As we’ve all heard times are pretty tough out there, but some local game companies have come up with a new strategy to get through the recession — they’re raising their prices.
Want some cool PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games for the bargain price of say… $140? Probably not. When was the last time games were 140 bucks? That’s more expensive than the Xbox 360 and PS3 launch prices. That’s more expensive than when games were incredibly expensive to make (and the console markets were tiny). You’d need to go back to the PS2 launch to see such “old skool” pricing madness.
With the Xbox 360 being three years old and the PlayStation 3 two… consumers actually expect prices to drop. Gamers are not idiots. Gamers are not crack addicts. We’re in a recession. Unemployment is climbing. Spending is falling. Hello? Gamers will not fork out 140 bucks en masse. They’re not going to fall for that shit.
The concern I see is that these high prices encourage local gamers to import directly from overseas — and eventually that “one-off” purchase will become a habit. Thanks to the Internet, the world is getting smaller. The retail prices in Asia are often far cheaper than NZ and consumers know this. When gamers can buy these same $140 games for less than we (i.e. Mighty Ape) can… something is broken.
High prices will lead to lower sales for both NZ retailers and distributors. Everyone loses (well everyone except for Nintendo – Wii game prices are looking even more attractive eh).
In my opinion, NZ distributors can’t afford to live in the dark ages for much longer. The local prices need to be sharpened — not increased. All things being equal, we’d much rather support the local games industry than import from overseas, however we’ll always do what’s best for our customers and our business. And if that means importing ourselves… we will.
The customer comes first right? We think so.
Recent Comments