Topic: Greed Will Be Their Downfall - US vs UK game prices

I'm certain I'm not the only person complaining about it. I've heard of some people actually switching to Xbox and boycotting Playstation over it.

I'm talking about UK gamers getting ripped off like never before (and that's really saying something)!

£69.99 is the equivalent of $92.70 USD. That's an increase of around £20 for most games. A gargantuan 40% increase in price! Their arrogant greed makes me feel physically sick and disgusted with Sony/Playstation so much so that I vow to only buy second hand games from this point on until something is done about it. I'm somewhat saddened to have to do this as I like to think that I'm supporting my favourite developers by buying games outright but I won't stand for this insane amount of greed. Who's joining me?

I understand that game development is very costly, now more than ever.. although that's always been the case for AAA/first party games and now there are more people in to gaming, adopting these systems and buying games in general.

Perhaps Playstation should remember that the UK has quite a strong Xbox community and Gamepass will be extremely tempting to anyone that pays full price for a game on Playstation to find that their mate gets it included for £11 a month, along with most of the other games they've paid full price for. I can see many people reconsidering their choices.

What does everyone else think about this grossly unfair disparity of US/UK game prices and what action will you be taking if any?

I hate it as well but it was rightly pointed out to me that US prices don’t include VAT while ours do. Still, doing my sums, it’s usually 6% at least on the PS Store, which would mean a $70 game would be about $74.20. So it’s still a terrible discrepancy but how bad is dependent on each state and the way they calculate tax.

@nessisonett
Good point and one I'd overlooked. Even then, approximately $74.20 vs $92.70 is sickening. I could except a small increase but 35-40% no, I draw the line.

Without wanting to sound like a certain Kotaku reviewer, this is not the time nor climate to be spending £70 on games every time.

@LCDean Canada's exactly the same except it's also region dependant. Here a physical copy of Demon's Souls costs close to 90 CAD and the standard edition of Miles Morales on both PS4 and PS5 is close to 70 bucks. It's nothing I'd boycott Sony over considering I've practically been desensitized to the whole thing due to Nintendo literally pulling the same exact crap on Switch game pricing, but it is concerning. I still went with PS5 this gen because the games are just that much more compelling than anything Microsoft has shown so far outside Hellblade imo. I only buy exclusives on PlayStation consoles so it's not as big of a deal to me as it is for a lot of other people, but that's just me

It’s a massive increase, to be sure. I used Zavvi for the first time in years and noticed in my order history that I bought Mass Effect 2 for £30, Final Fantasy XIII for £32 and BioShock 2 for £32, all at launch! Even on the PS4 I’ve rarely paid full RRP.
It will be interesting to see if/how much this increase impacts games sales. The UK market is extremely price sensitive, and the country is in a difficult economic situation with many people struggling financially. That said games do tend to be sold below RRP at many outlets, so I wonder if they will eventually settle much lower than £70. I got Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for £64 from Base, which is still way more than I’ve ever paid for a standard retail game, but I was happy to save £6. I imagine I’ll buy fewer games at launch unless it’s something I’m desperate to play, and otherwise wait for sales.

@nessisonett Apparently California has the highest sales tax at 7.25%, so the difference is still huge.

Is making a U.S. PSN account an option? those prices seem crazy

Aside from a few special purchases, I'll likely be sticking to GamePass on PC this gen for my big AAA experiences. It's just too good of a value. I've not been huge on Microsoft's first-party content to date, but I'm willing to give them a shot. With Obsidian and Bethesda making games for them, they're bound to publish something decent.

I'll buy Nintendo games day one, because those almost never sink in price anyway, and wait later in the gen to get a PS5 so I can snatch up the exclusives at bargain bin prices. No way I'm paying $77 for their games at launch when they'll eventually be $15 or less.

@nessisonett State + county sales tax rate is 9.75% where I live. -_-

@Ralizah Ahh, I forgot about county sales tax rate as well! Although ours is 20% nationwide so you still win 😂😂

@nessisonett True, but I'd happily pay extra sales tax for access to universal health care.

@Ralizah And free tuition fees and prescriptions up here in Scotland. And until privatisation, there were the railways and the postal service too! Yeah, I’m fine with our VAT in all honesty.

Just but games used or if you have to have games new just wait a few months after a game is released when the prices drop.

@TheFrenchiestFry To be honest most of my PS4 games are Playstation exclusives, I won't be switching but I also won't be buying games new. I'll be protesting with my wallet even if it gets me nowhere.
Up until now I've brought most games new at release, they'll lose a lot of profit from me and If they push more people in to buying used games it kinda goes against what Sony has been trying to accomplish, wanting to eradicate used game sales altogether.

It's what I did way back with N64 games, brought them used (with paper round monies) when greedy Nintendo pulled the same stunt wanting £50 for games when the norm was £30.

@Ralizah UK healthcare has gone downhill so much in recent years that I'd rather pay for treatment!

@nessisonett Mine is a whopping 24.9% combined state and county tax, so unfortunately my area's actually worse off than U.K. yay...smdh. 😫

My state sales tax is 6.9% and my county's sales tax is 18%...

@mookysam There is also County and City tax not just state.

The difference back then was that it cost Nintendo around $30-$35 a cartridge and that's why they were so expensive. Its that legacy though that makes publishers charge what they do today and the reason that PC games cost less was really because PC gamers wouldn't pay those prices.

If you don't buy games at launch, they won't keep trying to charge that much. They can BS as much as they like about the costs going up that's driving prices up - but whilst the costs to develop a game have gone up, they are still 'profitable' with relatively 'low' sales. They may not make the money they want/expect but are still profitable without the need for MTX or other bad practices. EA, Activision etc are not releasing anywhere near the quantity of games a year they used to and still making 'more' money per quarter. Its a case of wanting and needing to show financial growth each quarter that's pushing prices.

The devs aren't seeing the money either - its the Publishers. It maybe different with independent studio's but Studio's owned by Publishers are paid a salary and the game is essentially paid for by the time it releases and any money coming in from sales is paying their salaries to work on the next game. A $40m game didn't cost $40m in one go, it was paid over years of running that studio and paying their salaries.

I have NO intention of paying that much for a game. There is no need to buy a game at launch and I can wait for the game to drop to a price point I am willing to pay - just like I have this gen. Not every game was worth the 'launch' price to me but at least some were. If prices go up, no game is worth it and its not like I am desperate to find something to play on a new console with so many games in my backlog - I also have Game Pass too so never gonna be lacking for something to play whilst waiting for the prices to drop to the price I am willing to pay.

I bet if people stop buying games at launch and they don't get their Number 1 best seller, they will drop prices pretty quickly...

@LCDean UK gamers getting ripped? lol.

Try €80.

This is why I have decided to buy all my games physical this gen (apart from Demon Souls and CP2077) as that way I can trade them back in and recoup some of the money.

A big part of the problem is perception, since America has that mad tax system where they're like here have this thing that costs this much and you're like sweet and then they're like lol gotta add tax to that.

Personally, I think it's easier to have the VAT baked in so you know what you're paying, but it does make the price of things look disproportionately high. Then for a double whammy it's a console launch. Games always cost more at a launch because they know you'll pay it - or even consider it - because everyone is hungry for games. It's like when you go to a concert and you buy a hotdog and a beer and it's like £14. They got you where they want you.

So basically yeah it's sad but whatever. Game prices - like everything else - will go up. We can all sit here and talk about Gamepass but anybody who doesn't see a reckoning coming because of Gamepass isn't paying attention.

@johncalmc I can see that reckoning a mile off! It concerns me that within a couple of generations blockbuster games will have changed to be shorter, bite sized, less detailed and less complex versions of what we have now to fit in with a Netflix like business system.

The internet seems to ruin everything eventually...

So true and yet so sad.