AMY, an upcoming downloadable survival/horror title, from Lexis Numérique, has caused quite a controversy recently. This is due to their unique pricing for the game. On the Xbox 360 the game will be 800 MSP($10) and on PSN it will be sold for a more premium $12.99, the reason for this is supposedly due to the way Microsoft Points work in different countries.
José Sanchis, CEO of Lexis Numérique put it this way “We believe AMY could have been sold a little bit higher. However, the issue we have to deal with is that a price in MS points doesn’t have the same value in all countries. Indeed, because of fluctuations between the dollar and the euro, 800 MS points are currently worth $10 in the US but €10 in Europe, which is about $12.8.”
So since they could not have altered the price in each region for the game, they instead choose to stick by the European price as to not overcharge them by equalizing the price for North Americans. So, really Xbox owners in North America are the only ones to benefit from this, and PSN owners are simply paying what the developers think the game is worth.
So I guess all those other muti-platform downloadable games are actually ripping people off on Xbox Live, if they happen to live in other countries where their money is worth more. Lexis Numérique wants to be fair though and has set up a poll on their facebook page, to allows users to vots if they should cut their price on PSN, and essentially lose money to make it equal for everyone.The poll closes Monday the 9th.
What do you think?
Rian Quenlin
It’s three bucks more on a $10 brand-new game. Not a big deal. However the fault remains with Microsoft and the constant refusal of corporates to realize that one dollar does -not- equal one euro. By my estimate $10 US dollars is just shy of €8. That’s not that big a difference, but when a game is $60 in the US and €60 in Europe, that’s a pricetag of $76.
Regardless, I believe pricing by region is a violation of fair trade and fair business. The same with region locking and other restrictions. Still, they’re selling what looks like a very good game at a pittance. If anyone should be bearing the brunt of the controversy, it should be Microsoft for contributing to the “$ = €” mentality that has been in the gaming industry for a while.
Christoph Hernandez
I agree with you. Though after doing a little research, it turns out that Microsoft has already equalized the market by the cost of the Microsoft points.
For example, it’s £9.99($15) for 1200MSP where in Canada 1400MSP is $19.99(£12)
So in reality, there is no reason they couldn’t have charged 1020MSP($12) for the game on Xbox Live as well.
Rian Quenlin
I stand corrected.
Christoph Hernandez
So, they pretty much lied in saying that 800MSP were worth $10 vs
€10
Zachts98
ZavWell thats I think is fair because on castle crashers I half to buy alien homid if I want him but ps3 does not