Call me crazy. Call me misguided. But I preordered a Sony PS Vita the other day. That's right, I plunked down a $50 deposit at a GameStop near work, thereby earning the right to own Sony's new handheld game console the day it comes out here in the U.S. on February 22.
Mass Damage & Consumer Foundation in the Netherlands has filed a class action against Sony for inflating PlayStation Store prices.
My personal opinion:
Manufacturers and publishers have indeed inflated the industry.
From $700 million development costs for games like Call of Duty, to digital (store) prices for games and DLCs, online multiplayer fees on consoles (why can you play Helldivers 2 online for free on PC but not consoles?) or still preventing sell/lend digitally purchased games.
Sometime in the future, this bubble will collapse.
They should know better, but they just can't help themselves and suck even the last penny out of our wallets.
Because Sony knows people will be forced to pay those prices for single player and multiplayer games, not everyone prefers PC gaming. Sony also has a monopoly on PlayStation digital games. In 2019, they stopped allowing retailers and game key sellers to sell PlayStation digital games, making them available only through the official PlayStation Store
They should be suing the individual publishers increasing the prices to $80 instead of suing the store. There are plenty of publishers still selling game for like $50 with much success (like E33). But this proves that the publishers are the ones setting the prices.... so again nothing changes because they aren't even going after the main offender. How is suing Sony going to make Microsoft not charge $80 for the next COD? Sony being the number one store in the market doesn't mean that publisher have to charge us an arm and a leg. Again the industry is laughing at us because consumers never get real representation. Just these fake platitudes that are meaningless.
"How is suing Sony going to make Microsoft not charge $80 for the next COD"
Because Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly, I can purchase Call of Duty at a huge discount from CDKeys or other gaming retailers. The only way to purchase digital PlayStation games is through the PlayStation Store.
Weird, I swore GoW, Stellar Blade, Horizon Zero Dawn, TLoU, etc. were on the steam store....uh.....
@djI3485
I'm talking about PlayStation games that you can only purchase on PlayStation. I can purchase Steam and Epic games from 3rd party retailers and key stores.
"Sony to stop selling full-game download codes at retailers"
https://www.videogamer.com/...
About time. There is zero fair reason why digitally distributed products that you cannot recoup any value when you want to dispose of them, should be priced higher than that of physical copies that entail all of the costs and the benefits of owning.
The saga of the legal battle that sees Epic Games fight Apple in the attempt to bring Fortnite back to iOS has just gained another chapter.
Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki and CFO Lin Tao talked about the state of the PlayStation business and the strategy and targets going forward, including how they're responding to the tariffs.
I think they take that into consideration when they announce their projections. Currently, after the xbox price increase, the PRO is cheaper than the series x! That is ridiculous, and it can’t last.
you keep saying that but the price of a PS5 Pro is S699.99 (US) and the price of a Series X is $599.99 (US)
The series x with 2 TB storage space is more expensive than PS5 PRO which also has 2 TB storage space.
Oh so you are pitting a regular Pro with a special edition X... got it. If you are going so far as trying to compare apples to apples... please add in the optical drive and stand to the Pro. Seeing as the X has both of those by default.
I will help you if you are unable to do so.
PS5 Pro 2tb: $699.99, Optical Drive: $79.99, Stand: $29.99 = $809.97
Xbox Series X Galaxy Black Special Edition 2TB: $729.99
The PS5 PRO has 2TB storage. The series X with 2TB storage and much weaker, is… more expensive! So yeah, Im pointing out that fact.
Also, the PRO does not require a stand.
Ps: regular series 2TB is $749 (where did u get 729?)
Its right here on the official XB site: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/...
Okay, so no stand for the Pro, but you might still want the optical drive. So $779.98 vs $729.99. A properly outfitted Pro is still more $$ than a 2tb X.
Do I need to mention that the series x is not nearly as powerful as the PS5 PRO?
And no, the PS5 PRO runs just fine without a drive, and people don’t have to buy the drive right away, assuming they want it.
People are spending less time playing is a typical trigger for this.
The less time spent playing the less likely you are to spend more money on games and services including subs or even the next console.
Increased engagement equals more money.
Same reason Microsoft does it: it looks better to investors and it's a solution when unit sales slow down.
Personally, I'm not a fan of this metric; and by using it, you're kind of signaling that you're moving into the "This is a PlayStation" era.
"I wonder why they are shifting focus to MAU."
Because they´d finally realized that MS wasn´t wrong after all.
"So despite being more optimistic about the Vita's fortunes than some my fellow editors, I can't help but think that Sony will most likely have to drop the price of the system to $199 or $179 to really start moving units after the early adopters have their fill (in Japan, Vita launch sales were initially strong but have dropped off precipitously in ensuing weeks)."
Yeah, the price will drop, but Sony should wait till the holiday season to do it. A lot of people are willing to pay $250 for it right NOW. Sony might as well get an extra $50-$70 from the hardcore nerds in the first couple of months...then announce the price drop at Gamescom.
'Call me misguided. But I preordered a Sony PS Vita the other day.'
Why would anybody call that misguided? The Vita is a fantastic product with a wide range of launch titles.
*What if the Vita had an Apple logo instead of Sony's?
It would cost $500+ and we would see a new ones every year with minor upgrades e.g.psvita4s or something along those lines :D.
It would cost 2000$ more and sell a lot more
Then mindless apple fans would eat it up... and it would probably get a ad push as well..
Even if you don't like apple, you have to admit, they are very good at pushing product.
On the other hand I have only seen crappy taco bell Vita ads...