Blogger discovers unfair pricing structure on PlayStation Store |
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Ideally, it would be good if the prices on Sony's PlayStation Store were similar everywhere, regardless of which branch of the service you access. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case for blogger Davin Warner.
Warner reportedly compared the pricing of the US PS Store with that of its South African counterpart and received a rather unpleasant surprise: the same titles were being sold for a more expensive price on the South African PS Store.
Warner even cited an example as evidence: the Sony PSP rhythm game Beats sells for R 40 (approximately US$ 5) on the US store, but sells for approximately R 75 (approximately $US 9) on the African branch of the store.
As it is, Warner regrets not having signed up for the US store to begin with, as the PlayStation Store only allows gamers to activate their PSP on one country setting. Perhaps that's one of the things that Sony should address as it revamps the store this month.
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Comments [refresh]
Maybe its just not as straight forward as..
"Z equals x amount of y so Im getting over charged" ?
Same thing happens in Australia.
We get ripped off on Sony's Store prices, and on STEAM.
We have a pretty close exchange rate with the US atm,
(US$5 = AU$5.50) but can expect to play DOUBLE the US price. >:(
How the hell is this news, the difference is even more extreme when you look at the uk prices and will only get worse as the US economy collapses.
Didn't you know that 1$=1€ in Europe? What you get in US for 5$, we get it here for 5€. Or even more. The game Beats for PSP is 5$ in the US. In Europe it's 8€ (it would be 9,4$ with the current exchange).
8%u20AC is 12,50$ with the current exchange.
I too am a bit pissed at the lack of price actualization for each region. Hell the US dollar and the Canadian dollar are at PAR somedays Our Canadian Dollar is above that of the US dollar. We still pay more at the store. I wish sony would put out a Canadian Store and start including Canada as a place in games and on websites.WARHAWK
The prices will never be the same. Exchange courses change, you know. If you just look how the exchange course between Euro and Dollar changed over just one year, you see what I mean. The prices for the games will be set, when the game is in development. I rather have a constant price than changing prices every 2 days.
seriously, how does this qualify as 'news'?
anyone who's signed up for more than one ps store knows that the US is cheaper than the UK and the UK is cheaper than the rest of the EU.
the problem is, that you can't fix a price for something in multiple currencies and have it fair for everyone when each currency is constantly fluctuating in value when compared to the others.
having said that, the value of the US dollar and UK sterling is very low so the euro prices should be better value, but they aren't so someone at sony needs to invest in a new calculator.
people in Africa are making more money than people in the US. So they should be expected to pay more in my opinion.
but i happily paid £5 for the PAiN :)
An average person in Spain earns around 1000€ a month. The same person doing the same job in France would earn almost double. Prices shouldn't be the same in all countries in Europe, and they are much more expensive than in the US. And here we're talking about downloadable stuff. No package, no European taxes, no mailing. It's a rip-off.
Another ignorant blog from an ignorant internet boob.
The #1 reason for this price structure is VOLUME OF SALES.
Selling a product world wide while trying to think of all aspects from manufacturing to PoS would make any persons head spin around in circles.
There is no such x dollar equal z dollar conversion to figure out price structure.
but it's not quite accurate. i don't know about Australia, but I was in the UK this spring break, and I was shocked at how much things cost but then I realized that the people there are pay that much because they are payed that much. the minimum wage in my state was recently $5.15 (it was raised and I'm not sure what it is now) and the min wage in the uk is something like 5-6 pounds so it evens out.
The US in terms of volume exceeds that of any country in the world. A couple of years ago I took a economics class and I learned that the US has around 17 trillion dollars in sales each year. Second place is the UK with 8 trillion. Now I do realize that with how the US economy is doing the number probably has dropped. But I wouldn't doubt that we are still the leader.
I agreed, nuff said.
Another useless news for QJ.net
you noob. the game is downloadable. meaning, it won't be shipped, exported, imported, and no materials are being used for the games. they are just files being transferred through the internet. that means, whether or not you're in Africa or US, you can download the file. but the blogger just happens to buy from the South African PSN Store. get it? that means this product must go with the world market price, jsut like any other product. and to think there are no manufacturers/distributors involved, then the prices must be the same. if a product is exported and some company other than the one who made the product distributes the product in that country, then the price wll considerably go up. but if SONY, the one who made he product, distributes a game through the internet to different countries, the prices must all be the same, regardless of the demand (because the psn store does not have a significant share in the market).
Hey roddollente, maybe if you got your head out the toilet you would have realized that I was speaking on BROAD platform.
Just files eh? Yeah, no manufacturing there...er coding....
"but the blogger just happens to buy from the South African PSN Store."
HA! And you call me a noob? You got a lot of balls talking sh1t when you obviously have no clue as to what you are talking about. You have to BUY the download before you download it. Meaning DOING BUSINESS. That alone is a whole new ball of wax.
"the prices must all be the same"
WRONG!
Go learn something! Start with what it takes to LOCALIZE an application and how that might bump up cost.
Also, learn how to use the REPLY link....NOOB!!!!
Rupies are cheaper than poker chips in south africa. So, what do you guys think that I should do?
first, i know you have to buy the game (cause there is a price, idiot).
second, it's not only the PSN store that is localized, but sony itself. if it is a product that is sold in a sony store in south africa, the price will definitely go up. but if it is a game that can only be DOWNLOADED, theres not too much of a difference. i know that they are doing business. even the blogger knows that. but the point here is, the price difference is SO BIG. the Beats game's price nearly doubled when basically the file is only transferred to the South African server. get it? i'm not saying the prices MUST BE EXACTLY THE SAME but at least the differences is not 90% added to the original price. i know this is business, but they are just putsmarting people. basically, if you buy all the products in the south african psn store, it's like buying all the products in us psn store twice, without the cost of manufacturing/distributing, no labor involved and only using bandwidth space and some mouse-clicking.
*outsmarting, not putsmarting. typo.
Seconded 100%
Here in Oz we get ripped off bigtime. Double what you pay in the US. I`d love the hear games companies justification for price differences of that kindof magnatude.
All it does is further push people further and further towards piracy.
Price example: When GTA 4 for the ps3 comes out soon it`ll be selling $110 AUS dollars.
im sure the way sony does there pricing is by country or region, not by city/individual. They dont care about 1 person, they care about 20 million people.
and im damn sure they have a set price for there products sold on ps store. however,
More people = cheper price for a product
less people = higher price
so that what they make is even globally
in order for sony to make what they feel is apropriate for there products in south africa they raise the price.
in order for sony to make whats apropriate for there products in the united states they lower they price Theyll lower there prices in the U.S. because of the amount of people. they wouldnt charge more in the U.S. they have a set net price globaly on each individual product.
now for instance a thirdworld country should be charged less for a product because they make far less money, but sony IS in the money making buisness. =/
these stupid bloggers dont know anything about market on different shores.
for example a 500ml coke differs in price in each place, in japan its just 100 yen (almost 1 dollar), in philippines its 15 pesos (about 45 US cents). i bet coke 500ml also has a different price in other territories.
your market dictates what the price of a product will be. exchange rates are not accurate!
"first, i know you have to buy the game (cause there is a price, idiot)."
HAHAHA!!!! I'm the idiot yet you tried to explain that all you do is download it. The POINT which you missed BOTH TIMES is that it must be bought. That wasn't an error I was trying to fix on your part, it's the actual POINT.
"but if it is a game that can only be DOWNLOADED, theres not too much of a difference."
As you have already been told, you are WRONG.
"basically the file is only transferred to the South African server. get it?"
Wrong again! It's easy to see why you are so confused.
"i'm not saying the prices MUST BE EXACTLY THE SAME"
Oh really?
And I quote:
"then the prices must be the same"
"without the cost of manufacturing/distributing"
Change the term manufacturing to a whole lot of coding.
"no labor involved"
Wrong again!
"and some mouse-clicking."
..... I'll have to add that to my technical reference.....
all you said were WRONG. well, let me tell you something.
"first, i know you have to buy the game (cause there is a price, idiot)."
HAHAHA!!!! I'm the idiot yet you tried to explain that all you do is download it. The POINT which you missed BOTH TIMES is that it must be bought. That wasn't an error I was trying to fix on your part, it's the actual POINT.
this is waht you basically told me, and ill tell it to you too. cause you actually dont have any arguments except saying...WRONG! are you a 12-year-old or what? LOL
"first, i know you have to buy the game (cause there is a price, idiot)."
HAHAHA!!!! I'm the idiot yet you tried to explain that all you do is download it. The POINT which you missed BOTH TIMES is that it must be bought. That wasn't an error I was trying to fix on your part, it's the actual POINT.
Still haven't figured out how to post right yet eh? What was it you called me in your first post? NOOB!
Yes, all I've told you is how wrong you are:
1. I've already specified WHY in other posts. I'm not going to repeat myself because you are too lazy to READ.
2. Others have included information showing how wrong you are as well.
3. Reality proves how wrong you are. Open your eyes and look around.