nakedly obvious when it comes to video. Let's take as an example Zack Snyder's overblown actionlobotomy Sucker Punch, as it's available in every permutation: standard and high definition, rental and full purchase. Again the prices reflect no advantage to sucking the movie through the digi-pipe. Owning the film costs you £14.99 in HD and £11.99 in SD - both more than their Blu-ray / DVD equivalents via Amazon.
FIFA 10 is £31.99. That's the same price as FIFA 11 - itself £14 more than a boxed copy on PlayBut the real stab in the eye is the rental price. The single-view, we're-trying-to-draw-you-in-for-animpulse-buy price is £4.99 for SD and £5.99 for HD. That's likely to trigger no response other than to not watch the film.
It's important to be honest about what the video Store is competing with. We live in a sea of cheap, accessible entertainment. First of all there's LoveFilm, the movie rental and streaming service available on the PS3 itself - its cheapest subscription, giving you access to three Blu-rays a month, is £5.99. A little context for the Store's rental prices, there.
And then there's the internet, which stocks 1080p transfers of every major film the moment they're released for nothing at all. We do not advocate piracy - it's illegal and destructive - but it's blatantly obvious that to curb illegal filesharing, legitimate alternatives have to at least be attractive - as convenient and as easy as stealing, and sensibly priced, rather than expensive and clogged with prove-you're not-a-criminal-hoops to jump through.
THE REASONS WHY
There are some justifications for the wonky pricing. Even though buying digital seems like it should be near-costless, bandwidth needs to be paid for and servers need maintaining. Almost certainly not helping is the UK's broadband network which, if it were a schoolchild, would be the last one picked for any team.
A global 2010 survey put us 27th for net speeds with an average of 3.8Mbps, compared to Japan's 7.8Mbps and South Korea's 12Mbps. The truth is our infrastructure is weak, and doing business over it is more costly.
Comments
21 comments so far...
jim2wheels on 16 Nov '11 said:
RRP prices are the culprits. Even if has, for example, Dead Island is up for £24 but the RRP is still set at £44.99 (or higher in some cases). Even ancient games that are going for £9.99 still display the RRP price as it was upon release. A quick look on Amazon will show you what I mean, 70-80% discounts on 4 year old games - ridiculous.
I suspect Sony (and any other console maker) cannot undercut the RRP price, which for whatever reason remains static at all times. The question is this: Who sets these RRP's, and why don't they come down accordingly?
monkeyd_93 on 16 Nov '11 said:
its not only sony but nintendo and microsoft. The main problem i think that's causing the prices is the amount of publisher influence they have on pricing their products and also regional distribution. For instance with Payday which came out recently, it was about $20 USD, which with our high dollar in Australia, would be about $19, yet instead we pay $28 for it. On comparison, it's on steam right now for $20 but the thing is i don't know who's adding the little bit extra to it if it's Sony or the publisher, but seeing how a lot of other products are in the same situation (retail), im more inclined to say publishers are doing it . It's really hard to think of a model they could use to be more competitive, but as the only provider for games on the ps3 and vita, would they even need to try?
dazzauk06 on 16 Nov '11 said:
The pricing of full retail games on PSN truly is ridiculous. I normally check the PS blog each week to see what's on the store and see other's comments on the content. The response each time a new retail game is put on there for £57 or some other unsuitably high price is ridicule. The response from Sony's representative on the blog is just as predictable - "The publishers set the prices, we do not". Would like to know just how many people actually buy the games at these truly daft prices. Surely there must be someone out there buying at these prices otherwise the publishers would be getting the message. I vote we hunt down these people and give them a good seeing to!
TheLastDodo on 16 Nov '11 said:
Go check out how many ratings BF3 and FIFA 12 have, that will answer your question and give you a good giggle.
I'll get my knuckle dusters ready while you're doing that
Obscure_Metaphor on 16 Nov '11 said:
id always wondered why i turn my ps3 on everyday, yet ive never felt the urge to spend money through it....
squatch on 16 Nov '11 said:
Yeah, when i can get a game in the shops for 10 quid, and its 20-30 online i know where im gonna go.
PSN is ridiculous for its prices.
StonecoldMC on 16 Nov '11 said:
Ive never bought anything off of the PSN
.
In saying that, Ive only ever bought Arcade Games off of Live, never bought anthing off of GOD (Ooh controversial). Until there comes a point where the prices start to compare to what you pay elsewhere, then the only people who will be buying them from the networks are
http://www.hyperiongaming.com/system/image_assets/76/normal/loads-of-money.jpg?1287064048
Or
http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsC/2760-5456.gif
wrightandrewjame on 16 Nov '11 said:
Publishers set the prices. Sony can't change the prices without publisher permission. It's not like a bricks and mortar store where a retailer buys the stock at a price and then it's up to them what price they then sell it on to the customer. Sony essentially have an infinite stock and while they could sell it at a low price and just take their percentage of the sale the publisher wouldn't exactly be happy. The publishers haven't sold the game to Sony to sell on (I assume) and so their money comes whatever price it sells at on the Store.
Remember Sony charge publishers for bandwidth, for demos, games, DLC, you name it. If you download it, the publisher gets charged. Who do think picks the bill up really? That's more money onto the cost of the game.
As the article says publishers can't annoy other retailers (like GAME, HMV etc.) by undercutting them for fear of losing trade and while digital sales are still the minority this is the way it will remain. Brand new full sized games will cost an arm and a leg. Old full sized games will be cheaper, but probably still more than you have to pay in a shop (although there are the odd exceptions). PSN exclusive titles (i.e. not at retail) will be reasonable value for money. That's the way it will remain for now until digital sales match or move past those at retail.
PC games are different though because I assume that most retail stores don't see them as their main money spinner (no pre-owned and a smaller profit margin) and with the massive increase in digital stores (more competition) and sales from downloads, digital copies are cheaper as a result. It's a similar thing that happened with the music industry with the mp3 v CD. Originally digital was more expensive, but as people paid for convenience it became cheaper and now its cheaper than in shops. PC games have done the same and in a few years console games could well be the same. Remember we're always about 5-8 years behind PC gaming...
DAEDALUS79 on 16 Nov '11 said:
The prices on the store are utterly barmy. Id never consider paying £57 for a brand new release boxed version of a game, so paying that much for a download version is madness. I simply fail to see how anyone can even think for a moment that this will sell. Its as if they put the titles online and then forget about them forever, hence why old titles are still up for daft prices. Its a shame really because sony does a great job with the smaller arcade titles, the sales often inspiring me to download games I wouldnt otherwise try. Why do they care so little for the mainstream game download market?
jonbwfc on 16 Nov '11 said:
Er... for Infamous 2, Sony is the publisher. Yet their prices are nearly as out of whack as everybody else's. This is also true for most PSP games, since hardly anyone else bothers to publish them any more.
The reason the prices are as they are is because they think people will pay for them. And I'm sure some people do. But it's a pitiful fraction of the people who would if the prices even roughly matched the high street, let alone anything appropriate to the actual costs.
It's just another example of how the EU PSN is run by blithering idiots.
Jon
CraigoCorleone on 16 Nov '11 said:
Costs! Whatever. If people are going to buy these games at these 'ridiculous' prices then they are going to continue to sell them. I've just looked at what The LastDodo said to do and my god! There must be a lot of rich people who live on an island somewhere that can't receive mail but have broadband.
Stop paying these prices and they will come tumbling down.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 16 Nov '11 said:
'' Costs! Whatever. If people are going to buy these games at these 'ridiculous' prices then they are going to continue to sell them. I've just looked at what The LastDodo said to do and my god! There must be a lot of rich people who live on an island somewhere that can't receive mail but have broadband.''
Funny thing is people are actually buying the expensive games over £50 on PSN as the games will only let you rate them if you have bought it and it tells you how many people have bought them.
buckleboff94 on 16 Nov '11 said:
some great points.
as mentioned, microsoft (I dont know about ninty) are bad, maybe not 57 quid.
But for microsoft in particular, who seem to be fixated on digital downloads rather than blu-ray, they need to have a constantly updating catalogue with FAR better prices for me to even consider buying it..
i havent bought anything off my ps3, and will only use those £20 cards to buy joe danger and maybe infamous 2 festival of blood. On the other hand, ive bought a ton of stuff of my xbox on deals etc.
03b2wgm on 16 Nov '11 said:
£49.99 for Halo Reach on Games on Demand? No way.
voodoo341 on 16 Nov '11 said:
That isn't strictly true. MW3 is £39.99 on Steam, £34.99 on Tescos online. Battlefield 3 is £40 on Origin, £28 on Tescos for the limited edition. Football Manager 2011, Skyrim etc can all be picked up cheaper than on Steam. New releases are in general more expensive. Steam do drop their price quicker than other providers but that only encourages me to wait a month when buying PC games.
alan666 on 16 Nov '11 said:
download only games will only be cheaper in the short term & once enough people are buying games this way they will stop publishing boxed games forcing you to get it via download & just push up the prices even higher, people here are going on about how expensive GAME are but they are expensive to Tesco etc, but when games are download only there won't be any competition at all & if Rockstar decide to sell GTA VII via digital download only & charge £59,99 for it then thats what you will have to pay if you want the game, there will be none of this comparing prices between GAME, Tesco & Amazon etc to save a few pound.
TheDragonDoji on 16 Nov '11 said:
This is the reason why I only 'purchase' the FREE games from PSN+. Everything else is inflated beyond belief. Why exactly would I want to buy Mass Effect 2 for £48 when, considering the time it takes to download; I could leg it to the shop & be back with a copy for under £30 before it'd finished.
Hilarious.
mazlins on 16 Nov '11 said:
Actually I have noticed something similar becoming increasingly common on Steam... big release games like Skyrim, Deus Ex or Batman: Arkham City are being sold for 20-40% more than what it would cost to purchase a physical copy locally, atleast in NZ. It's not as flagrant, nor as prevalent, as what goes on on console digital distribution services but its noticeable.
It's somewhat amusing to note that currently, in NZ, COD:MW3 is available on Steam for the regular US price of $59.99 while the two previous entries in the series (MW2 and Black Ops) still cost $89.99 US.
slick loose on 17 Nov '11 said:
A good example I can remember is Fallout 3. I bought this LONG after it came out and then completed it and I thought it was great and so wanted to play the DLC. So my first stop was the PSN, if I remember rightly it was £7 for each dlc and there was 5...that's £35 in total. Yeah, f**k off. So I went online and found the GOTY edition brand new for exactly half that price at £17.99 and I could get my hands on a second hand copy for under a tenner.
It makes no sense to buy off PSN, unless you are just lazy, rich or just plain gullible. I think these are the people that the publishers are trying to take advantage off and try and get more money, yet ironically get less imo. Gamers love a good deal AND they want to buy new so that the publishers and developers get their money. But the publishers are just shooting themselves in the foot by charging more money than retail.
And who gives a f**k about undercutting the retailers!? In my opinion, retailers are undercutting the pub/devs by selling and pushing pre-owned games and giving not a penny to the pubs/devs, so f**k 'em.
Paranoimia on 18 Nov '11 said:
The PS blog has addressed this previously. The prices are decided by the publishers, not by Sony, and are the same (in their points equivalent) on Live. Yes, there are games where Sony is the publisher; why don't they put their own games cheaper? Who knows. but I bet the reasoning is along the same lines as why they don't undercut retail too much.
Yes, the prices are ridiculous. Not worth getting angry over - just don't buy them. Disc versions may take a little longer to get to you if bought online, but they're much cheaper and can be sold on when you're done with them. You win all round.
As for the movies - yes, they could be cheaper too, but I'm guessing it's a similar story with the publishers and movie companies. Personally, I would never, ever buy a digital version of a movie for more than £3. I've rented movies via PSN, but never any which cost more than £2.50 - they just aren't worth it.
Windowlicker79 on 22 Dec '11 said:
I was just about to say what a well written article this is and why can't all of CVG's articles be this good, then I realised it was just copied and pasted from PSM3