All Channels
Popular
1040°

Unfair pricing structure found on PlayStation Store

As you might have noticed, the PS Store is currently blooming with new content (in certain countries of course) and with a new layout coming soon the PS Store has quite a promising future ahead of it.

ruibing6628d ago

It's just that the dollar is worth less now, it's not the PSN that's overcharging you, it's the US economy.

Silellak6628d ago (Edited 6628d ago )

Even if the dollar is decreasing in value, all of the content should still cost the same for everyone. If that means adjusting the prices to meet economic fluctuations (either raising the US price, or lowering the South African price), so be it.

Anything less is unfair to SOMEONE (as this shows).

Just ask the Canadians, who have long paid far more for games and consoles (EDIT @1.2 below: and everything else in the damn world) than their American counterparts.

That being said, I'm sure XBL has this same issue, though. $10 US dollars probably buys more Microsoft points than the equivalent of $10 in Euros does.

Breakfast6628d ago (Edited 6628d ago )

Trust me...its not only the games us Canadians pay more for

Edit: "and everything else in the damn world than their American counterparts."

LOL...you dont even know how annoying it gets...lucky i live an hour away from the border.

barom6628d ago

It's kinda funny, my friend who lives in Norway gets everything dirt cheap (purchasing power wise). Example. normally a game would cost 599NOK which is equal to 120$. But off the PSN he can get Warhawk for 240NOK but out in the store it's 599NOK with headset. Get the point? Tekken 5 is only like 80NOK without online and he paid an additional 40NOK for online patch. Dirt cheap!!! I'm guessing GT5P is probably gonna be 240NOK as well. 1$ is usually around 5NOK now but was 5.5NOK around christmas times so stuff may get a bit more expensive if you're gonna calculate the actual value. But if you compare prices in the store and PSN (which is what you should anyway). PSN is dirt cheap.

If I still lived in Norway I would've bought a bunch of stuff from the Norwegian PSN. I bet those Warhawk expansion is like 20-30NOK or something. Anyway, my friend who is a great guy let's me download a bunch of stuff too so I don't see it being account/region locked either. With the exception of Warhawk and most likely the upcoming GT5P. Which is tied to the account. I can play on my friends Warhawk (and I usually do). So I'm guessing this is a PSP-only problem.

The_Firestarter6628d ago

Are you telling me that games in Norway cost the equivalence of $120!? Wow, that really sucks!

barom6628d ago

If you calculate the exact value yeah.

But if you wanna calculate what they earn which is on average about 200k-250k NOK which is 40k-50k US$. Go figure. I'm guessing average earnings for US is 20k-25k US$.

Like I said, it's the purchasing power that is important. A 120$ sure sounds a lot but in reality if you live there, you put in about the same amount of work to get the same item.

Ghoul6628d ago (Edited 6628d ago )

@ firestarter

norway has a much higher per person income so its nearly square

@ story

sorry but what a weak attempt to make the psn look bad... this has nothing to do with sony but with the global economy and mostlikely george w. bush for his politics ;D

btw rtalking about whining

we (europeans pay much more then the us 100€ = 156$ atm)

ps3 game 108 $ (original retail price 69€)
ps3 783 $ (500€ version)

somethingSQUISHY6628d ago

I believe the mean wage for the average US worker is around $40k/year.

LJWooly6628d ago (Edited 6628d ago )

I never really understood what the point of the "Microsoft Points" system was. I'm glad Sony didn't go with something like that. It's stupid, you need a little conversion chart to know how much you're paying, it's ridiculous. Why can't I just use real money??

Btw, Average income for the American citizen is 25k per annum. That's what I heard a couple of years ago, at least. i can't imagine it's changed that much.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 6628d ago
Marceles6628d ago

A blogger from South Africa's opinion...sigh, *goes back to Warhawk*

Silellak6628d ago

Well, it's not an "opinion" that the price is different, it's just an "opinion" on whether or not that price difference is fair.

Silellak6628d ago (Edited 6628d ago )

So if you download from the US Store and then later switch your console to the European store, the old content won't work? There's no option to permanently switch all of the content over? Or at least get a refund on everything downloaded and re-download it?

I didn't know that. That seems kind of lame.

This is the sort of thing that will always keep digital downloads a step behind physical media. I don't want a game or movie collection I could suddenly lose due to some sort of technicality.

@3.1 Below:

Yeah, you're right. Which is why I laugh and laugh and laugh when people say digital downloads will overtake Blu-ray for the leading HD format.

xhi46628d ago

its called license restrictions, some us music videos can only be played in that country , it cant be released in the other country, if it is people can sue etc.

That is one of the drawbacks of digital media, but thats the only way it can work and be protected at the moment.

Lumbo6628d ago

my US store bought copy of Pain works on my regular EU account .. so there :P

SURE it is unfair, so are different wages, and different prices for rent or food. But its pointless to whine about that. Compare the EU PS3 starting price of 599 EUR to the $ price then (value was about 130:100 EUR:$)

Live is unfair, learn to cope with that. The store prices are targeted at the average income and buying power of a country. You don't see me complain that Everybodys Golf PS3 is EUR 72 at my local Amazon page, but only about EUR45 at amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Fishy Fingers6628d ago (Edited 6628d ago )

Of course the PSN is guilty of unfair pricing, but it's not just the PSN, it's almost everything. From a BigMac to a mp3 player.

niall776628d ago

blame the all... ighty.... ollor

Show all comments (37)
50°

44% of games industry professionals have considered leaving the industry as a result of redundancies

New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
Cockney36d ago

Well if that 44% left im sure there would be a lot less redundancies

40°

Stop Killing Games on the latest European Commission public hearing

It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.

Read Full Story >>
rockpapershotgun.com
50°

"Be creative 99% of the time" – Glen Schofield on how creativity can help fix AAA industry woes

The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
lodossrage37d ago

I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise

We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.

Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.

Scissorman36d ago

it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.

__y2jb36d ago

This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.