PlayStation Advertising Standard Edition Games at Premium Edition Pricing on Its Storefront
This morning I woke up to a message from my friend asking me when the hell video games started costing $100. I had to go online to see if there was any news about this. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and my response was, no, they’re still $70. What I wasn’t expecting was to be sent an image of the PlayStation Store, advertising games at $100.
No, this isn’t a mistake, and likely an error on PlayStation’s part, though it does send a confusing message to PlayStation shoppers.
No, Game Prices Have Not Been Raised to $100, But Sony Sure Is Advertising as If They Have
If you’ve recently taken a look at the PlayStation Store, whether it’s on your console (PS5) or the web browser version of it, you may have noticed the price of some games being a bit higher than their standard rates. As seen in the picture above, titles such as Grand Theft Auto 6, EA Sports College Football 27, and EA Sports NFL 27 all show up as $100 when browsing the PlayStation Store, whether on your console or in the web browser. The thing is, these are actually the prices for the Deluxe/Ultimate Editions, not the base versions, though the images used to advertise these games are, in fact, for the standard editions, as is the text on the storefronts.
Before anyone says it, this isn’t a case of them being unable to separate these editions on their listing page, as other games are linked to their standard-edition versions, and the storefront is more than capable of listing multiple editions with the correct text.
We gather this is likely a mistake on PlayStation’s part, if anything automated and grabbing the wrong image (NFL editions have completely different art covers, where GTA 6 shares a very similar one between editions) and text, though it is something that may confuse some potential buyers. The intended version is clearly the premium version, as clicking the higher-priced version opens that edition of the game.
What we essentially have here is no clear indication that what’s shown first on the storefront is either the standard or premium edition of those games. The hope is that this isn’t intentional, a way to funnel people into the higher-cost version of the game. I mean, ultimately, from a business perspective, that is what you would want potential buyers to do, but it comes off as a bit slimy in my opinion without being fully transparent from the get-go. Sure, all it takes is a click to find out the truth, but it also takes one look to be turned away from a game.
You could say this is potentially working against the storefront too, ’cause who wants to pay $100 for an annual sports game? I know I definitely don’t, which makes me think this is just an error on the storefront. Either way, seeing this, especially after the recent news of PlayStation ditching physical media by 2028, is not a good look for PlayStation. I’m not even sure how long they’ve been doing this, because for all we know this could have been going on for a while now. Hopefully they address this sooner, rather than later, though they’ve been pretty silent on social media since the whole physical media news broke out last week.
For now, if you or a friend spots a shocking $100 price tag while browsing the PlayStation Store, take a deep breath. Game prices haven’t spiked overnight—just be sure to double-check the edition in your cart before you hit buy.
In other PlayStation news, we ran an article on how Sony’s digital future plans hinge on gamers being too invested in the PlayStation ecosystem to consider jumping to other platforms.
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