Sony to offset cost of cutting console price by raising game prices?!

Expensive games could accompany a shift in business plans over at Sony.
by Anoop Gantayat

September 23, 2006 - Following up on Ken Kutaragi' s pre-TGS keynote address, Japanese site Impress Watch has posted the latest in its " Random Tracking" editorial series. This periodic feature is written by Munechika Nishida, a well-known contributor to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and Ultra One PC magazine, and this latest update has some surprising revelations on the PS3.

To most gamers, the most eye-catching part of the feature is a claim about game prices. Citing " multiple information sources," the article states that the price of PS3 games will be concentrated in the 8,800 to 9,800 yen range. The primary reason given is the rising cost of development.

In Japan, the standard price of a PS2 game is 6,800 yen, with only the biggest titles like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy rising to the 8,800 yen mark.

There' s a deeper story to this price hike. According to the article, Sony was, as of E3, planning to alleviate cost pressures on 3rd parties by lowering royalty costs. The thinking at the time was that users would be able to create their own games and distribute them online throught he PS3, and Sony would not be able to charge royalties for such titles. The company would want to offer 3rd parties a similar pricing environment, with the savings from royalty costs passed on to consumers in the form of lower software prices.

However, this strategy has apparently been put on hold as Sony has been unable to complete preparations for turning the PS3 into an open platform. The article claims that Sony has made no progress in the preparations for allowing users to make their own games. Such preparations include a development environment, manuals, security management and community features.

It should come as no surprise that preparations have been delayed, as the article also claims that even support for 3rd party developers is lagging.

With the delay in progress towards an open platform, the site speculates that Sony is switching to a more traditional business model where the PS3 will be sold at a " surprisingly low price" and losses will be recouped on software royalties. This is the business model that was used for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2.

As part of this strategy shift, we could be seeing changes to Sony' s plans for multiple PS3 SKUs. The article claims that while the 60 gigabyte PS3 will still be available, the company' s focus will be shifted to the 20 gigabyte model. This is part of Sony' s hope to change from a multi SKU business model to a single SKU model. The article cites as a source software distribution firms which noticed, at the end of August, a change in Sony' s marketing approach for the PS3.

Some big revelations to be sure. We should be able to get a grasp on how accurate Nishida' s sources were as PS3 pricing and shipment details become available in the coming weeks.

IGN

9800 Yen = $84

It' s possible, and Sony themselves said that the cost of games might rise, but $84 would be improbable. Would Sony do that?

Call them and ask

Sinking ship.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Okay, since this isn' t confirmed yet, lets go in a slightly different direction...

...what' s the most you' ve ever paid for a game, and whatplatform was it for.

I paid £89.99 ($171) for Perfect Dark. And i had to buy the expansion pak too wich cost £40 ($76) at the time, to be able to play it.

$200 for Steel Batallion. It came with that beast of a controller which makes it worth it. People' s jaws drop when they see that ting, lol. I bought the Online expasion for it too in the same day In one purchase I almost hit $300 after tax and stuff.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

I' ve paid £50.00 for xbox 360 games.

If you were to ask me what' s the only game you remember getting and at the
exact time... I would say Ninja Gaiden May 12th 2004, Wednesday at 9.32am.

There are two rules to success:

1. Never tell all you know.

I' d like to mention that really was a one time thing. When Steel Batallion was announced I wanted it from day one. I promised myself that if I ever saw it in a store I would purchase it instantly. Nearly a year after its launch I found it in an EB sitting on some shelf in the back corner and I grabbed it. I probably wouldn' t do this for any other game. Would hesitate spending anything more that $70 on a game and even $70 is rare (cost of 360 special edition games). Oblivion is the only game I' ve bought in special edition form for the 360 (well that and PD0 but it was $60 and I traded that in).

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

I remember N64 prices becoming ridiculous at the end of its lifetime. Sure, no loading times was a big bonus for cartridge games but PD set me back close to $AU200. I think Majora' s mask was similarly priced. But I can excuse PD as it literally gave me and my brother thousands of gameplay hours.

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

I remember N64 prices becoming ridiculous at the end of its lifetime. Sure, no loading times was a big bonus for cartridge games but PD set me back close to $AU200. I think Majora' s mask was similarly priced.

Yeah, but it was because the carts were expensive to make. Some games, and especially the ones that required the expansion pak were stupidly priced. I got an N64 at launch and the games were £65-£70 each. I could only afford Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings, and it took me two months to get the money for Turok.

But I can excuse PD as it literally gave me and my brother thousands of gameplay hours.

Well that' s the point. If a game provides that much replay value then the price isn' t really a factor, ...but for games that last say 6 hours like Kameo, or Prey on 360 (because they' re recent) asking for £50 is a bit of a joke. I paid it, and i enjoyed the games, but i don' t think they were worth what i paid for them. Advanced warfighter on the other hand has easily been worth the RRP + the cost of the downloadable content.

I just wish games had a staggered pricing structure based on their value.

ORIGINAL: Rampage99

$200 for Steel Batallion. It came with that beast of a controller which makes it worth it. People' s jaws drop when they see that ting, lol. I bought the Online expasion for it too in the same day In one purchase I almost hit $300 after tax and stuff.

That raises a big question in my head:
Was the game good?

The game is damn god but hard as hell. I still haven' t beaten it. The best part about the whole thing is how engrossing it is. Just starting up the mech by going through the whole start up process flipping switches, checking read outs, watching the mech OS debug, and finally pressing the ignition and then have your entire mech cockpit lock down is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had with a videogame. I' ll boot up the game every now and then just to start my mech and it puts a smile on my face.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Pictures in the gearwhores thread -NOW!

99 bucks for FF3 and Chrono Trigger each. I' ve never paid as much for games as I did at the end of the SNES cycle. This is all in Canadian dollars though, and had a lot to do with exhange rates at the time.

I paid £80 for the original devil may cry (jap import version). Yes I was crazy then, and I loved the game! But never again.

what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women!

The special edition of Oblivion is probably the highest I' ve gone with paying for a game. That game obviously makes the price/value ratio very nice. I came close to convincing myself to get Steel Battalion. Just coulndt do it tho...dont think I' d have the room for it anyhow.

Hey, where' s Evil Man? Because as we all know, I was pulling figures like this out of my anus yesterday, stuff that had no base in reality... mmhmm...

It' s really not suprising, not when you look at the price of the media itself. I mean, what are blank Blu-Ray disks gonna run for now?

The most I' ve ever payed for a game? I buy used, so it' s not a problem, but I spent 750 in August on gaming alone. (360, 360 game, and random ps2, GC and DS games.

I seem to recall that when Virtua Racing came out for the Genesis/Megadrive, it was a special cartridge that contained at least one extra chip which enabled the system to run the fully 3D polygonal graphics... I think it was US$99.99. I didn' t buy it, but I rented it, and it was fantastic. Not worth paying to own it, though.

I want to make one comment on that article...

Sony was, as of E3, planning to alleviate cost pressures on 3rd parties by lowering royalty costs. The thinking at the time was that users would be able to create their own games and distribute them online throught he PS3, and Sony would not be able to charge royalties for such titles.

I have to say, I think this scenario is largely wishful thinking. Sure, there are millions of gamers who idly fantasize about designing their own games. Then they get into some sort of programming environment, even just one of the ' click and create' types of applications, and quickly realize that designing and programming a game as archaic as Dig-Dug is a formidable task... not to mention dealing with 3D graphics, physics, dynamics and so forth.

I think it' s great that all three console manufacturers are moving towards a more open development model, but who will really utilize it? We' ll probably see some projects by student development teams, maybe a few games here and there by old school homebrew types, but it' s not going to be an avalanche of new software.

800$ for Garou: Mark of the Wolves, AES version.

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

I remember N64 prices becoming ridiculous at the end of its lifetime. Sure, no loading times was a big bonus for cartridge games but PD set me back close to $AU200. I think Majora' s mask was similarly priced. But I can excuse PD as it literally gave me and my brother thousands of gameplay hours.

Um is that 200 Australian Dollars? You must be kidding me. During the N64 era i bought all my games when they launched and all were AUS$100 or less (i have over 20-30 N64 games). If you were buying it at that price that store was really pulling a fast one on you or your just unlucky ;p

And back on topic i can definately see this happening. Apparently sony loses up to US$300 per console - thats a lot of money that they need to recoup. On top of this if the games are on blu ray that media ain' t cheap, thus further increasing the price or (keeping the price competitive but) reduce profits. Releasing a console with such high loss per console sold is a lose - lose situation for both sony and its fans, especially with 360 being out for almost a year and Wiis affordability & unique controller.

Apparently sony loses up to US$300 per console

If not more, I heard it cost somewhere in the lower 800' s to manufacture, but I can' t back it up with anything.

Releasing a console with such high loss per console sold is a lose - lose situation for both sony and its fans, especially with 360 being out for almost a year and Wiis affordability & unique controller.

But some people don' t look at that as an advantage, the 360 HAS been out for a year, that means that some people are already bored with what they' ve seen, they want more, and they think PS3 will provide. Many people like the Wii idea now that they' ve seen it, but you' ve gotta admit, it' s gonna be a completely different style of gaming. And like it or not, there are going to be a good number of people who absolutely refuse to try it.

It' s pretty traditional for console makers to lose alot of money on first console sales anyway, this is just on a bigger scale. So the way I think, it' s either going to be a total success, or an absolute failure. The more you bet, the more you win or lose.

Well my point mainly is that becuase sony is losing so much because they can' t sell the ps3 at how much its really worth, they need to recover there loses which means that gamers might have to pay more for games - which could lead to less game sales and less revenues for developers which might force developers to rethink exclusivity with ps3 and potential shift there focus to more profitable platforms. Add to this the smaller install base of 500k worldwide ps3, compared to 2million Wiis and over 8million 360s the picture becomes bleaker.

Well, Sony' s install base is forked, no contest there, but I' m not sure an expensive launch console dooms sony to gaming obscurity. If it' s one thing Sony is good at, Sony in general even, not just playstation, it' s downsizing, & reducing component costs. I' m just going by what the past has played out.

Gahh! I' m sick of debating, I need all 3 consoles! Now! With demo' s!

Edit: Just noticed, you' ve got 83 posts, and I' ve got 718, and we' re only one level apart, a little strange, don' t you think?

ORIGINAL: Terrak

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

I remember N64 prices becoming ridiculous at the end of its lifetime. Sure, no loading times was a big bonus for cartridge games but PD set me back close to $AU200. I think Majora' s mask was similarly priced. But I can excuse PD as it literally gave me and my brother thousands of gameplay hours.

Um is that 200 Australian Dollars? You must be kidding me. During the N64 era i bought all my games when they launched and all were AUS$100 or less (i have over 20-30 N64 games). If you were buying it at that price that store was really pulling a fast one on you or your just unlucky ;p

From what I can remember, the PD bundle came with the memory expansion pack. That' s why it was so expensive. But I remember walking into stores like Kmart, EB, etc and seeing Majora' s Mask and other end lifecycle 64 games for $120+ and thinking twice before purchasing.

I didn' t buy Majoras Mask nor did i see that pack but it would be diffcult for me to buy any game over AUS$100 unless its a Zelda or some top game, even then i wouldn' t be too happy.
I would imagine ps3 games going for AUS$120 or even more.

You live in Australia too? Did you pre order a Wii yet?

ORIGINAL: Eddie_the_Hated

Edit: Just noticed, you' ve got 83 posts, and I' ve got 718, and we' re only one level apart, a little strange, don' t you think?

LOL maybe you need 1000 posts to pass level 3? if so you need to get cracking!

I think... $60-$70 per game. I remeber reading and article over at Gamespot where a devoloper said that they where going to sell there games for the same $59.99 price point....I' ll find it tomorrow, cause I' ve got homework to do!

...Random Madness, Forward...

It seems that if sony are to keep competitive they need to keep games prices at around US$60, however there are other problems they need to face.

Losing up to US$300 per console sold, must be made up for in game sales. Lets say sony (not the developer) earns US$10 per game, they need over 30 games so that you can ' pay off' you ps3. Thats 30 games for every console sold! Thats alot of games. IF they don' t believe they could sell that many games they need to increase the price, say US$15, then they need 20 games to break even, a bit less but still quite a lot. This however will increase the retail price of the games which might negatively impact sales. BTW this example only shows what sony need to do to recover the manufacturing loses, sony still doesn' t make a profit nor payback all the R&D and advertising costs - that ain' t too good. On top of that you add a new and advanced media (bluray), which costs significantly more to produce then your standard DVD9. If 360 DVD9 games go for US$60 i find it hard to believe that blu ray games would retail for the same price time anytime soon. To add more salt to the wounds a developer came out saying it takes 5 times more effort to make a ps3 games - further adding to the retail cost of the game. And guess what even when you ' payback' what you owe to sony (the US$300) the games will not be reduced in price they will remain the same (for new released games that is)

Sorry for my long rant but theoretically speaking ps3 games will be signifcantly more expensive then Wiis and 360. I would be surprised if it wasn' t. Look at what sony has been hinting, GT were you need to buy the cars and tracks, microtransactions - in game advertising. I don' t like where this is going.

ORIGINAL: Terrak

You live in Australia too? Did you pre order a Wii yet?

Yes I am a fellow Aussie. Havn' t pre ordered a Wii yet. I' ve got too many expensive purchases happening in November/December that I' ll have to wait until the bank account recovers. But I don' t think it' ll be too hard to pick up and I know that one of my mates is purchasing it ASAP so I' ll get to try before I buy. Nintendo probably won' t have too many shortages for their console. PS3 is currently out of the question because:

1) I' m not prepared to spend close to $AU1000 just for a console
2) Shortages are going to make it impossible to find

I' ll pick it up when it drops in price a little and increases in availability.

I' m just glad its coming out before Christmas in Australia. I don' t like a March 07 launch date - like GC Australian launch which was pretty lack lustre affair.

I' ve never been disappointed with a Nintendo console yet so i have to pick one up at launch or at the very least around Christmas. I haven' t been console gaming for a long time but the Wii has really got me interested in console gaming again. Yes, a ps3 for AUS$1000 is alot, you could buy a reasonable laptop for that price. I' d imagine ps3 games going for AUS$120+. IMHO Games gotta stay below AUS$100, that should be the sweetspot.

Ow...OUCH OUCH OUCH!

Okay, taking that' s it about US$70-85 for a PS3 game...

Since, NTSC-J PS2 games do not have English language options hence leading to retailers in S' pore to import the US (not PAL) versions...

With exchange rates, that' s about...

$140-170 per PS3 game, taking prolly some discounting along the way, that still adds up to $100+ per game in S' pore dollars...

And our currency is more or less the same standard of the US dollar when we buy stuff (like, about $7+ for a McDonald' s setmeal as reference), so that' s...

Just-plain-horrible!

Okay, okay, technically I admit most of the casual gamers over here would go over to Malaysia and buy modified and pirated games but still...

No wonder the Xbox wins over here (amongst guys. I only know one other girl who has an Xbox and likes it)! We pay half the price for Xbox games than we do PS2 games, and it' s even more so for 360 vs. PS3!

Ugh...

Btw, what' s the memory difference b/t Blu-Ray and normal DVDs, and if Assasin' s Creed, which was PS3 exclusive turned duo-platform can use the space on DVDs, what exactly is the extra space on a Blu-Ray disc for?

ORIGINAL: Byakko

Btw, what' s the memory difference b/t Blu-Ray and normal DVDs, and if Assasin' s Creed, which was PS3 exclusive turned duo-platform can use the space on DVDs, what exactly is the extra space on a Blu-Ray disc for?

Technically it allows for higher resolution textures and other improved game assets. But you' ve got to look at the facts and the bigger picture. I' m not dissing PS3 for the sake of it. Higher resolution textures are great IF you have the RAM to store them. High resolution textures will fill up RAM extremely fast because obviously they' re a larger size. If you can' t fit the high resolution textures required to render a scene in the RAM available (only 256MB for RSX, less than the unified 512MB that X360 has available) - then what is the point? Same goes for any other processing. What good is all of this extra space if you can' t process what' s stored on it? Blu-Ray will allow for more CGI scenes but I' m still not sold on the virtues of " better textures" given the limitations of the system as a whole. Even the transfer speeds of the 2x Blu-Ray drive on the PS3 are less than the speeds of a 12x DVD drive (found on X360 and I think Wii).

Lets not forget about compression either. It' s constantly evolving. I' m still stunned at what Nintendo could fit on a 1GB mini disc. Games like metroid rivaled most games on DVD.

I don' t remember ever paying an extrordinary amount for one game, probably a 64 game.

Personally this whole strategy of raising the prices of games will have a backwards effect on their profits. Any douch bag can see that if they lowered the price of the games they' d be making far more money by selling a lot more games. Movies can have a budget ten times that of a videogame and still get away with selling the things at a third the price. Then again Videogames isn' t quite as large as the movie industry (or are we?) and videogames doesn' t have the equivalent as the theater.

Btw, what' s the memory difference b/t Blu-Ray and normal DVDs, and if Assasin' s Creed, which was PS3 exclusive turned duo-platform can use the space on DVDs, what exactly is the extra space on a Blu-Ray disc for?

That' s a really good question, and Unlucky has nailed it right on the head. PS3' s main memory bottleneck could cost them visually, and it' s the specific reason as to why Starbreeze Studios said that the 360 version of The Darkness would have " better" textures.

About Assassins Creed though, it' s the same for other multi-platform titles like Rainbow Six: Vegas and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They' ll be on one disc too.

Whether Gears of War will be on one disc or not is another question...

Still, should a game prove too big for DVD9, using multiples of the format would still cost less than using Blu-Ray.

I was thinking about multiple disks today. And how easily such a thing could be handled. Simply put the single player/co-op on one disk and the mulitplayer on another. Wouldn' t separating the 2 free up a shit load of space? Peole wouldn' t be able to complain too much since the single player story wouldn' t be interupted at all.

Or am I wrong?

Ofc you could do that.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

I can' t see why anyone could complain about multi disk games. It' s not like you are going to go through a whole game in one sitting that spans multiple disks. You' re going to have to get up at some point. Also, it' s no different than swapping a disk to play a different game. Complaining about have to change multiple disks is the definition of lazy.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

as long as the game boots on the second disc aswell! Damn you twin snakes

I think everyone is well versed in multiple discs thanks to all of the Final Fantasy games on PS. It also gives bragging rights:

" You' re only on disc 1? pfft, I' m on disc 3!"

I think joystiq has reported that all launch games will retail for US$60. Although i wonder why they had to say ' launch games' and not ' all games' . any way here' s the link -

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/26/ps3-game-prices-at-launch-same-as-xbox-360-game-prices-at-lau/

You guys fantasize too much.

PS3 games will be $59.99 and it will crush X360.

Get. Over. It.

You guys are like people that try to argue that american cars are better than Japanese, you' re just making yourselves looked retarded. X360 Sucks.