UK Sales Charts: PS5 Stock Shortages Force Sony Exclusives Out of the Top 10

I'd say it has more to do with the £/$70 price tag of Sony's games. Even if consoles are difficult to get hold of, there are 9/10 PS5 owners who haven't bought R&C or Returnal.

There is enough console owners too keep those games selling IF the price was appealing enough!

I refuse to buy r&c and returnal until it gets below 40 on ps store ..maybe horizon zero dawn I'll buy day one but others I can wait for

@BAMozzy The $70 price is too much for my country, even brand new nintendo games priced about $45 here (like the upcoming metroid dread), and also bamco (like tales of arise), ubisoft and others 3rd party games are the same, only official region 3 sony games that have full $70 price.

I bought returnal at $70 and can only sells it again at about $42, so I'm done paying full $70 for sony games I think, I'll wait for a sale or buy 3rd party games instead. Ratchet & clank rift apart is the exception.

Also weirdly, region 1 and region 2 (brand new) sony 1st party games are priced $60 here, only the official region 3 games that's expensive.

You can tell it's a bad week for PS5 software when the article is damage controlling this hard, lol.

Why buy PS5 games when you can buy your 50th copy of MK8D or GTA V instead?

Patience is a virtue. A low of gamers would benefit greatly if they worked on it, even just a bit.

I'll happily wait till the prices go sub €20

Plenty of ps4 games to keep me busy till then.

I haven't bought any PlayStation games since I've had the PS5, been play more Quest 2/PCVR, was hoping GTS would've got a PSVR update taking the game fully into VR

Oh my god… the whining over the price of games is too much. Maybe y’all need to find a cheaper hobby…

@AgentGuapo What’s worse... people ‘whining’ over the price of games? Or people whining about people whining over the price of games...? 🤔🤣

I have a PS5 and wince at the £70 price tag for new games, I picked up AC Valhalla and got that brand new for £25 which I thought was an absolute steal (even if the game is soooooo slow) I do own R&C but not returnal (mainly because its like rocking horse sh*t to get)

What was the reasoning for the price hike again was it because the games were now on ultra HD blu ray discs ?

@AgentGuapo Umm that's a bit rude. People have every right to complain against anti-consumer practices, especially in the gaming industry. There is not a single valid reason for Sony's price hike, other than pure greed.

I think playstation owners will switch to third party games for now and when Sony hits their next rich vein of exclusives, they will be back on top. I think this will occur after the likes of Elden ring, Far Cry 6 and Dying Light 2. Also could be wrong but don't Xbox and playstation games have more third party competition than switch? Which would explain why switch exclusives stay on top and the other exclusives do not. I mean I rarely play third party games on switch. May not be the case for others though, I dunno.

@naruball
Well said, I think we're at the point where buying a console at launch with very few and expensive games available isn't necessarily the best course of action. Especially when there is still so much available for way cheaper on previous gens to play.

i'll stick to my ps+ games for a while..i also have returnal,its very hard to spend another 70e so soon.

@BAMozzy Spot on - I have a PS5 and haven't bought an exlcusive title due to the £70 price hike. Returnal and Ratchet and Clank would have been day one.

@AgentGuapo It's weird because last year the hobby was cheaper. I bought TLOU2 and GoT at £49.99 yet for games released in less than a year I have to pay £20 more. So if you can tell me why the hobby is now more expensive than it was less than 12 months ago, that would be great.

I've got the money for £70 games but just won't. The problem with this weird price is it goes over a mental barrier of a night out into the void of a pair of Nike Air Max. Then the special editions at £100 you just can't warrant that kind of one off money for a single game.

@AdamNovice Bang on I've been paying between £50-£65 a game with money I saved up doing a few paper rounds per week as a kid. Now as an adult with a full time job paying an extra 5-10 pounds for a game I really want isn't really an issue. Plus like you said if you shop around you will find a cheaper deal!

There are 10 PS5 games!? Why weren't we informed? I've been waiting for a PS5 game since I managed to buy a console a couple of months ago 🤔

For the moment I'm on board a vessel and can't buy any new games. But still, the hike to 70€ is rough. In Romania the price for games is way to high (like 75€ on PSN). Waiting for discounts, not in a hurry. If it was God of War 2 or Uncharted 5, yes I would jump on the immediately.

The PS5 can't be in high demand in Denmark as my girlfriend's sister got one on a deal with a mobile phone contract. Wish it was that easy in the UK. My contract is coming to an end next month. Fingers crossed.

@fR_eeBritney Fair enough, but so many articles/discussions turn into complaining about the price hike that it does get a bit annoying at times.

Another option is just enjoy the PS5 you actually have and if buying even the occasional game for $70 so you can enjoy said game is fine, then do so. That's what I'm doing and it's a lot better than repeatedly saying how bad the price hike is every chance you can get (not you specifically).

@Lumic 🤣🤣 can't beat an old fashioned mum joke, love it

@Deljo
Clearly pushsquate disagree - boo!!!!

Fantastic for F1, having a blast with it. Switch still stuck racing Mario Kart in 2021... I would loose it (I so needed a SteamDeck this past weekend)

NEO: The World Ends With You fell Out of the top 40. Not surprised, Waiting for it to hit $20 myself.

Valhalla still hanging on. Great news.

@BAMozzy
This is the ironic thing about it all.
Even though there are 10 million PS5 out there
The games are selling 10% or less.
I think Returnal is about 500k.
R&C 1.1 million
Therefore to get say R&C to 10 million sold you need about 100 million PS5 sold.
Crazy numbers when you think about it.
Maybe this will in time see the end of the big exclusives as production time gets longer and costs higher. With attachment rates of about 10% of consoles sold.
It’s well known the PlayStation crowd are big FIFA and COD gamers, I know a few with PS4 and PS5 and that’s all they play.

I have not paid more than £50 for a brand new game at launch and refuse to pay that much. Its a legacy from the Cartridge days when Cartridges were essentially 'hardware' and cost a LOT to manufacture. Unlike today and as Digital sales continue to grow, meaning less 'costs' to manufacture Physical copies, distribute them etc.

We are already paying a 'Premium' to play our games on Console. Part of that is due to the 'cost' of releasing games on console to 3rd Party Publishers. Sony, MS and Nintendo get a 'cut' from all games released - so the Publisher, to get at least a similar amount back, have to charge a bit more on Console to offset the money they lose to the Platform holder.

Look at PC prices for the 3rd Party games - often £10 cheaper at launch because 3rd Party publishers do not have to pay 'fees' to the 'Platform' holder as its an Open Platform. You cannot argue that better visuals and 'next gen' features like RT, AI upscaling etc mean you have to pay an extra £10 to unlock if you upgrade your GPU to access those features.

In Sony's case, as they are the Developer, Publisher and Platform Holder, don't have to pay themselves to release a game on their Platform, using their own copyright PS logo's on the box etc. The entire 'profit' margin is theirs - not split between multiple parties.

If you have two games, 1 first party, one 3rd party, both costing the 'same' to develop and release and booth release on Console at the same price, the 1st Party Game is making a LOT more profit for the Publisher. The amount of 'Profit' from sales is the same, however, in the case of 3rd Party games, that Profit is split between Publisher (maybe Developer unless owned by Publisher) and Platform holder. Others could be involved (like Investors, share holders etc), but as Sony owns the developers, is the Publisher and Platform holder ALL the Profit comes to Sony. Even if you buy 3rd Party Games at £50, some of that profit goes to the Platform holder...

I haven't mentioned Retailer profits - which Platform holders have a Monopoly on their system so if you buy a 3rd Party game digitally on Sony's store, they get a sizeable chunk of Profit as the 'retailer' from the Publisher.

The TL:DR is that Sony are being even more Greedy on their Game Prices. They 'could' sell games cheaper than 3rd Party Publishers and still make more money per game sale but no, they are charging even more. I know they are probably losing money on the Hardware, but its still ridiculous that we are not only paying a Premium to play on Console, we are now expected to pay an extra Premium surcharge too.

If you are 'Happy' to keep paying that, then that's up to you. However, with BC, Game Pass, Games with Gold and PS+ Games, I am NEVER short of something 'New' to play, let alone the games I have yet to finish, so I can 'vote' with my wallet and will NOT pay £70 for any 'standard' version of ANY game - just to play it in the first 'month' or 3 of launch...

@Lumic yeah they can be a bit oversensitive unfortunately #free_Lumic 🙂

Tired of people complaining about such a tiny price rise. True, games aren’t worth £70 to me, but neither were they worth £60. That’s why I buy them second hand or when on a deep digital discount. I’m happy to let people who are willing to pay £70 subsidise my hobby, so if Sony know they will then great. People always have the option of exercising impulse control and waiting a short amount of time for the price to drop.

@Dezzy70 How fast do you think R&C would have sold if it was $40/£35 - like R&C in 2016 or even Returnal at a similar Price when a LOT of PS5 owners are wanting 'PS5' games to almost 'justify' spending £450 on it.

If you look at Infamous: 2nd Son - which released at about the same time as R&C (a bit earlier actually) in terms of Console Lifecycle, It sold over a million in the first 9 days and with far fewer PS4's out in the wild and the new game took over a Month to reach 1.1m. I am not going to compare the sales with 2016's R&C which sold a lot faster and still remains the fastest selling R&C game, because by 2016, there were a LOT more PS4's out there.

I would bet money on R&C still being in the top 10 today with probably double the sales (if not more) had the game released at £40 - not that we can really test that theory, but I for one would have pre-ordered.

Apart from the initial games I got with my PS5 Bundle and buying the Ultimate Edition of Miles Morales (on ebay for less than £40 'New' in Wrapper), I have NOT bought another PS5 game. I LOVED Horizon:ZD, pre-ordered the Special Edition, Platinumed the game in 5/6 days I loved it so much. I am extremely excited to play Forbidden West, but if that's £70 (more than I paid for the Collectors edition with steel book, art book etc), then I will WAIT until I find it on Ebay (or other online retailer) for £50 (or less). I'm voting with my Wallet that Iam NOT supporting Sony's GREED!!!

@BAMozzy
Yet would the overall revenue have been higher? That’s the important bit for the publisher. Sure, you can guess that in the first months of release they may have sold double if Rift Apart was priced at £40, but will those extra people not still buy it at £40 when the price drops anyway? So all Sony would have done is lose out on what the day one people were obviously willing to pay. Even taking into account second hand purchases and those who just lose interest should another big game come along, I’m sure Sony would have worked out they would earn more doing as they have compared to releasing at a lower price.

@BAMozzy
I think it could be a tactic, sell at £70 to those that buy it, then drop the price for others later on.
However once done a few times people will figure it out and stop buying at £70 and wait.

@KilloWertz yeah, I only meant it tongue-in-cheek - not having a pop at anyone 😁

I don’t even have a PS5 (yet) but I haven’t paid full price for games in years now. More than happy to wait to pay less for a better experience (usually).

I still have an iPhone 8+... mostly because I hate ‘the notch’ (that’s a whole other argument) but also because I just don’t feel the need the have the latest gadgets anymore. PS4 Pro is perfectly fine for me (for now).

I do find it odd that some people are defending the price increase though. You’d think everyone would want to pay less for their games...? Weird.

I can just imagine someone going into a shop to buy a new game...

Shop Assistant: Oh hi there, this game is actually on offer today for £45.
Customer: No, I want to pay full RRP!
Shop Assistant: Oh, erm, Okaaay 👀

🤣

Kinda funny seeing the Olympics game at #3.

@Dezzy70 Lego do this too (inflate prices at launch). But if you wait a few months you can almost always buy the same sets heavily discounted (in the UK at least). It must work for them though. Fleece the early adopters to offset the loss when the rest of us buy at a discount.

@Dezzy70 Also 10% is still a very respectable sales figure for ANY game sales. The PS4 is approaching 120m - and, according to Wiki, 7 games sold 12m or more...

God of War - 12m, Spider-Man - 13.2m & Uncharted 4 - 16m are the only 3 Exclusives to sell to 10% or more. The other 4 are GTAv, CoD BO3, CoD WW2 and RDR2.

According to Wiki, if you look at those that sold 10m+ you also have The Last of Us Remastered and Horizon:Zero Dawn (both 10m), as well as the Witcher 3 (10.8m) and Fifa18 (11.8m). I don't believe these are necessarily accurate lists and numbers, but its gives an 'idea' of 11 games that sold 10m+ - 5 of which are Exclusive. I am sure there could be more (Nathan Drake Collection for example, other Fifa/CoD titles etc) but I couldn't find a list with ALL PS4 games released and 'official' sale figures on that platform so have to go by these.

But really, this shows that not many games do go on to sell to 10% or more on that Platform. Its easy to think of CoD and Fifa dominating the charts so 'must' be the 'big sellers on their Platform, and to a degree, they do, but are also bolstered by sales on the other platforms too. GTAv is the top selling AAA game on Xbox too and PC. Minecraft isn't mentioned either - another MASSIVE selling game on all Platforms.

Its not easy to sell to 10% - Bloodbourne, a Game that I see so MANY people lauding, wanting PS5 upgrades etc is mentioned as Selling over 2m (I know it was also given away via PS+) but even if it sold 5m, with 120m PS4's 'sold', that's a little over 4%.

Infamous: Second Son sold '6m' - that's 5% of 120m, and Ghost of Tsushima has sold 6.5m to date - a little over 5%....

@ViolentEntity yeah the value for me in gamepass is how it well it allies to my playstation. The likes of Demons Souls, Ratchet, etc as well as upcoming games like Zero Dawn, GOW2 get the honour of been on my shelf when they come. Meanwhile gamepass and third party games that aren't on gamepass plug the gap between.

@thefourfoldroot Of course not - certainly not in the first month. That's a $30' difference in price which isn't going to be made up by an extra Million+ People buying it. IF they could sell the game at $40 for example, then that additional $30 is pure Profit - $30m 'extra' on a million sales. If they make say $10 on a game at $40, they essentially need to sell 4x the number of games to reach the same Profit. 1m at $40 profit = $40m vs 4m at $10 profit = $40m

Of course if you can sell a Product at a 'higher' price, you maximise the profits per unit, but sales drop off, games may not sell 'enough' to stick in the charts and may not even be the 'best selling or #1 game' of the week - which all helps PR, recognition, media presence etc. This top 10 list gives Sony no Media presence - if Published on N-Life, there is NO Sony presence at all - there is here because Push Square make a point of mentioning Sony's games.

I know its a balance, but the point was more to illustrate how off putting that price point is, why R&C can't even match Infamous: 2nd Son sales which released at a similar point in the consoles life cycle and arguably, the first 'true' next gen PS5 exclusive. They could of released it at the 'standard' AAA $60 price too but no, they want that extra $10 Premium to Play on the 'Premium priced' Console I bought where as ALL other platforms, there is NO upcharge.

Ghost of Tsushima can be directly compared to Gears 5 - both full priced AAA games that both launched on last gen consoles. On Xbox, you got a 'free' upgrade (inc Ray Traced GI) and a free 'Story Expansion' yet GoT is charging $20 for the Expansion (not that I have an issue paying for the DLC at all) and an additional $10 to unlock PS5 'features'. Other publishers, even though Sony is still taking money from them on sales etc are also offering Free upgrades to unlock 3D Audio and Haptic feedback as well...

My issue is that I have already Paid £450 for those features in Games and I don't expect to be 'penalised' for upgrading by having to pay 'extra' to play games on that hardware. I don't expect to pay an extra £10 on PC if I upgrade my GPU to unlock RT, DLSS, Smart Delivery, Direct Storage etc. Its bad enough paying 'extra' to play on a Console with more limited frame rates and visual features anyway. We Pay 'more' for our games and have to Pay an 'extra' Premium to unlock all features (PS+/Gold) or even Play some games. You can't play BF2042 without PS+ and pay 'more' to play it on console too.

@Dezzy70 lol it has been that way since the dawn on buying games son !

No PS5 games worth playing at the moment,but PS4 games still kicking it

@playboxswitch there are ps5 games worth playing..it all depends on what type of game you like..godfall,fenyx rising,outriders to name a few i have really enjoyed and yes they didnt garner great reviews but i didnt care and bought them cheap and loved every minute of them..maybe the sales have dropped off because everybody owns those titles now and who wants to keep buying copies of the same game just to keep them in the top 10?

@Repo_Dog
I know just surprises me how so many don’t play these amazing exclusive games, but own the console.

@Dezzy70 IT is all opinions with out them there would be no options because there would only be the same games , maybe one console ! Not all of use like the same ***** ! Hell some of the supposed best games like drdr2, gow, got, half life , Final Fantasy - Devil May Cry , Any dam sports game they all ***** , Forza Motorsport, The Elders Scrolls , Any halo after 3 they are all on my ***** list but them are opinions and them are mine ! Ps5 -pc only combo I need !

Oh another (fake) outrage thingy unrelated to the article. Yes when PS5 sales are strong the exclusives sales follow because, you know, people buy games with their brand new console. Then they play them for a while duh

@BAMozzy - Price not an issue. Crazy, the amount of people can't use Google(not hard)

Have my Ps5 since launch and yesterday bought spiderman miles Morales for €40 wont ever pay €70 for a game Sony will bend before we do and go back to €60 price point

GTA5 who does not have this game yet? Valhalla is this game on a heavy discount yeah it probably is.

@Machines Dont worry they wont be bend they will go the the Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Rockstar way. Monetization and no full releases so in the end you pay €90 for a gold edition with microtransactions plus a game that has no resale value because half of it is digital. 🤣👍

Yeah thats what we want.

What idiotic analysis. PS5 shortages have nothing to do with exclusives out of the top 10. Sony already said they are exceeding PS4 gen. So, there are more than enough consoles to sell to.

Here is the primary reason and the most obvious Sony's studios don't have anything people want to buy in mass at the moment. And what they have released has done Good to OK the month it was released but died out quite quickly beyond that. Even the much-lauded Ratchet only sold slightly more than a million units. And that is to hungry PS5 console ownership that has had little to buy for next-gen only gaming. That million is only10% of its userbase. I would have expected it do at least 15% to 20%. Even cross-gen games have done so-so. Morales didn't even reach 50% of the Spider-Man sales. And that is with Morales having close to 30 million more consoles to rely on for sales.

Secondly, pricing. $10 more is $10 too much. Simple as that. Casuals (you know the 80%+ of owners) are going to conserve their money. Even on PS5 at this point, I would say 50% that I know personally that have a PS5 console are casual gamers. Maybe Ratchet might pop-up on the list again if it gets a 50% sale or magically appears on PS4 next year (taking bets it will, in takers?).

But let's just face it several of those games are always there. GTA V and Minecraft never move off. Some of those other games have sales going on (see my point about Ratchet). Others will probably not be there next month or two replaced by what is the next hot thing for a month. I.E. maybe Deathloop or a Directors Cut or the latest cross-gen third-party.

It's not a manufacturing issue, not really. It's the fact that scalpers still have 10,000+ of the PS5s. Just check eBay.

Scalper Bots still snatch them up whenever they're available. Most people still won't be able to get one as long as the bots are active.

Sony counts those as sold units even though they aren't being used.

@fR_eeBritney It's all good.

I'm not really defending the price hike. Obviously I'd rather pay $60 instead of $70, but I'm also not going to let it get in the way of enjoying my games or buying something I really want to play right away. I will wait on some games, but definitely not the next Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Horizon Forbidden West, and stuff like that.

@The_Moose exactly. Unlike a few decades ago, we now have so many options of brilliant games to play (hence so many of us having huge backlogs), yet many people can't help but want to play the new and shinny thing and also demand that it costs as much as they want it to.

@Rudy_Manchego following the same logic, can you tell me why The Last of us II cost less when it came out than games that were released more than two decades ago (and cost only a fraction of TLoU II's budget) when the prices of everything else have been rising?

@ImGumbyDammit "That million is only10% of its userbase. I would have expected it do at least 15% to 20%."

That's because you haven't taken a serious look at the attach ratios of Sony exclusives over the years.

How many exactly had a 15%-20% attach rate exactly? Sony isn't Ninty.

@naruball Not a problem. I'm assuming the argument here is, well I paid £60+ for a Super Nintendo game in 1993 and that was cheaper to produce so prices should be higher now?

Well it is true that yes, games cost more but have stayed the same price. Surely we should pay more for games that are ever and ever larger? Well, that would be true if it were not for a few factors.

1) The Gaming industry is larger now and generates more revenue and profit then it has ever done. That's with the games staying the same price.

2) Gaming revenue is now not just related to the RRP of a launch price product. DLC, season passes, merchandies, MTX, Battles passes make up a lot of revenue. Not to mention licensing to things like subscription services or PS Plus/XB Gold etc.

3) The increasing cost of games is self driven from the industry. To try and keep selling, everyone is looking for more and more unique selling points and a lot of that focuses now on game length and graphical fidelity.

4) Price points are typically set by what the consumer sees the value as. This ties into my point. From a budgetary perspective, given that I have become accustomed and there is competing products for my money, the balance of a £50 launch game price has hit a sweet spot for gamers.

Comparing an industry and the market from now, when everyone games on one device or another is, to something 30 years ago is always a fallacy. So here is where I am coming from. Within less than a year a product price has changed by £20 with no noticeable reason to me as a consumer. So I, like many other consumers, are basically saying NO to it because the price to value proposition is less.

This is an experiment by Sony. If enough people pay the £70 at day one and the £20 price hike is enough to offset the loss of customers like me, it will stay. If enough people vote with their wallets then it won't.

@naruball The Price we pay today is a Legacy of those old Cartridge days when it cost a LOT of money to produce the 'Cartridge'. It is essentially 'hardware' and a N64 cartridge cost about $30+ to produce - that's just the cartridge compared to 'cents' for a CD-Rom disc.

During the 80'swhen you were paying $50 for your Cartridge, I was paying £2 for a Codemasters Game or '£10' for the AAA games of that era on Tape/Disc for whatever 'Home Computer System' I owned. Same games on the Amiga 500 came on many 'discs'.

Part of the reason FF7, which was scheduled to release on N64, in the end only released on PS1 was because of the 'storage' capacity and 'cost' of making cartridges. They couldn't fit FF7 on one Cartridge and at a cost of $30-$35 to produce a Single Cartridge, it would have made the game far too expensive for the consumer (over $100)

That 'legacy' has continued to this day. If people were OK to spend $50+ in the past to play on Console, they can charge $50 (or more) today - despite the massive drop in costs to manufacture and distribute games.

PC players will NOT pay that much and companies know it. Of course PC is an open platform so Publishers also don't lose a portion of their 'profits' like they do on a 'locked' system like consoles. You already pay 'more' for the privilege of playing on console and yet on PC, if you 'have' the hardware, have 120fps, RT, DLSS and other 'next-gen' features without having to pay an extra Premium to unlock those. You also have to pay a Subscription to access all features, even to be able to play some games (even Solo) that PC gamers are not 'expected' to pay.

With more and more sales of Digital only, companies are making fewer and fewer Physical copies, significantly reducing their 'overheads' too. That is also making Console platform holders even more Money as they have the monopoly on 'retail' profits.

I know Sony are probably losing Money on the sale of Each PS5, more so on the Digital one - but I really don't think putting a 'premium' on their games is the right way to go. They already make money from EVERY game you buy, much, much more if you are Digital only.

So hopefully you can see, that if a Game was $50 in 80's and early 90's, $30+ of that was just the cost of making the cartridge - let alone box, booklet etc. Plus the gaming sector was significantly smaller so a much much smaller potential sales base too.

It doesn't often take 'many' sales to become Profitable either - According to Sony, Returnal was a Success with around 560k sales....

@Toypop and how do you explain the fact that every week that there is new stock of ps5s available, games like Spider-man rise in the charts?