Sony cuts PS2 game prices to $39.99, others follow...

http://www.gamesarefun.com/newspro/f...1941533,39872,

Sounds good to me !!
- Kabuki

crazy while i like it as a consumer like stone said in his thread lower prices can mean a bad thing in the long run

This is excellent news. I have always felt that $40 is the right price for game software. For anything more that that I sometimes begin to have doubts about games I might otherwise buy. I think that lower cost will result in more sales, so it makes sense to me. :)

<--- Fan.

Thank God for Sony, its about time this long-standing tradition/requirement of new games to have a price of $50 be dispersed :)

Sweet. Five games for the price of four forever more!

Smart move. I never understood why games had to be $50 when a system first came out, especially when you know those games were going to come down to half price within a year or two. Certain games you know are not worth $50. Midnight Club for 50 bucks anyone? $40 was the standard torward the middle of the PS1's lifecycle, and I don't see it doing anything but benefiting both Sony and their consumers. Cheaper games = more of my money.

Yeah, Cool news. I never liked the $50 price mark either. Do you think that EB or GameStop will still overcharge on those to make more profit though?

As for games, now I need to think what I want to pick up.

While its always nice to get more games for less $$, I am a bit worried about this development.

A lower price point could very well lower marginal revenues of software developers- especially those initial sales revenue which is where they make up their fixed and variable costs in order to make it into the "profit zone".

This may be avoided IF the lower price raises quantity demanded per unit enough to make up the difference in additional sales.

HOWEVER, this may not always be a 1-to-1 difference, as the price is not the only factor at play when one decides to buy a game. I personally believe that revenue will decline for the software publishers.

Hence, to minimize or even negate the reduction in revenue, the producers may choose to lower their production costs by:

- Reducing the budgets allocated to development teams therby reducing quality

-Reduce money allocated for packaging and such. Hence, instruction manuals printed in B&W, crappy disc art, crappy packaging design.

-Reduce money for translation talent and time. Which could mean poorer translastions of localized games.

Sony is doing something smart for once... I hope it's a trend...