Price Comparison: XBLA vs PSN

We all know how important downloadable purchases are for both Microsoft and Sony, and most of us here at TSA have sent small fortunes on at least one such service. However, it’s generally been considered that prices on Xbox Live tend to be a little bit cheaper than they are on the PlayStation Network – thankfully TSA reader TheLig had a bit of spare time and dug a little deeper, comparing a few add-ons and downloadable games to see if there’s any truth to the myth.

“Just for reference,” says TheLig, “the maths I used for the Microsoft Points is: (8.50/1000)*N with N representing the points value of the product.” He also ignores any promotions, any discounted cards or purchases (such as cheaper Live cards, or buying PSN titles from Amazon, for example) and appreciates that this is a small smattering of examples and not necessarily representative of the whole market.  For an in-depth blog on one particular piece of nasty DLC pricing, click here.

Looks like music downloads are cheaper for Rock Band on PS3, but more expensive on Guitar Hero 3, which doesn’t make much sense to me.  Elsewhere it’s roughly even although in most other cases the PS3 downloads are at least a few pence higher.   Things like the Street Fighter IV costume pack seems like it’s priced to fit into a specific Xbox Live Points card value rather than an actual price (1000 points?) whereas the PS3 version is just rounded off at £9.99.  Capcom using one to offset the other?

You can clearly see here where the price brackets are on the Xbox Live stuff.  I’m wondering whether any of this will change now that Microsoft are offering Points cards at values that match the downloads (ie, 400, 800 etc).  Regardless, seeing PS3 prices at £7.99 when the Xbox Live price jumps up and down from 800 to 1000 points is a little confusing – most of the PS3 versions of the games mentioned above appear locked at a penny under eight quid whilst the 360 prices are all over the place.

I’m hoping this will turn into a bigger project and then in time we’ll get the full comparison of the two services, as a cross section of just twenty items really doesn’t prove a great deal – although it does highlight some interesting differences between Xbox Live and PSN on what are essentially identical products. If you fancy helping, why not drop TheLig a note in this forum thread and we’ll pick up on the progress in a couple of weeks or so, when hopefully we’ll have a definitive answer.