what happened to sony games being 39.99???

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coasterman

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Has anybody else noticed that alot of new sony games are 49.99 as opposed to the reg. 39.99 ex.- Getaway Black monday, GT4, God of war.
The only exception I see is Rise of Kasai. Did they get rid of the 39.99 1st party price on just AAA games or what in 2005?
 
I think some are still released at 39.99, others at 49.99. At least R&C3 and Jak 3 were in November, and ATV 3 was released not too long ago for 39.99.
 
I had remembered it as $40 for regular games and $50 for online enabled games. That's why SOCOM II was $50, but I guess they have since ditched that.
 
Probably with the way the economy is right now and development costs, they probably decided to raise them to make a decent revenue.
 
I believe it is simply a matter of Sony judging the slavishness of the audience. The Mark of Kri was a good game but very underappreciated. It's largely sold at very low prices recently because so much of the original production run went unsold at full and even 50% off full price. Making its prequel more accessable pricewise is a good maneuver.

Given a game you know is going to move a million copies to a hardcore audience it is a simple decision to cash in while the getting is good. Games that must work harder to earn their numbers have their burden reduced somewhat by a lower price point and the hope that positve word of mouth will overcome the lost revenue by increasing the long term sales. Jak 3 should do quite well but it had nothing like the anticipation attached to GT4.

There is a third situation, similar to a heavily hyped movie that isn't shown to critics in advance of its opening. In these cases the studio knows they have a flawed product that will suffer badly in reveiws and word of mouth. (The Internet has magnified the effect greatly.) Since the studio collects nearly all of the box office in the opening week a turkey can be saved by hyping it into a big opening that makes up for the sharp decline in following weeks. I call these 'wheelchair blockbusters.' They open big but have no legs.

A game publisher who fears a rapid dropoff in sales once the game is open to public scrutiny might take the same approach. Go for the high price early on and move the rest at a sharp discount.
 
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