- cross-posted to:
- games@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- games@lemmy.world
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That’s nice…
Meanwhile, I am testing piracy: one game - same price on my private torrent tracker.
Don’t we already have a similar thing with regional pricing?
Video games (and pretty much everything else) are sold for less in countries where the local currency is “weaker”, to maximize the profits in each market. Selling Slay the Spire for ₱779.00 Philippine Peso means they get this brand new game for half the price Europeans pay for it, only difference to most other goods is that it literally is the same product.
This is justified by claiming gaming is for everyone, it would be unfair to price out entire regions simply because the average worker earns less US $ over there.
Does this not apply within countries, too? Wouldn’t it be fairer if they sold games for less in Kansas compared to New York? I get that we do not trust game publishers with this new tool, and fear they just want to get the most money out of us, but then we also need to make the same fuss about how they use the old tool to do the same thing. I for one am closer to the Japanese median income, can I pay their prices then?
Then I will continue my 20 year Sony boycott.
What was it that initially sent you down that path?
Steam and PC gaming if anything. That and changing life priorities in my 30s and 40s. GoG and epic too. Between them I have almost 1000 games I didn’t pay for. Combined with hundreds on steam from humble etc. I probably spend more time trying to decide what to play than playing it.
Preferring a different option is not a boycott of the one
But refusing to buy from one company specifically is. Just because you buy similar products somewhere else doesn’t mean that you aren’t boycotting the other company.
I refuse to buy from Blizzard, Activision, EA, and Ubisoft. I refuse to buy Sony games so long as they require a PSN account for PC games. Just because I buy indie games doesn’t mean that I’m not boycotting those AAA companies for their actions.
Valve is also the only company out of these big gaming companies who do lot of Open Source (working on it and funding other projects) and care about Linux. It maybe coincidental, but these care and goals align with my personal interests. No other company in the gaming industry does that to this extend, plus its an open platform. And being a private company brings also lot of freedom to not listen to shareholders.
The only thing is, that Steam itself is not Open Source… and the uncertainty what will happen if one day Gabe will no longer control…
That last note. Ughhh… Don’t put fear in my heart. Every generation it’s “all you have to do to come out on top is not step on your own dick” and every generation these massive companies manage to find at least one way to fuck up spectacularly. Steam ISN’T just doing nothing, but even if they did, it would be a lot better than most of the major players most of the time
Not the person you asked, but for me:
- The music CD rootkit
- removing OtherOS from the PlayStation 3
- trying to push various proprietary formats like MemoryStick and MiniDisc
- DRM in ATRAC3
- etc.
Take your pick!
I’m still pissed about the rootkit scandal. That was 21 years ago now, and I haven’t spent a penny on Sony products since.
Trying to only establish proprietary media in the past, mostly ignoring open standards.
Oops I didn’t fully read, you got it ♥️
Omg their stupid ass 4x normal price proprietary memory sticks lmao
Ugh God. I remember that “Magic Gate” bullshit when the PSP launched. They started a trend with the Walkman and they’re trying to get lightning to strike twice. Never could do it though. Good.
Those greedy assholes need to engineer and innovate in other areas.
Fuck dynamic pricing, anyone even considering it should be jailed.
So tired, so tired of these ultra rich finding new and creative ways of squeezing the plebs and we just, again, let them
🏴☠️ might be the answer to this conundrum
Well, the only game I was looking forward to from them was Ghost of Yotei, budt since they killed the PC port for whatever reason, i don’t even want to buy anything
Man people like slop games. No wonder they keep pumping them out.
Are you suggesting Ghost of Yotei is a “slop game”?
I would really love to know what isnt a slop game if that game is one
Anyone stupid enough to be paying more than $0 deserves to get rooked.
I agree, but the downvotes show the gaming community still has a lot of growing up to do.
Don’t buy anything from Sony, got it
I dont understand what they are trying to do, but i dont like it. Bring back physical copies god damnit
I’m sure not being able to trust the price does wonders to sales.
I wonder why steam is so successful
Doesn’t valve also do this for different regions?
They do but that’s regional pricing, meaning that basically if the median income of a country is lower, game prices are lower as well. According to the article, that you apparently did not read, Sony is showing different prices (up to 18% lower in some cases) to different users. I take that to mean that the geographical position of the users could be the same.
It’s almost as though Valve provides a valuable service and respects their customers. Rare traits in the corporate world. Answering to a board of directors is a hell of a lot easier than answering to shareholders.
Enshitification hasn’t struck there…yet.
The dynamic pricing will not affect my static boycott.
It’s not “surge”, it’s not “dynamic”, it’s not “personalized” pricing… It’s price gouging. Look forward to paying more for games during peak times and months. It’s never enough for these greedy giant corporations.
The term of art is “price discovery”
I might be part of the problem. I bought a PS5 years ago, thinking GTA6 was close to being released.
Turns out no.
But what I’ve discovered is that with how the gaming industry has gone, I don’t see any need to buy games anymore.
I’m sick of games being an online focused experience, which requires subscription costs.
I’m sick of every game needing a multiple deluxe collectors editions that are the only way to play the full game, but cost $200 each and come with cheap plastic junk “collectables” to justify the cost.
“But you won’t get the super rare coin and lapel pin if you don’t get the collectors edition!”
“Thats fine. Just sell me the full game at $60.”
“The full game requires the collectors edition. But it comes with this lapen pin and rare coin!”
“How many copies of the collectors edition are there?”
“About 2 million.”
“So, not exactly rare, is it?”
This should have been an obvious outcome when digital games weren’t priced any less than their physical release.
It’s not about saving the environment with less plastic. It’s not about saving money for the customer. It’s not about making it more convenient for the customer or the developer.
It was always about more greed. More money in their pockets and more ways to fuck you over as a customer.
Being transparent about stable prices without shady experiments is the first step of trust. Years ago Steam got rid of dynamic prices during sales, where prices during sales for games would change. While not exactly the same thing as Sony does, its still good we got stable and reliable prices.
No matter how dynamic a pricing model, five-finger discount always makes it free.
