350°

Ubisoft explains how digital prices are set on PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store

Ubisoft has explained how digital prices are set on both PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store, revealing that the cost of digital titles may not be identical across the two networks because of individual "pricing matrices" set by Sony and Microsoft.

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videogamer.com
forcefullpower3818d ago

What a loads of bolloxs. You want to charge the same price as a physical disc. DD should be at least 5 or 10 quid cheaper than going to the shop.

colonel1793818d ago

Exactly! They save production costos, distribution costs, packaging costs, etc and they still want to charge the same.

When the Vita was announced, they confirmed that Digital Games will be cheaper. It never happened.

MasterChief36243818d ago

Actually it did happen. A majority of first-party digital Vita titles are $5 cheaper than their physical counterparts

bradfh3818d ago

Also you can resell your game dvd and get some money back, you cant do this with a digital download.

admiralvic3818d ago

@ Masterchief3624

Actually, a good percent of all physical games are cheaper than their physical counterparts, not just first-party titles.

nukeitall3818d ago

If MS vision of digital future would have gone through, buying a physical disc would have given you all the benefits of digital download for the lowered physical disc price!

@colonel179:

"When the Vita was announced, they confirmed that Digital Games will be cheaper. It never happened. "

There has been a lot of promises on PSP and PS Vita. Remember how Sony promised day and date release on PSP Go (digital) and PSP?

Never happened. Instead, you were treated to an early demise of PSP Go in favor of the older system PSP!

forcefullpower3818d ago

@nukeitall

But you wouldn't be able to buy the physical disc cheaper if Microsoft had there way as they were going to destroyed the used game market. i.e. end of cheap games.

dcj05243818d ago

$5 cheaper my man. You can buy a sub with that.

_FantasmA_3818d ago

How do you have more agrees than disagrees? Digital is actually cheaper on the Vita. I actually bought Zero Escape, PS All Stars, and Killzone Mercenary digitally because they were cheaper by about $7-10.

SilentNegotiator3818d ago (Edited 3818d ago )

They're only shooting themselves in the foot by not doing that. If my choice is "Disc with resale value and neat case to put on shelf" and "same priced DL", the choice is obvious.

"How do you have more agrees than disagrees? Digital is actually cheaper on the Vita"

Because no one has a Vita due to the fact that there isn't a lot worth playing on the most expensive handheld.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 3818d ago
Mikelarry3818d ago

there is no explanation other than greed nothing, nada you cannot charge more than physical copy it does not make sense to anybody but these greedy companies. as much as they tout this digital future i fear they are the biggest road blocks to that future.

Onehandband1t3818d ago

I can only assume its something that Sony and Microsoft have discussed with retail shops to keep them in business,

Just think, if all digital games were significantly cheaper than retail counterparts, shops like GAME and Gamestop would soon disappear.

I don't agree with the pricing for digital games, but we will have to wait and see what the future holds

forcefullpower3818d ago

Steam seems to able to achieve it very easily. Even if you go to blizzard or origin I always seem to find there prices never change either.

I am keeping fingers crossed that Steam will come through as an alternative.

MizTv3818d ago

I agree
Why can I get games on steam for $10 and it's like $40 on the other networks?
If these company's want to push digital then they need to make it worth it
It should be like half of disc price

admiralvic3818d ago

@ Onehandband1t

I doubt it. A lot of retail stores do sales and deals, which typically makes them cheaper than any digital game. Like, BestBuy was doing $20 dollar credit vouchers for some games (like BioShock Infinite) with preorder, which is probably more of a discount than you would see digitally on day 1. We also had Targets B2G1 free sale, which also brought day 1 games down to $40 dollars.

Not to mention, the ability to sell the games and store discounts will always make them appealing. Sure digital would affect it, but I wouldn't rush to the PSN to download a 30+ gb game to save $10 dollars when I can buy a physical version, save the download and sell it for $10 (in most cases) with ease.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3818d ago
Death3818d ago

They save costs and they don't save costs. It depends on what both Sony and Microsoft charge to distribute it. Both companies offer tiered pricing, in this case Microsoft had a lower price teir that Ubi was able to use and still make what they projected. Sony didn't have a price teir as close so they had to charge more for the digital copy on PSN. Alot is determined by what Sony or Microsoft charge. Judging by the article it looks like Sony is charging more to the publishers to distribute their games.

Death3818d ago

For the disagrees, read the article. Both Ubi and EA had to reduce their prices on the PS4 to match Xbox One online prices. The article is very clear on how the price tiers work. To make the same profit on each console the PS4 price was higher. Both Ubi and EA lowered their prices to match the Xbox price. This would not have been necessary if Sony was charging the same or offered the same tiered pricing as Microsoft.

aquamala3818d ago

Do you know how much it costs to sell a game on psn/xbl compared to physical copies? Yeah I don't either, that's all under NDA. What if they are more expensive than physical copies because of sony/ms fees? "Greedy" Game publishers may not be the ones to blame here

denero13818d ago

Welllllll >.> wouldn't that kind of go against what some sony/ms reps have said about digital being cheaper?

AnotherProGamer3818d ago

I remember reading somewhere if Sony/MS put the prices of the games less than the physical prices than Gamestop will not stock/sell there games.

dragon823817d ago

This seems to be the case across the board. Most retail stores would not be happy about it and would threaten to not sell their products. This might not be a problem for software but it would be a huge problem if they stopped stocking hardware and accessories.

Kaze883818d ago

The problem is that currently around 70-80% games are sold by Walmart, Gamestop and Amazon....they say to MS and Sony or 3rd party publisher "sell these games on same price or we wont sell your game in our store" so you will likely loose 70-80% off the sales...none wants to oppose that. On pc its the other way around, most of the games are sold digitally so thats why games are dirty cheap on pc in steam etc.

_FantasmA_3818d ago

But if there are no knew games in stores then GS fails. They would only have used games and considering the online passes, maps, etc that come with new copies, I don't think GS would last that long. I think digital should be cheaper to offset the physical disk costs. It creates competion. PSN against GS, Digital against physical, driving against waiting for a download.

Kaze883815d ago

@Fantasma yeah they couldnt make it without new games but also publishers cant make without them either. They are kinda like necessary evil to each other.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 3815d ago
Chrono3818d ago

Instead of finding ways to improve digital sales, they're making them worse.

NicSage3818d ago

There is no reason to buy digital games when the physical is so competitive.

PC digital is a different story everything is dirt cheap & changes daily if needed, the digital market on PC is like the Physical market for consoles.

Onehandband1t3818d ago

So Microsoft and Sony feel its fair to charge these prices for digital download games. I understand there is a royalty inc in the price but it's digital. No resale value or shiny box to put on you shelf and yet it's fine to charge the same price.

Also don't forget that you are not only paying the same price for a digital game but then you have to add your bandwidth costs on top.
I am on unlimited so its not an issue really but with the size of next gen games, some people will be charged further for exceeding there total broadband usage. Pretty much a lose lose situation for some.

And yet Steams digital service you can pick up most brand new games for an average of £35 compared to Sony and Microsoft's £54.99, not to mention if you pre purchase games on steam you tend to get a further reduction. And with steam game trading in the works, there is resale value on digital purchases.

I can understand to an extent that gamers respective to there consoles get to use a premium service to purchase digital content for convenience, but it is a bit of a joke.

Looks as though the digital only future for consoles is pretty distant

monkey nuts3818d ago

Games will never sell at £55. Prices have always been in the £35 to £45 range here in the uk. If they think they can get away with charging more for games when the ps4 and xbone are easier to develop for due to their x86 architecture then they are in for one hell of a shock. Granted, the hardcore may pay those prices, but hardly anyone else will. Greed will imprison us all............

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80°

Microsoft Opening Xbox Mobile Game Store in July

The Xbox brand is expanding, as an Xbox mobile game store is opening this coming July where Microsoft will brings its "first-party portfolio."

Jin_Sakai1d 10h ago (Edited 1d 10h ago )

“Bond adds that they will start on the web”

This will go nowhere.

Nice knowing you Xbox. This is what happens when the house never gets cleaned.

MrDead1d 10h ago

The only this MS is expanding is the amount of feculence it sprays on everyone who just want to enjoy gaming and make games.

The best thing MS can do for the gaming industry is leave and never return.

XiNatsuDragnel1d 8h ago

Good luck with this even it might not succeed.

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210°

Microsoft once tried to nab LittleBigPlanet from Sony after a few drinks

It turns out that many moons ago, Microsoft once had its eye on the Sony published LittleBigPlanet series.

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eurogamer.net
XiNatsuDragnel2d ago

Microsoft had a good idea but fumbled it again.

Cacabunga22h ago(Edited 22h ago)

Project Spark idea was decent but they quickly gave up ..
LBP was wonderful

ApocalypseShadow1d 16h ago

Microsoft in a nutshell. Always tried to poach Sony employees, games, 3rd party games and devices like the depth camera that was turned into Kinect but was running on PS2 before Xbox 360. Wouldn't be surprised they wanted LBP. Just like they worked behind the scenes pushing the MLB to bring Sony's baseball game to Xbox instead of making their own.
https://www.playstationlife...

They didn't spend years trying to develop their own baseball game. They wanted Sony's game.

They're scum.

Zachmo18220h ago

Microsoft didn't force MLB on Xbox. MLB gave Sony 2 options either go multiplat or risk losing the license.

Rynxie11h ago

And why do you think MLB said that? I believe Ms approached MLB.

ApocalypseShadow10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

Totally ridiculous comment.

The only exclusivity Sony had was to their own creation of The Show. Microsoft could have paid the MLB for the license just like Sony did and made their own baseball game.

Microsoft instead, groomed MLB for years in trying to poach Sony's game and bring it to Xbox. They're worth 3 TRILLION dollars. You think that's not enough money to make their own baseball game? Don't be delusional.

Microsoft spun it like they always do and told the media that they had to trust Sony with their hardware. After they put Sony in that position of not having a choice. Either go multiplatform or stop making one of their successful games. That's a no win scenario.

And what did Microsoft do? They didn't try to sell the game to the Xbox community. They put it on game pass to hurt Sony. Pushing the idea of why buy games that are $70 when you can play them in their cheap service for $10. It was a dirty tactic.

You fell for the Kool aid drink Microsoft served you instead of spitting it out. Hope it tasted good because you were fooled by Phil and the gang.

5h ago
Hereandthere2h ago

Xbox executive Sara Bond has told Axios that Microsoft spent a number of years trying to get MLB The Show onto Xbox consoles. And when it finally succeeded in breaking off PlayStation’s long-held exclusivity, the company had to “trust” Sony with pre-release Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Bond revealed that MLB The Show “always came up” in conversations between Microsoft and the Major League Baseball organization. “We always said, ‘We love this game. It would be a huge opportunity to bring it to Xbox.'” she recalled. However, when Microsoft’s efforts materialized, it put the company in an awkward situation where it had to send in pre-release consoles to a rival company.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 2h ago
Notellin7h ago

"Microsoft instead, groomed MLB for years in trying to poach Sony's game and bring it to Xbox."

Take a nap, conspiracies are rotting your brain.

5h ago
Hereandthere2h ago

Xbox executive Sara Bond has told Axios that Microsoft spent a number of years trying to get MLB The Show onto Xbox consoles. And when it finally succeeded in breaking off PlayStation’s long-held exclusivity, the company had to “trust” Sony with pre-release Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Hereandthere2h ago

They were too cheap/inept/lazy to develop their own mlb game, so they port begged for years and bribed the mlb to make the show multiplatform. Like i said many times, xbox brought nothing to the table their 24 years, ZERO.

OtterX23h ago

"However, Healey said Media Molecule wouldn't have felt right doing that, adding it would have been "morally corrupt"."

Major kudos to Media Molecule for being an upright studio with principles.

RNTody23h ago(Edited 23h ago)

Great, more stories like this please. Show the last of the zombies holding the line what we've been saying for years: Microsoft is anti competition, anti industry and has no interest in making games at all.

But hey, at least there's an Xbox Games Showcase to look forward to, right?

Inverno22h ago

Well considering SONY just killed the series, LBP would've been dead by now either way. Though MM probably wouldn't exist by now either, so I'm glad they stayed with SONY, hopefully they don't get shut down any time soon or ever honestly.

Inverno20h ago

They shut down the servers, that's millions of user created levels gone. That and dead are pretty much the same, it's also been years since 3 and they cancelled HUB soooo.

5h ago
fsfsxii7h ago

They shutdown the servers because no one was playing, no one in the community cared about the user created levels so why keep them up? Wtf you guys would never succeed in running a business.

Inverno6h ago

Yea dood no one was playing so they shut off the servers. Cause people with enough common sense can't just Google why they were actually shut of, right?

Show all comments (26)
60°

Game Studio Closures, Entertainment News, Disney, And More Skewedcast

The full Skewedcast crew back for this episode and Gareth, Justin, Michael, and JoeyZ at Skewed and Reviewed break down the latest entertainment news qith a focus at 40:00 on the Microsoft Studio Closures and how it impacts the game community and what can be done to help offset this negative trend.