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[Ninja Moomin]

So, Borderlands 2 has been out for a while and is currently easily available for £19.99 on the UK highstreet and online

Yet on the Playstation Network it is £59.99 and on Xbox Live it is £49.99.

I fully understand that, at launch, retailers get pissy if online is cheaper than stores... but come on - to inflate the online price so high above retail, so long after release just makes no sense.

Why can't it track just above the retail price? Or achieve parity after a given time period after launch..... given that a lot of the sales happening at retail now are likely used copies anyway.

It just smacks of greed and / or laziness.

 

[j0hnny_385]

Because apparently we like to pay for the convenience of buying something off the couch rather that walking to the store (!!!):

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-17-microsoft-justifies-games-on-demand-prices

*idiocy level over 9000*

 

[EGM1966]

Because enough people will pay that for convince, etc. without checking other options to make it profitable approach. Bastards.

No doubt if asked Sony / MS would roll out the "maintain RRP to keep retail happy stuff" but the real reason is people will pay more for immediate gratification coupled with convenience and as a business they'd rather take their business than yours (or mine).

 

[dragonfart28]

Demand.

 

[Vinci]

It just smacks of greed and / or laziness.

This depends on so many factors. Pricing, in general, does. For example: Do people buy it at that price? You don't, that's clear, but do other people? If they were to drop the price substantially, would the increase in sales numbers make up for the decrease in price?

Personally, off the cuff? I'd wager it's too high and they're mostly just too lazy to price products well. You'd be shocked how frequent that behavior is across industries.

Greed would imply they want to price well, as pricing products well results in greater profit compared to pricing poorly.

 

[grimshawish]

It is laziness yes.
Next gen will probably empower publishers so it'll get better.

 

[Ninja Moomin]

but surely there's a tipping point where the small amount of people too lazy to click on amazon or visit the shops outweighs the volume you get from more sales at a price that's more realistic.

If it was like £5.00 more then I'd buy today... but more than double.... are there really that many people willing to pay that rather than boot up their PC and buy online?

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Money, laziness.

 

[Jintor]

Because it's profitable

 

[sense]

think like a business. it doesn't hurt if no one buys like at retail. no pressure of copies on shelf that needs to be sold and you make money off the lazy guy that just heard about the game being good and wants to play it immediately. they just need to adopt the steam model for next gen tho. regular sales and huge sales during holidays. sony kinda does it with plus but yea could be better

 

[water1111]

Their store their prices.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

MotorStorm Apocalypse is still $59.99 as well. I'm convinced they just forget these things are there.

 

[funkystudent]

Laziness, cash grabbing and to keep retail off there ass.


SCEE has had some decent sales recently for recent releases (more then 50% off) so I think at least someone is starting to get it.

Yeah I hope this is sorted out next gen.


PSN selling games for 20 euro more then retail RRP is more of a problem. A game will be 59.99 and sometimes 69.99 in the store and at most it will be 45-50 at retail. Its dumb.

 

[stryke]

I thought it was game publishers who have control over prices, not Sony or MS (or to a lesser degree I suppose).

 

[CadetMahoney]

next-gen save us!

.gets worse.

next-gen save us!

 

[Recall]

For the PS3 version if you go the the US PSN store you will realise they just changed the $ symbol with £. It's stupid, Far CRy 3 and so many others are £60 on the EU PSN store even if you buy it from the most expensive places here in the uk the most you will be paying is £45 for a brand new launch day retail copy.

Ni No Kuni is £50 on the EU store, which is $79. Yet on the US PSN stores its $55, which converts to £35 :/ Weird price hikes between regions suck too.

 

[Vinci]

Because it's profitable

Probably not optimally.

 

[Johnson81]

I think it's mainly due to o not upsetting retailers. These are the people that shift the majority of console and games.

If Sony/MS could setup their own distribution models for games and consoles, they could cut out the High Street/Supermarkets and increase their margin but doing this would be a logistical nightmare.

Trying to reach each market from scratch would be a huge task, whereas the retailers already have this in place.

Steam prices seem to take a cut that are usually in line with retail, which is what MS/Sony/Nintendo should do.

 

[EvB]

They don't inflate the prices though, they sell the games at the full RRP.

it's retailer's choice to sell a game under an RRP.

Also they have to be careful that retailers don't get pissy..
Not a problem here the the UK because all the games shops are putting themselves out of business by selling games under the RRP.


I've noticed that here in the Uk since the specialist retailers have gone wrong, the "cheaper alternatives" have all put their prices up as there is less competition.

 

[Dabanton]

It's why I don't buy online retail games from either.

I laugh when I see the prices they push even for older stuff wanted to buy Ghost Recon:FS on 360 checked GoD and it's £24.99 walked down to CEX and it's £12.99

That was a no brainer.

 

[Acheteedo]

Hopefully it gets better next gen... seems like wishful thinking but thankfully Sony and MS will competing hard for our allegiance so it should become competitive as digital becomes the dominant form of distribution.

 

[MikeE21286]

Demand.

They need to figure out how that works, because there is not much demand for $60 digital games.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

"Deal with it"

 

[Recall]

They don't inflate the prices though, they sell the games at the full RRP.

Erm UK RRP is £45 not £60.

 

[mclem]

I'm curious how you'd actually go about implementing what the OP wants on an international scale. What price do you go for parity with? UK prices drop faster than international prices in many cases, after all.


Not saying that things shouldn't be better, of course! I just think it's going to be an uphill struggle managing to realistically compete with retailers who drop the prices *very* sharply.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I remember at least MS said once that unlike for regular stores you have access to the games 24/7. So yeah, that's it.

 

[Romir]

The truly ridiculous thing about monopoly pricing is how DLC never price drops. I question the sales strategy behind that.

 

[Portugeezer]

Should be cheaper, even if it's £5 cheaper they would still make more per sale than at a retail with retailers taking a cut.

PS Vita is like this no? Aren't the games like 10% cheaper, which is not a lot, but it's a good incentive to buy digital without pissing off retailers, £50 or £60 digital download is fucking ridiculous.

 

[phosphor112]

Stores won't sell their retail copies if they (digital versions) were a lot cheaper.

 

[spwolf]

Stores won't sell their retail copies if they (digital versions) were a lot cheaper.

indeed... i think PSN and Xbox would love to sell them at adjusted pricing but publishers might be strong armed by retail industry... PS+ is proof that they like pricing things well.

 

[EagleBurnn]

Stores won't sell their retail copies if they (digital versions) were a lot cheaper.

Oh no!

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

"We have to be fair to retailers" = "We can pocket the extra £20 we save on retail share"

 

[SpoonyBard]

Downloadable games should be at least 25-33% cheaper than retail copies. What's the point of paying the same or more, if I can't sell the game after I get bored of it?

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

PS Vita is like this no? Aren't the games like 10% cheaper, which is not a lot, but it's a good incentive to buy digital without pissing off retailers, £50 or £60 digital download is fucking ridiculous.

They start out that way at the game's launch but as soon as the in-store price drops the PSN price does not follow suit, so you end up with the same situation. They will eventually drop the PSN price but in the cases I've been looking at it usually takes a month or two. Really annoying if you are not a day-1 purchaser of games who would prefer to have their Vita games digitally.