Upcoming titles from Sony’s Worldwide Studios (for both PS3 and Vita) have finally re-appeared on Amazon.co.uk, one of the UK’s largest online entertainment retailers.
You may have noticed over the past few months that Amazon UK seemed to be having some kind of disagreement with SCEE resulting in a number of Sony titles – notably Sorcery and Starhawk – not being available for pre-order ahead of their release (and in the case of Starhawk at least, sporadically unavailable since then as well).
Amazon, one of the UK’s largest online retailers, was also removed from the “where to buy” page on the official PlayStation website. While you might not think something like this would be a particular issue, it’s worth noting that Sorcery and Starhawk charted at 15th and 17th respectively in their first week on sale, significantly below par for Sony first-party exclusives.
Well it seems that whatever problems had popped up behind-the-scenes have been resolved, with SCE titles (or at least some of them) appearing back on the site for pre-order.
It looks like the work is still very much in progress – LittleBigPlanet Vita, LittleBigPlanet Karting, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Wonderbook, and DanceStar Party Hits are now available for pre-order, albeit with no media or product descriptions, some are still absent (Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time being a particular example).
The listings also contain the same likely-but-still-unofficial release dates for this year’s remaining Sony releases that have appeared on other retailers including Game, Play and ShopTo over the past few days: 14th September for Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, 21st September for LittleBigPlanet Vita, 5th October for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and Smart As, 19th October for DanceStar Party Hits, 9th November for LBP Karting, and 16th November for Wonderbook: Book of Spells.
An odd note: the listings also suggest a difference in RRP for PS3 and Vita versions of supposedly identical titles titles – a £5 difference for Sly, and a £10 difference for Battle Royale – the PS3 versions more expensive in both cases – with the current selling pre-order prices reflecting that difference.
Whether this is a new strategy from Sony with regards to pricing Vita versions, or just a blip, we’ll likely find out for sure closer to the respective games’ launches.
Paranoimia
“You may have noticed over the past few months that Amazon UK seemed to be having some kind of disagreement with SCEE resulting in a number of Sony titles – notably Sorcery and Starhawk – not being available for pre-order ahead of their release”
I pre-ordered Sorcery from Amazon on 21st May, it was despatched on 24th, and I received it a few days later.
Tienpawa
Did you pre-order on Amazon UK?
Paranoimia
Yup.
freezebug2
This could have some bearing on the fact that Amazon.uk were selling the 3G Vita bundle for £209.99 as one of the cheapest available, then suddenly ramped the price up to £259.99 and haven’t altered the price since……..slapped competitive wrists possibly?
JBoo
LBP Karting – WANT! ! ! :P
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale – WANT! ! ! :P
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time – WANT! ! ! :P
It’s going to be a busy end of 2012 for me :D
Kennykazey
Pre-ordered LBP Vita, along with Most Wanted and Epic Mickey 2.
Want to wait with Battle Royale and LBP Karting to see if there will be collectors editions and if they’re any good.
Kennykazey
Oh, and AC3:Liberation.
BalramRules
This seems rather fishy, I wonder what had happened between Sony and Amazon… :o