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Why are PSP titles on PSN still so damn expensive?

The Horror the horror

The Horror the horror

Banned
As a Vita owner, I'm compelled to explore the library of games outside of traditional Vita titles, especially with the software shortcomings of the platform. Since I love dungeon crawlers and I've never owned a PSP, there's a booming fountain of content of this type just waiting to be played on my non-OLED Vita.

The problem is the price.

I wanted to purchase Class of Heroes 2, but it's for $24.99. This makes no sense to me. A DIGITAL game - an OLD digital game - from a niche genre that not a lot of people enjoy for a system that no one really owns is tagged at $25? What exactly is the economic reasoning for this?

I feel somewhat gypped here because I purchased an overpriced 64g memory card believing the high cost of the card would eventually be offset by the savings from purchasing digital titles, but now the old PSP games that I want to download - that are only reasonably available on digital format - are priced like they were just released 5 days ago.

Am I doing something wrong?
 
P

pizzacat

Banned
I remember buying P3P for like $20


It's a travesty but it's whatever maybe one day they will realize how bad some prices are
 
S

Shahed

Member
I kind of agree with you. However in this particular instance I don't think that's an old PSP game. Pretty sure it's relatively recent.

There's a lot of PSP games I still keep an eye one inncase they go on sale. Bar new ones like the above and Trails in the Sky SC, I think they should all be £12 max at this point
 
R

redlemon

Member
Generally seem pretty cheap to me (EU). They go down to 4 or 5 euro during sales too.
I don't think COH2 is that long out though which is why it's probably still dear.
 
P

PumpkinSpice

Banned
Most PSP games I looked at on PSN, aside from newer stuff like Trails in the Sky, are in the $8 to $15 range.

That's pretty reasonable.

Edit: Plus they go for peanuts during sales.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Those that tend to be in the market for digital PSP games on their PS Vitas are likely a niche audience that is willing to spend a chunk of change without needing sales or marketing for the titles.

And I'd wager flat out negligence (either on the publisher or Sony's part) is probably playing a part too. After a certain amount of time they just don't even consider some stuff for promotion.
 
I

Ivan Amiibo

Banned
a lot of these games probably sell 0 copies a day regardless, so may as well price them high for the person that wants them on their Vita and doesn't have a choice.
 
K

krYlon

Member
fantastic_planet said:
a lot of these games probably sell 0 copies a day regardless, so may as well price them high for the person that wants them on their Vita and doesn't have a choice.
Click to expand...

But maybe if they were really cheap they would sell more than 0 copies a day? Bored Vita owners might just browse the PSP store and see all these cheap games and think why not try a few of them out?
 
N

notaskwid

Member
Because they think they can get more money through tricking people into buying at a higher price and can do higher price sales than if they outright lower the base price would be my guess. Or they just don't care.
 
U

Uthred

Member
notaskwid said:
Because they think they can get more money through tricking people into buying at a higher price and can do higher price sales than if they outright lower the base price would be my guess. Or they just don't care.
Click to expand...

Tricking? Where's the trick?
 
Bolivar687

Bolivar687

Banned
Not really sure what the problem is. I just bought Trails in the Sky for $20 and felt it was a fair price. Games that are a couple years old selling for $20-25 and going on sale for under $10 seems pretty par for the course for digital storefronts *shrugs*
 
S

Stallion Dan

Member
At least in UK, some games that were £8 digitally since they were part of the £8 PSP Essentials budget price release line have since gone up in price after the PSP died out.

Shitty pubs doing that imo.
 
K

khaaan

Member
In the case of Class of Heroes 2 it is a niche game that only came out two years ago but I imagine that they maintain that price point because niche games need the money to make such projects viable. At a general level the price point for PSP games on PSN are pretty varied and if you're looking for a good deal there are always sales. Just taking a quick look through PSN and games start as low as $5 and work their way up to $40.

I'm interested in seeing how the value of software is going to be handled. Anecdotal, but it feels like there's a shift happening from "omg it's on sale, buy everything" to "Its been on sale before, it'll be on sale again and probably cheaper. I don't need it right now.". I wonder what kind of an impact that's having, assuming that sort of shift is happening.
 
R

Robert at Zeboyd Games

Banned
Class of Heroes 2 is one of the more recent PSP games to be released in North America. Not only that, it's an RPG and oftentimes, RPGs actually go UP in price as time goes on, not down. And to be honest, its original price wasn't that expensive to begin with.

Saying the PSP is ancient doesn't matter since most people are playing these games on the Vita these days anyway. In fact, that's why companies are still bothering to release PSP games - Trails in the Sky SC was just released and Summon Night 5 is about to come out.

If you want cheap PSP games, wait for sales. Oh and if you haven't already gotten it, grab Wild Arms XF - it's one of the best games on the system and it's only $10.
 
M

MrDaravon

Member
Keep an eye out for sales; I've managed to nab virtually every PS1/PSP game I've wanted off PSN over the last year or two at deep discounts, think the most I've paid is $10 for a couple of S-E games (Tactics Ogre).

Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
Class of Heroes 2 is one of the more recent PSP games to be released in North America. Not only that, it's an RPG and oftentimes, RPGs actually go UP in price as time goes on, not down. And to be honest, its original price wasn't that expensive to begin with.

Saying the PSP is ancient doesn't matter since most people are playing these games on the Vita these days anyway. In fact, that's why companies are still bothering to release PSP games - Trails in the Sky SC was just released and Summon Night 5 is about to come out.

If you want cheap PSP games, wait for sales. Oh and if you haven't already gotten it, grab Wild Arms XF - it's one of the best games on the system and it's only $10.
Click to expand...

I've never seen Wild Arms XF go on sale, at least not since I've been following the store updates :(. $10 isn't a terrible price or anything at all though, but I keep waiting.
 
M

mattp

Member
hooray digital future!
no more clearance to make room on shelves, no more reasons to ever discount old games
 
R

Robert at Zeboyd Games

Banned
MrDaravon said:
I've never seen Wild Arms XF go on sale, at least not since I've been following the store updates :(. $10 isn't a terrible price or anything at all though, but I keep waiting.
Click to expand...

I can't imagine why they would put it on sale now - $10 is like a permanent sale (I think the game was $30 originally). It's the best Strategy/RPG on the system IMO, though to be fair, I've never been a huge TO fan (and FFT PSP has slowdown issues).
 
P

Pancakes R Us

Member
SheepyGuy said:
Most PSP games I looked at on PSN, aside from newer stuff like Trails in the Sky, are in the $8 to $15 range.

That's pretty reasonable.

Edit: Plus they go for peanuts during sales.
Click to expand...
This. I've bought a bunch of games for $5 or below during sales. Just wait for the sales.
 
M

Mephala

Member
Phocks said:
Same for me. It's $19.99 on the US PSN so you must be Canadian. 30 feels a lot higher than 20, damn.
Click to expand...

Australian.

P3P is $45!

Both the games are somewhat worth their price, they are amongst my favourites but considering I'm looking to double dip for digitals it is just too high especially when retail is a lot less. :(
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
The issue with so many PSP games still being high in price is that a lot of them just don't go on sale often enough. On steam it's common to have a high base price, since once sale season comes around you can cut the price and entice buyers with a nice discount. That's more than likely the same case here, but as I said since sales for PSP games aren't as common. Turns into a long waiting game. Since most are just going to wait rather than pay the full price on older digital games.
 
S

steescribbles

Member
Gungnir has been, and will probably remain, €19.99 on the store. Has never been on sale too. So I decided to pick it up at that price after some debate. Fantastic TRPG, no regrets whatsoever. As for other games, I guess it's up to the publishers.
 
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