Playstation 5: Thread 02

[MartyG]

Import prices were always different, but I distinctly remember some PAL games being around the 60 quid mark in the SNES days.

Just checked on some calculator and it reckons £60 in 1994 is worth £120 today!

Shame my salary hasn't kept up with inflation in a similar way - I didn't pay £60 for PAL SNES carts either.

[Hirst]

If £70 is the new normal, I'm getting a new hobby.

I'd pay that much if I knew:-
1. The full game isn't having content deliberately removed and sold piecemeal
2. The developers had proper working conditions and ordinary working hours, rather than endless "crunch time" to meet unrealistic release dates
3. I was getting a proper physical release with a box (and a manual)

Bear in mind a lot of the reason we had to pay £40 back in the cartridge days is that it cost more to manufacture them, especially if they had custom chips or more Mbits than usual. That was always the argument as to why Neo-Geo carts cost a fortune. Optical media is nowhere near as expensive to knock out wholesale, but they don't even pass on the savings if you're buying the digital version. The big publishers don't look like they're hurting to me, they seem to be coining it in - just looks to be some new console launch profiteering from people who probably have the money to burn anyway.

I suspect prices will more-or-less match previous generations after a few months, maybe a usual release will go up a fiver or something.

[CMcK]

I remember NBA Jam for the SNES being £59.99 in Game years ago, and the Turtles fighter game too, iirc.

A lot of SNES games were £60 at launch even mundane stuff like Mickey's Magical Quest. Crazy money back then.

The cost of producing games is silly these days. It's amazing we've had prices stay fairly stable for so long. Publishers always try to hike the prices with new formats. But it never lasts a recent example being UHD discs.

[112]

I agree £70 is very high, and they are pricing themselves out of the general populous, who do not earn anywhere near what they should be, in line with inflation etc. This is where the second hand market comes in, and again, the gaming industry is moving away from that with digital only becoming more prominent.

I personally think these ‘higher’ prices are just for the honeymoon period of a new console, we will be seeing the prices drop to what we see now as the console ages. They are charging the high price because it is the new ‘toy on the block’ and know people will pay for it (if they have the means, that is).

Apple do this every year with their iPhones don’t they?

112

[MartyG]

I personally think these ‘higher’ prices are just for the honeymoon period of a new console

For the Sony titles I think it's more likely down to them bleeding loses with pricing the hardware so low.

[Hirst]

For the Sony titles I think it's more likely down to them bleeding loses with pricing the hardware so low.

That's a fair point - we don't know the agreement costs of licensing and it seems entirely feasible that they might have stuck a huge tariff on the launch software to make up the difference, pushing the prices up. I guess nowadays they can't do the old "you really need a memory card but they don't come with the system" trick.

[paulus]

Shopto's site still says Register Interest but they've added Pre-order above it in green too so it looks like they're taking them now. I registered mine in July so fingers crossed

(F5's other sites frantically)

We preordered last night for 1 pence. Today I read that you need to re-log back in, goto "Preorders" with in the "Accounts" page & click confirm. It wasnt mentioned in our initial email - NAUGHTY!

[MartyG]

I think the console price is very good indeed, but there's absolutely no way that Sony are saving £90 on manufacturing by leaving out the BluRay drive. They've also got tooling costs for the two different case designs.

I was surprised that they went as low as they did with the DE, I also thought the controllers might be priced a bit higher.

[fishbowlhead]

I've paid over £1k for AES carts, yet my brain still tells me £70 for a PS5 game can GTF.

You can gtf out after that comment 😁

[fishbowlhead]

For the Sony titles I think it's more likely down to them bleeding loses with pricing the hardware so low.

This. £350 for the diskless is absolutely insane, they must be taking a huge hit on it. Got to make it up somewhere.

[Colin]

You can gtf out after that comment 

I Then sold them for a profit.

[Neon Ignition]

Just looking at my Shopto confirmation page. First orders seemed to have gone up in Feb/Mar so I'm thinking if I click confirm having put mine in in July I'm running a high risk of not getting in the launch batch

[fuse]

Think we've all paid worse; no denying that £70 is a very rough hike, though. Last gen I picked up some utter dross alongside both systems at launch, whereas a combination of the price, and the fact that Demon's Souls is actually a game I am genuinely interested in, and expect to play for some time, means that I'll just get the one game on launch and not bother getting Spiderman just as something to play on it.

[gambit6613]

Depends completely on the game, something like Skyrim, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 etc where I’m going to play for potentially hundreds of hours,I could justify £70, I won’t like it but it’s value compared to £70 for something like FIFA or NBA2k etc where by they are full to the brim with mtx’s and are pretty much just roster updated each year.

[Neon Ignition]

It's a shame the patch will be later as with Cyberpunk sharing the same release date many will probably pair the two