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Sony is pulling some BS with regional pricing for PS5 games in Europe

MMaRsu

Banned
We've seen it time and time again. Win a generation and suddenly you think your shit dont stink.

Well Sony, this shit stinks
 

TheAssist

Member
In Germany the game would be 68,97€ (calculating with 19% tax, since thats what it is outside of corona), which currently equals 81.38$

So its 70$ in the US pre tax and 81,38$ pre tax in Germany.

This is pretty fucked up, but also kinda normal tbh.

In a way I can understand that Sony wants more money because they usually dont add DLC, lootboxes, cosmetics or other stuff to make more money with their games. But hiking up the prices that fast is not a good idea. But I guess thats what happens when you dont adjust your prices for decades.
Get scummy like EA/Activision and others or hike up prices and eat the backlash.

I bought games for 60€ back in 2001 (when the Euro came out). Just with inflation that comes out at about 77€ in 2020. And it does not take into consideration that games cost muuuch more to develop these days. At least some of them do sell much better also.
 

autoduelist

Member
Has anyone done research into why it may be more expensive to sell to Europe than America? For example, dealing with licensing is generally fairly easy in the US, but often quite difficult internationally, especially if you have to deal with multiple countries. Tariffs and taxes may also be different. Regulations and other hoops needed to be jumped through may cost time and money to comply with. And of course, various currency issues.

Now I will be straight up: I did not just spend 10 minutes looking into the various differences between these things regarding selling games in the US vs. the EU. I simply know there are differences, and some of those differences can affect the bottom line.

But has anyone here done their research on this? Or are we just blaming Sony when perhaps the fault lies with bad economic policies?

I'm sick to death of seeing governments add ten miles of red tape, then people blaming companies when they are forced to raise prices. If you like the red tape, then understand that roll of tape costs money. Or hey, maybe Sony just spun a wheel to decide price and didn't take any time to research it or market conditions.
 
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Keihart

Member
80 Euros for full priced games now? What fuck am i reading? holy shit...
iu
 
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Blond

Banned
I can understand USD price increases but maybe at most another 5 eur because it's insane to me to think that such a jump could be justified by anyone with a brain.
 

un1que

Member
£70 for a game!!!
Don’t think so, they can shove it!
For that I expect a complete game with no need for dlc or micro transactions... or if there’s dlc it needs to be free.

shocking but it will be interesting to see the sales, especially with loads of people financially affected by covid.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Some seem very desperate to pay more "to help the industry" 🤔
They support it because it helps their fanboy narrative.

If the cost of games were the same or even dropped, suddenly the narrative would change it's a good thing and higher prices are stupid.

When the big game companies (Sony included) have record sales and profits from tons of gamers buying stuff, digital cuts from third party games, digital sales cutting out retailers, microtrans, it shows they are doing just fine with the standard $60.

Bumping up to $70 is a money grab.

And my take here is still the same if MS and Nintendo does it too. Gaming has never been bigger with big sales and profits, so hiking the price is not a strategy for survival. It's a strategy to get more money from higher demand.
 
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Great Hair

Banned
PS2 release 2000 | inflation adjusted 2020
USA $299 | $451 + 10% taxes? = $500
Germany DMARK 870 or $520 | $784 (+56%)

Europe always had to pay more.
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
Relying only on digital deals isn't such a great idea, because not all of the games get significant price drops in the PS Store in their first months. TLoU 2 can be a good example here. The digital price is hanging in there while the game can be bought much cheaper in retail.
 
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un1que

Member
I just don’t get how they’ve got to £70!

games in U.K. are usually between £40-£50 on launch if you shop around. With all this “more expensive games” talk I was preparing myself for £60 games but not £70. Jesus.

Please say there’s some kind of social media uprising going against this crap.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Relying only on digital deals isn't such a great idea, because not all of the games get significant price drops in the PS Store in their first months. TLoU 2 can be a good example here. The digital price is hanging in there while the game can be bought much cheaper in retail.
We'll have to see in the console world how great digital deals continue as retailer disc copies weed thinner and thinner.

There's a chance digital becomes so big, MS, Sony, Nintendo and third parties said fuck it, we're scaling back digital deals because all you gamers love downloads now.

Or, they can do the PC route, which is continue nice Steam and GOG deals, even though there's basically zero boxed copy PC games now (maybe aside from some AAA games still with a physical PC copy).

It can go either way for us console gamers.
 

tryDEATH

Member
There is no way the games cost that much, it must be an error. That would be full retard levels of retardation from Sony and would be a next level arrogance Sony.
 
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