Sony: We're Tailoring PS Vita Game Pricing
SCEE being "rather intelligent, tailored" in its game pricing
Sony is ramping up its pre-launch PS Vita outreach with various preview events and trade-press interviews. Front and centre this week is PlayStation’s European president and CEO Jim Ryan. Jim wants to dispel some 'myths' that have already arisen about the device.
Yesterday we looked at how Nintendo's 3DS sales in Japan are good news for the Vita... despite the conflicting statement that the two devices are in different markets.
Today, Mr Ryan tells MCV about how games are priced for Vita in a market where people baulk at games costing more than 59p on smartphones.
The proposition that "Vita’s software pricing is too high..." is met with, "This expands on one of the learnings from the PSP experience. We have taken a rather intelligent, tailored approach to software pricing this time. Rather than just sticking everything out at a double-A price and seeing what works and what doesn’t."
If nothing else, this provides some insight into how Sony has been pricing games thus far. Mr Ryan continues.
"This time, we are recognising the new realities of the portable gaming world, we have looked carefully at each title and its merits. Uncharted is a title that we feel justifies that sort of high price point. Some of the other games that are maybe less grand in their scale, we’ve sought to price accordingly. We’ve tried to strike a good balance between consumer proposition, value and price."
Aside from the fact that last time it would have been impossible to recognise the 'new' realities, given that those realities didn't exist, the idea that only now is Sony striving to strike "a good balance between consumer proposition, value and price" beggars belief.
"That reality is there at 59 pence, and equally, you have at the other end PS3-type gaming experience commanding £55. It’s our responsibility to our consumers that if we want to charge prices at that top end then we have to provide a gaming experience at that end."
Surely, the statement, "No, Vita’s software pricing is not too high" would probably have covered it.
Source: MCV
Yesterday we looked at how Nintendo's 3DS sales in Japan are good news for the Vita... despite the conflicting statement that the two devices are in different markets.
Today, Mr Ryan tells MCV about how games are priced for Vita in a market where people baulk at games costing more than 59p on smartphones.
The proposition that "Vita’s software pricing is too high..." is met with, "This expands on one of the learnings from the PSP experience. We have taken a rather intelligent, tailored approach to software pricing this time. Rather than just sticking everything out at a double-A price and seeing what works and what doesn’t."
If nothing else, this provides some insight into how Sony has been pricing games thus far. Mr Ryan continues.
"This time, we are recognising the new realities of the portable gaming world, we have looked carefully at each title and its merits. Uncharted is a title that we feel justifies that sort of high price point. Some of the other games that are maybe less grand in their scale, we’ve sought to price accordingly. We’ve tried to strike a good balance between consumer proposition, value and price."
Aside from the fact that last time it would have been impossible to recognise the 'new' realities, given that those realities didn't exist, the idea that only now is Sony striving to strike "a good balance between consumer proposition, value and price" beggars belief.
"That reality is there at 59 pence, and equally, you have at the other end PS3-type gaming experience commanding £55. It’s our responsibility to our consumers that if we want to charge prices at that top end then we have to provide a gaming experience at that end."
Surely, the statement, "No, Vita’s software pricing is not too high" would probably have covered it.
Source: MCV
Companies:
Sony
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