PSN to Offer Retail Games Cheaper on Day One

@Rolyatkcinmai: No, I use Steam all the time. Preordering a digital game still seems weird and pointless other than the arbitrary preorder bonuses (even though I just did it for Borderlands 2).

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Your awesome price standard in America doesn't count in the UK where Black Ops 2 standard edition is currently $73, i'm assuming this offer is USA only?
Hopefully this leads to reduced pricing when everything goes digital in the future.

@RoninAutomaton said:

Well, here’s a thought:

Does that mean if you buy a PSN Day 1 digital version (ex: pre-ordered Dishonored at $53.99 w/ PS Plus subscription), would you lose access to that game if you reach the end of your PS Plus subscription and chose not to renew it?

Nope. They're very upfront when you download something that you'll lose access to if you don't renew your subscription. Discounts are permanent, they'll often give themes and avatars and other little doohickeys away permanently, etc. Usually the only things that you lose access to are the free, full games.

But yeah, if you buy Dishonored at a discount, then it's yours at that discount forever, even if you don't renew.

And it’s one more reason Sony’s making Xbox Live seem like a joke.

lolwut

Straight out of the 'forum post school of journalism'.

Hasn't Steam been doing this for a while now?

More then half of my digital preorders have had a 10% discount on them. And you don't have to be subscriber to a paid service for that.

This article is making it sound like it's a first and something revolutionary.

:/

Woah buddy, now I can buy a snickers and soda to accompany my non-tradable game. I'll wait a few weeks and get the game for half off from amazon.

And it’s one more reason Sony’s making Xbox Live seem like a joke.

lolwut

Straight out of the 'forum post school of journalism'.

Great... Although I am more interested in the prospect of those games getting day 1 digital release than the discount.

I am not a fan of full download libraries, but I would rather do that than deal with imports any day.

Look, I love my PS3. I love digital distribution and the fact that I can get new titles for cheaper than MSRP. PS+ sounds wonderful for free games. However, I fail to see where this makes sense as part of a Premium Membership - it should be a standard feature available to everyone who owns a PS3 to encourage digital sales (Steam, for instance, does not have a Steam Gold or Steam + and has sales all the time, sometimes day and date with retail release). Microsoft does this sales thing, Sony now does it, and Nintendo is about to do it with WiiU....it made sense when this generation started, but I feel like it doesn't anymore. And besides, I can wait the 2 weeks or however long it takes for a retail disc to drop in price. By Black Friday, I predict some of these titles will be down to half price by some retailers.

Steam has been doing this for a while with some of the bigger releases. I just pre-ordered Hitman on steam for 10% off, right before seeing this article. Good on Sony for implementing this now, and hopefully it carries over to the next consoles. Otherwise I might stay with PC. Any word on pre-loading those games a few days before release and getting an unlock download day of release?

It's this kind of stuff that is making it easy for me to leave my Xbox 360 at a friends. If they keep this up, I'll pick up a new Playstation 4 day one.

What's with all the Sony praise and the Microsoft hate? Are we forgetting what Sony Europe do? Take last week for example, SSX digital on XBox for £35, SSX digital on PSN £58.

This doesn't even come close to Sony making amends at their rediculous pricing structure over here in the UK. As a poster said earlier, Sony will say RRP is £49.99 and take 10% off of that, when in reality if you see a game in a shop for more than £39.99 you just walk away.

Not to mention the fact some of the digital copies on PSN are lacking content that existed on the disc version. Metal Gear HD (no MSX games), God of War Collection (no extra features), Ico Collection (no video extras), Sly Cooper Collection (no Move mini-games) and they often still cost more than their disc based versions.

Sony can rot in hell for what they've done to their European customers with constant delays, lack of parity in content between global markets, and their gouging pricing structure.

I've been a Xbox user for years and never once looked towards PS... but if Microsoft doesn't step it up I don't see why I'm paying them money anymore I really don't.

@handlas said:

@wumbo3000 said:

I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. I think this only helps out people who buy a lot of new games. For me personally, the fact that you have to a PS Plus member kinda sucks. I usually only buy 3-4 $60 games a year, so if I'm dropping an extra $50 just to get them for 6 bucks cheaper, then it's not really worth it.

PS Plus is great tho. That's like completely disregarding it.

The membership pays for itself with all the free games they give you. Given you actually want the games they offer. I had PS Plus for a year and enjoyed the offerings. The one hour game trials were also pretty nice... essentially demos.

Hm. That's a good point. I guess I was looking at it only from the view point that PS Plus only gives discounts on $60 games. I forgot about all the free stuff they give you.

I hope the tides turn next gen and Sony is on top again. I feel like they were arrogant at the launch of the PS3 but have learned a lot since 2006. Microsoft on the other hand looks like they'll be the ones who are over confident going into the next set of hardware assuming that everyone will go along with them even though the tail end of the 360 is fucking garbage between the games and the XBL service as a whole.

The key question is will the PSN+ lock out the game content if you decide to cancel the subscription?

Although i don't care for digital this is great, if they offered a REAL discount like $49.99 day 1 i would re-think my stance and probably buy a few but save 7 bucks to use up 10-15gb of my limited bandwidth? Just not worth it.

Man there has been an incredibly sharp turn around on the PS3 and specifically PS+ lately. It's good to see, PS+ has been a great service in the time I've used it, and this is a good step forward for digital games.

This won't make me buy over 360 if it's a shitty port. But as it's been said, this is a good digital initiative.

All this stuff is making lean towards Sony next-gen

But does it pre-load the game like Steam? Otherwise, with PSN's crappy network infrastructure, these aren't day one downloads. Unless you start the download at 12:01 am so it's ready when you get home from work later that day.

"You have to be a PSN+ subscriber" sounds like a negative thing, but you get rewarded like MAD for being one, if you're into playing games, getting free games.

Now if Sony can make it so I download faster than 400KB/s this might be worth it. I want to buy my games on Tuesday and not have to wait until Sunday night to play them. Unless they let you preload a week in advance.

@whatisdelicious said:

Nope. They're very upfront when you download something that you'll lose access to if you don't renew your subscription.

But yeah, if you buy Dishonored at a discount, then it's yours at that discount forever, even if you don't renew.

I thought so. Just making sure.

Keep in mind the advantages Live has over PSN - party chat, a guide system which isn't always dog slow, and a fair amount of exclusive content. Just playing games with friends is way easier, too. From my experience these things are more important to people than paying standard retail price for digital games (something Live suffers from too of course).

The future is cometh.

Whether Microsoft and Sony would ever go as far as to be a console version of Steam... with the sales and whatnot. Well, if they did, they would be my console of choice.

@Brandino said:

Although i don't care for digital this is great, if they offered a REAL discount like $49.99 day 1 i would re-think my stance and probably buy a few but save 7 bucks to use up 10-15gb of my limited bandwidth? Just not worth it.

Limited bandwidth? Where do you live?

I've never really had long term problems with PSN's download speeds. I get at least 1mb/s, with occasional exceptions. I wonder if they have trouble on certain networks/service areas.

@Neurotic said:

@Terranova said:

I wonder if the same thing is going to happen to the EU PSN store they had SSX on there last week for download at £59 you can get it from Amazon for £20, of course that's a EA game and so they set the price but still no way anyone would pay that when you can get much more cheaper, It's a nice idea but it's needs every publisher to be involved not just a select few if digital only is going to be the way forward

This.

Wasn't it £50 for Borderlands 2 as well? That's more than you could get it from Amazon. Same is happening with Assassin's Creed III.

Well, it's progress I suppose.

Yeah borderlands 2 was that with £20 being asked for the season pass on top so £70 for the whole thing around £12 more than if you were to buy borderlands 2 from Amazon or other online retailers then add the pass.

It seems many publishers on PSN are asking for the RRP with some like EA going way above that even for older games I mean it's not like SSX is a new release yet they have the balls to ask almost £60 for it, it's just a joke that's a full price game worth of extra they want for it lol, Sony are taking a good step here a $5 hopefully a £5 for EU or so discount for a new release if you pre-order is not bad it's what you can get online if you shop around , hopfully a similar deal and discount will happen for the EU store but as i say it needs all the publishers to be on it for it to be really effective.

@boocreepyfootdoctor said:

Wow, instead of paying $28 at Walmart on Black Friday for every single one of those games, you can get a $54, never trade-able, non refundable glorified torrented copy!

I'd rather pay the extra $26 on top of the price you noted so I DON'T have to leave the house, let alone go to a dumb Walmart, let alone a Walmart on a Black Friday where everyone is a maniacal and loathsome human being.

Also, why on earth are you using Black Friday as a comparison? It's one day of the year.

Sony has been doing it right this year.

@Delta_Ass said:

@Brandino said:

Although i don't care for digital this is great, if they offered a REAL discount like $49.99 day 1 i would re-think my stance and probably buy a few but save 7 bucks to use up 10-15gb of my limited bandwidth? Just not worth it.

Limited bandwidth? Where do you live?

Tennessee.

ATT U-Verse is the only broadband available in my area, it has a 250gb cap. And unlike Comcast, ATT are assholes if you go over the limit and 250gb is not a lot of bandwidth when you use Netflix/Hulu and buy season passes on Amazon/Itunes instead of having actual cable TV.

Streaming/Passes alone uses around 150-175gb a month. We are supposed to be getting comcast within the next couple of months but even they have a 250gb limit which they say is temporarily disabled while they try new things but really they are bumping it to 280-300gb in most places, 280 here in knoxville.

So yeah i have to picky with what i use my bandwidth on because if i piss off ATT i am out of an internet until CC gets here and even then i am stuck in the same stupid fucking position of having a bandwidth cap that should no exist.

@KrataurI'm pretty sure it pre installs it, steam style, if you pre-order.

Testing the waters. Nice.

@boocreepyfootdoctor said:

Wow, instead of paying $28 at Walmart on Black Friday for every single one of those games, you can get a $54, never trade-able, non refundable glorified torrented copy!

I'd rather pay the extra $26 on top of the price you noted so I DON'T have to leave the house, let alone go to a dumb Walmart, let alone a Walmart on a Black Friday where everyone is a maniacal and loathsome human being.

Also, why on earth are you using Black Friday as a comparison? It's one day of the year.

@Krataur said:

Preordering a digital download? What madness is this?

it allows for impulse purchasing of a game before its even out and incites people to do so with a cheaper price and a deadline for it. it really smart on the publishers part

In reality you get games cheaper than RRP so this wouldn't appeal to me, not to mention the hard drive space it would take up. But it's another step to all digital. It will be enjoyable watching it all unfold.

Sony's been hitting it out of the park recently with their online stuff. PS+ is everyday becoming more and more enticing, what with their "free" games and 60 minute trials, and PSN consistently having brand new games out on the store, day and date of their actual release. This is awesome, and actually might make me a PS+ subscriber, if I had a bigger hard drive.

The future is here...

Sony's starting to look really nice heading into next gen, Microsoft needs to step its game up.

Day One? It's Day 216 and Wipeout 2048 is still more expensive on PSN than it is in the shops (UK).

@OllyOxenFree said:

@heatDrive88 said:

@boocreepyfootdoctor said:

Wow, instead of paying $28 at Walmart on Black Friday for every single one of those games, you can get a $54, never trade-able, non refundable glorified torrented copy!

I'd rather pay the extra $26 on top of the price you noted so I DON'T have to leave the house, let alone go to a dumb Walmart, let alone a Walmart on a Black Friday where everyone is a maniacal and loathsome human being.

Also, why on earth are you using Black Friday as a comparison? It's one day of the year.

Black Friday at a Wal-Mart... Jesus Christ how horrifying

GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY I NEED TO SAVE $26 ON VIDEO GAMES

@Brandino: Wow, that really sucks.

So Happy about this. NBA 2K13 and Most Wanted pre-orders cancelled. Having these two on my HDD are perfect.

Kinda neat I guess. Playstation Plus continues to be a great value. $53 vs $59 is not really much of a game changer though and you have to preorder. Honestly it's pretty easy to find retailers offering similar or larger discounts on pre ordered hard copy games, I often see $10 off or more for a preorder, so chances are you won't be saving any money pre ordering digital instead of hard copy, maybe just some convenience. Also, I don't think it should require PS+.

Hopefully it will start a trend though, and bring price competition which might bring digital game prices down a little more.

@Morridin said:

Still, even if it is only 1 day and just a few dollars, it is a small step.

Sounds neat. Anybody know if this will happen in the UK as well?

Newegg and Toys R Us have been doing $45-48 pre-orders for quite some time now; yeah, sometimes there is shipping involved, sometimes store pick up, but overall it's not hard to get a decent discount on a brand new game. I like where this is headed, but it's not at all a game changer yet.

@BigSteve1983 said:

The key question is will the PSN+ lock out the game content if you decide to cancel the subscription?

No, anything you pay for you keep. Only the freebies expire with your subscription.