PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan: £70 is fair price for PS5 games and launch line-up is console's best ever
The second part of the Telegraph's exclusive interview also covers console storage, cloud gaming and the PS5's divisive design
www.telegraph.co.uk
A recent interview with Jim Ryan has been published in UK newspaper The Telegraph today, with some interesting quotes about Sony's decision to raise their RRPs to £70 in the UK.
Demon's Souls has an RRP of £70 on PS5 - significantly more than gamers had been accustomed to paying for PS4 games. Do you consider that a fair price for a video game?
"Yes, yes, I do. If you measure the hours of entertainment provided by a video game, such as Demon's Souls compared to any other form of entertainment, I think that's a very straightforward comparison to draw."
Also, Jim Ryan had this to say on the recent Bloomberg reports that Sony considered even higher prices
"I can say that that report that we were considering higher prices for first party games is categorically false."
The article also covers things such as launch line up and cross gen games but I thought this was pertinent to discuss. For US based people, £70 is over $90, which I'm sure you'd agree is absurd for a videogame. If I recall correctly, the US RRPs are now $70, which would be around £52, which would be much more reasonable. Sony is essentially raising prices in the UK and Europe to ridiculous levels and trying to justify it.
FWIW, I'm sure Microsoft will also be setting their prices this high, and if you buy physical games they're unlikely to actually cost you RRP, but this will be a significant issue if you're UK based and wanting to go all digital where prices usually are, outside of sales, set at RRP.
EDIT: As pointed out by many people, the UK RRP includes tax whereas the US one doesn't so it's not a completely fair comparison to compare the two. Threadmarked a post which compares prices pre-tax. In it you can see that countries that use the Euro are also getting screwed quite heavily, which obviously can't be attributed to the decreased value of the pound post-Brexit which seems to be a lot of people's argument.
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