new here, i think because of RPS? anyways, if i'm buying a game, i will only buy it at full-price. because if i'm not willing to do that, do i really want it? i have too many great games i wanna play already.
but that's for indie games (which is most of what i play). AAA games? yeah, i don't mind waiting for a discount on something that's earned millions already. but doing the vpn thing feels like it feeds the rush of purchasing and not so much about the game itself? i normally wouldn't care what other people do, but that does bum me out for those affected by that.
Taking a look at my own bargain hunting behaviour, and that's without doing anything like swapping regions for cheaper games, I can't help but conclude it comes down to personal greed. Owning something for less money than the RRP feels like scoring a point, owning more stuff giving a little feel good rush for a few seconds, then never playing it. Which means I'm the one being scored against in the end.
It sounds like most of the activity comes from relatively rich countries switching to poorer ones to save a few dollars. As you (and Luis below) point out there are complexities to global markets but if people could stop being so damn greedy then perhaps we wouldn't screw over people who can't afford the choice. Most sane people would condemn corporate greed but individually we can all likely do something about our own behaviour and stop pushing the bowl of dog food across the floor to eat it all ourselves instead of sharing it.
Ah the bargain hunt. I do have friends in Argentina and yes, the prices are ridiculous. I still buy in Colombia (which are still ridiculous for any other Dollar or Euro dominated nation) except on the Playstation in which my account is on the US .... and everything costs thrice more.
Why you ask?
Back in time when I had a PS3 Colombia didn't exist as a market (that's new) so we had to do it backwards, register in the US so we could even use the thing barely.
Now 13-15 years have passed since then, and my account is still linked to the US. Sony doesn't do Change your Zone, and they have this thing in place in which you are not allowed to pay with any method that's not bound to your zone.
Say, you want to buy Gran Turismo in the US, unless the Paypal, Credit card or bank is not based in the US it fails. So what do we do? Resolve to a friend buying us gift cards and sending the codes through Messages so we can get some balance and pay 70 USD for whatever. While it costs only 40 here.
Microsoft allows you to make a move once a year (Change your region) and thankfully all regions are leveled (you can find anything everywhere, price distinction applies)
Sony's regions are all chopped. You can't find half of the games in the Colombia PSN and I believe the Plus only has 40% of what the other markets has to offer.
So I don't know my friend. The price difference I get
Blocking some titles in some places because without an actual reason?
I don't know. I mean If I can pay for it. Lemme pay for it. but don't block it altogether.
This happens as well in the iOS store. Some things are region locked (like Mint, a budget app that as far as I know only exists in the US because the rest of the world dont have dollars I guess)
I will keep my accounts on the expensiver US. Is a small token to pay thrice for everything to have access to every single thing under the sun.
This is really unfortunate...It seems at least in this regard Nintendo's business model (and being both developer and publisher) insulates them from this (I am reading Reggie Fils-Aimé's book about his time at Nintendo and how protective they were/are about the sale of their software)
Beyond the terrible timing of this (which is as baffling a decision as it is heartless) there is also a disappointing sense of the old “let’s punish everyone who needs this - just to stop the few who abuse it” that we see so often. I’m not clued up enough to comment much more about this but the words corporate greed loom large in my mind.
On the subject of bargain hunting in games - I totally agree with your point, we have been trained to expect a discount through much of video games short history. Whether it was a “three games for a fiver” deal in your late 2000’s Gamestation or the more recent “wait a month and it’ll drop in price” a games RRP has only felt relevant for the early adopter and even then there are workarounds.
I had a recent experience with this myself, my wife has been playing and enjoying ‘Slay the Spire’ recently so I thought I’d pick it up - I fired up my switch, checked the e-shop and saw the perfectly reasonable price of £19.99. I was about to buy it before she quickly mentioned it was free on our PS5 subscription and just like that I closed the e-shop, turned on the PS5 and set it to download. I told myself if I really liked it I might still buy it to play on the go but with so much already on my switch I think I’m likely lying to myself.
Once again, thanks for the fantastic work, excellent as always!
new here, i think because of RPS? anyways, if i'm buying a game, i will only buy it at full-price. because if i'm not willing to do that, do i really want it? i have too many great games i wanna play already.
but that's for indie games (which is most of what i play). AAA games? yeah, i don't mind waiting for a discount on something that's earned millions already. but doing the vpn thing feels like it feeds the rush of purchasing and not so much about the game itself? i normally wouldn't care what other people do, but that does bum me out for those affected by that.
Taking a look at my own bargain hunting behaviour, and that's without doing anything like swapping regions for cheaper games, I can't help but conclude it comes down to personal greed. Owning something for less money than the RRP feels like scoring a point, owning more stuff giving a little feel good rush for a few seconds, then never playing it. Which means I'm the one being scored against in the end.
It sounds like most of the activity comes from relatively rich countries switching to poorer ones to save a few dollars. As you (and Luis below) point out there are complexities to global markets but if people could stop being so damn greedy then perhaps we wouldn't screw over people who can't afford the choice. Most sane people would condemn corporate greed but individually we can all likely do something about our own behaviour and stop pushing the bowl of dog food across the floor to eat it all ourselves instead of sharing it.
Ah the bargain hunt. I do have friends in Argentina and yes, the prices are ridiculous. I still buy in Colombia (which are still ridiculous for any other Dollar or Euro dominated nation) except on the Playstation in which my account is on the US .... and everything costs thrice more.
Why you ask?
Back in time when I had a PS3 Colombia didn't exist as a market (that's new) so we had to do it backwards, register in the US so we could even use the thing barely.
Now 13-15 years have passed since then, and my account is still linked to the US. Sony doesn't do Change your Zone, and they have this thing in place in which you are not allowed to pay with any method that's not bound to your zone.
Say, you want to buy Gran Turismo in the US, unless the Paypal, Credit card or bank is not based in the US it fails. So what do we do? Resolve to a friend buying us gift cards and sending the codes through Messages so we can get some balance and pay 70 USD for whatever. While it costs only 40 here.
Microsoft allows you to make a move once a year (Change your region) and thankfully all regions are leveled (you can find anything everywhere, price distinction applies)
Sony's regions are all chopped. You can't find half of the games in the Colombia PSN and I believe the Plus only has 40% of what the other markets has to offer.
So I don't know my friend. The price difference I get
Blocking some titles in some places because without an actual reason?
I don't know. I mean If I can pay for it. Lemme pay for it. but don't block it altogether.
This happens as well in the iOS store. Some things are region locked (like Mint, a budget app that as far as I know only exists in the US because the rest of the world dont have dollars I guess)
I will keep my accounts on the expensiver US. Is a small token to pay thrice for everything to have access to every single thing under the sun.
This is really unfortunate...It seems at least in this regard Nintendo's business model (and being both developer and publisher) insulates them from this (I am reading Reggie Fils-Aimé's book about his time at Nintendo and how protective they were/are about the sale of their software)
Beyond the terrible timing of this (which is as baffling a decision as it is heartless) there is also a disappointing sense of the old “let’s punish everyone who needs this - just to stop the few who abuse it” that we see so often. I’m not clued up enough to comment much more about this but the words corporate greed loom large in my mind.
On the subject of bargain hunting in games - I totally agree with your point, we have been trained to expect a discount through much of video games short history. Whether it was a “three games for a fiver” deal in your late 2000’s Gamestation or the more recent “wait a month and it’ll drop in price” a games RRP has only felt relevant for the early adopter and even then there are workarounds.
I had a recent experience with this myself, my wife has been playing and enjoying ‘Slay the Spire’ recently so I thought I’d pick it up - I fired up my switch, checked the e-shop and saw the perfectly reasonable price of £19.99. I was about to buy it before she quickly mentioned it was free on our PS5 subscription and just like that I closed the e-shop, turned on the PS5 and set it to download. I told myself if I really liked it I might still buy it to play on the go but with so much already on my switch I think I’m likely lying to myself.
Once again, thanks for the fantastic work, excellent as always!