We keep an eye on the PS Store a lot, especially as new sales come and go every couple of weeks or so, but it seems Sony might be toying with the idea of dynamic, per-user pricing.
It's difficult to say definitively, of course. However, there are now a couple of cases in which somebody has discovered the same game being offered for two different prices simultaneously.
Firstly, about a year ago, someone reported different prices for Astro Bot on PS Store.
To summarise, the user saw the game being sold for both $59.99 and $44.99, with the latter price showing once they were logged into their PSN account. A friend saw the former price when logged in.
A second example has recently surfaced, this time with a discrepancy in the discount applied to Red Dead Redemption 2: Ultimate Edition.
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In this instance, the user says, for them, the game is showing a price of $19.99. However, on their partner's account, the game is currently listed for $14.99.
If Sony really is experimenting with targeted, dynamic pricing on a per-user basis, it throws up questions about fairness; why should one person be expected to pay more for something than another?
The only thing we've seen that might be related is an 'Exclusive Discount for You' popping up on the PS Store from time to time. We didn't really think much of it, but we suppose it's possible these really are being tuned to individual accounts.
At any rate, it's interesting to see a couple of rare examples of this happening.
We'll have to wait and see if this becomes a more widespread thing; it may simply go away, or could possibly be a mistake of some sort.
What are your thoughts on this? How would you react if you knew others were paying less or more for the exact same products? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source reddit.com, via insider-gaming.com]
Comments 52
I've had a fair few of these "discounted for you" prices but was never all that enticed. I'm sure it won't be blown out of proportion.
I knew Sony was picking on me this whole time. They’re out to get me ahhhhh!!!
Seems like the "just for you" discounts you also find on Xbox and Steam. Unfortunately for me I haven't received any, well not that I know of.
But it seems playstation have been doing the just for you discounts for a while now so that pretty much sums up whats happening here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/playstation/comments/186y0l6/discounted_for_you_gimmick_or_legit/
With digital taking over, the sales have gotten worse over the past five years.
There’s a list of games that I want and I’ve got their sales prices memorized and for a long while they will go on sale repeatedly but it’s for the same price over and over. I’ve been at the point to where for these games there is a price that I want and if it doesn’t go on sale for that price, I just don’t get it.
That avatar game was a big example. A handful of years ago that game would’ve been on sale for $25 within a handful of months, but that game on my account stayed near $40 for well over a year, and now that it’s finally down to 20 I just don’t care anymore and I haven’t bought it.
PlayStation. For the payers.
Oh I'm sure this'll go down well.
That’s downright scandalous.
Seems unfair. I don't get discounts. Well I don't buy on ps store anyway. But if they introduce ps store to PC, then let me get those discounts.
These are the dangers of a monopoly on games sales. Ps store is the only place on playstation to buy digital games. They're free to do what they like, unfortunately
"In this instance, the user says, for them, the game is showing a price of $19.99. However, on their partner's account, the game is currently listed for $14.99"
Maybe the partner account sub to PS+ and the person doesn't know that PS+ gave more discounts?
Or regional pricing could be different too. Many games on Asia store are more cheaper than US / EU store.
One of the reasons physical is king
I know why I haven't bought anything from the PS Store for months.
That's crooked af, or at least has the potential to be.
I do not believe this is legal in europe so i don't expect it to be on here, but something was off yesterday with the sales.
I had the discount price on ps4 but not on ps5, where it was still showing normal pricing. So, i think they broke something.
Companies want to get customers to pay the maximum amount of what theyre willing to pay, so not too surprising. Dynamic pricing can also work in your favor…they’d rather you spend $15 than $0.
Honestly never heard of this. I always use the website PSPrices for every sale on PSN to determine what the best deals are, and the exact same prices listed there are what I see on the PlayStation store everytime.
I don’t know if it was dynamic pricing or not but once I saw Forza Horizon 5 for £24.99 and I bought it immediately.
Another time I saw Gears of War for £24.99 and I didn’t get it, and the next time I saw it, it was £29.99.
That’s crap, and they typically target new customer, while screwing up loyal ones. Case in point, Uber Eats. I have the Uber one subscription and all. Yet my wife which never uses it always gets a lot more coupons and promotions. Seems like the only way to get good deals with these things is to keep making new accounts, which obviously isn’t feasible with something like PlayStation.
Considering that they put the most expensive version front and centre of the games store page and that you have to find and click on the “ … “ option (not obvious to a lot of customers) to find out the price of the base version I think we should all be treating this with a lot of cynicism.
I feel like I might've had an exerience like that before on the PS Store. Like I was browsing the store adding to my wishlist and the next day a more expensive version of the game was 10 bucks, I wasn't suspecting it might go on sale at all. It may have gone on sale like that before but it definitely felt weird.
Swings a roundabouts. What goes around comes around
Dude, no… if this is a thing, I’m out. And Sony HAS TO be seeing claims like this. All they have to do is put out a statement and be up front about whether they are or are not doing this. Just be honest and they’ll find a lot less people disgruntled.
Looks like booking a vacation. The more you search on it the more expensive it gets everytime you check.
Could it be down to regional differences in interest rates? I have noticed that since I've had my ps5 I've never been able to take advantage of any psn subscription offers because of when my sub runs out (end of november) but I recently received an email from Sony stating my next renewal date is at the end of the 1st week in December which now gives me that week I needed to take advantage of the discounts.
Wont this just be because one is logged in and most likely has a PSplus sub? I often see extra discounts for having a sub? And it’s often 20-25% cheaper (which would account for the $5 difference too).
I think it’s most likely to be this reason.
But if it isn’t and they are looking at dynamic pricing then that’s pretty scummy.
Honestly, I'm buying most games second hand, so Sony doesn't have money from me at all. And my backlog is so huge the only trade I'm doing right now is picking monthly games from PS+.
Buy physical - this is where the entertainment industry is going when you’re buying a product digitally
@PuppetMaster PSPlus discount is always displayed and I imagine the couple are in the same region.
@djlard but you have a ps+ account so Sony gets money from you yes?
Pretty sure the 'just for you' deals on Xbox are for the people that subscribe to Ultimate or own the game already and it's the DLC, i've had a few but not bought them. The supermarkets in the UK also adjust their prices depending on the average local wage so the prices vary depending on where you live, the distance between stores can be as little as two miles. A Tesco near us is more expensive than the Tesco two miles away. Sucks but that's life. Could be the same thinking behind this.
@PuppetMaster No, they said that their accounts were both in the same region, and that neither of them were subbed to PS Plus
@jvecc I'm pretty sure the original pitch was "F**k the players!" and someone misunderstood.
Great news, the sooner physical media goes to oblivion, the sooner we all can enjoy even more targeted dynamic prices in a single marketplace.
"All PlayStation fans are equal, but some fans are more equal than others."
/joking, this is a reference to Animal Farm 😄
@Nem
There have been some "just for you" discounts on the Xbox store also in Europe. So either Microsoft is breaking the EU law or it's actually legal. In case of the Xbox store such discounts are clearly labeled with a "just for you" tag.
@TrollOfWar @Nem We also already have different pricing for different users based on whether you are a PS+ member of not. Double discount sales etc. e.g. where it's 20% off for non-members but 40% for PS+ members (and usually the cheapest products have been). It's not illegal.
I feel a bit split on this. I have no problem with rewarding valued customers with cheaper pricing e.g. as PlayStation already do with PS+ subscriber sales.
But I don't trust corporations to not use this in some devious way e.g. using AI to see if you are likely a day 1 buyer and then not give you a discount because you are likely to pay more. Whereas giving someone less likely to buy a discount. That's not on imo.
This is why you purchase physical games if you can.
@themightyant There have been reports that booking sites displayed different prices for hotel bookings based on the devices (laptop, vs. mobile). As you say, these dynamic prices can be abused by corporations, like for example having higher prices on a PS5 Pro as those users are more invested in the ecosystem and are willing to pay more.
Technically, this is more like a targeted discount than dynamic pricing.
Targeted discounts aren't against the law or anything, but you do have to disclose why some consumers are getting it while others aren't.
@Northern_munkey Yes, the only money they see from me.
It base on your billing address so same proves do get it cheaper because of the day taxes they don't collect
This is a stretch but it might be related to US state sales tax rules. Some states charge sales tax on digital purchases, some do not.
With that being said, there is no state that charges the 33.36% sales tax that would be required to account for the price difference shown for RDR2.
Corporate greed and fairness 😂😂😂😂😂😂 that's 2 words you can't use in a sentence
Still generally legal in the U.S., but some states are starting to require explicit disclosures around this kind of pricing, which is better described as "surveillance pricing" since it's based on personal data. New York already has a law on this and other states are considering similar legislation. The FTC also did a market survey around surveillance pricing in January... though the current administration seems less interested.
Better keep your wishlists with pen and paper, Sony is watching and will let you wait forever until your wishlisted games go on sale xD
Plane companies have been practicing dynamic pricing for years on their plane tickets and most of the time in the detriment of the buyer instead of the advantage... You have one price now, go away for 10 minutes, come back and refresh the page only to see it increase by 10-15%... call a friend, he goes to the same site, only to see a different price. And all that doesn't generate so many complaints. And that's just one example.
Not a justification for the practice, I'd rather have them sued to the shores of bankruptcy and then some, but without proper legislation all this is in vane... that's where the complaints should be aimed.
That’s what you get along with a corporate having monopoly and only one (own) shop available.
@OmegaStriver They really, really hate third party sales, and it shows.
I hate the PS5 store. It's the worst. It's confusing and some DLCs are just missing there. I don't even pay for PS Plus anymore.
I also hate the buggy safe file cloud, where I lost several files over the years.
My god, I really loved the PS5 at the end of 2020 and it got so boring to me. I'm just keeping because of some PS4/PS5 exclusives.
Dynamic pricing would not surprise me. For instance, people who buy a lot of games may be targeted with higher prices because the algorithm guesses that they are more likely to pay anyway, whereas those who don’t buy many games may be shown lower prices to get them to make a purchase.
@TrollOfWar it's a sad state of affairs when people in power learn all the wrong lessons from allegorical satire written decades prior.
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