Sony Explain Why The Prices Have Vanished From The Store Updates

There was a bit of kerfuffle last week Sony removed the pricing from the PlayStation Store updates, they had previously posted them as Euros but have now decided not to post them at all. This is their explanation as to why.

As many of you have noticed, as of last week we are no longer quoting price information on our regular PlayStation Store updates. Instead, we’ve asked you to click on the hyperlink for each title to go to its listing on PlayStation Store and find the price in your region.

Obviously this is not as straightforward as just seeing the price listed in the blog post, and we understand the frustration many of you have expressed at the change. However, it’s a change we’ve made for a reason, and I want to offer you a bit more background on what that is.

Here at SCEE, we cater for a huge number of territories across Europe and beyond, many of which use different currencies. In fact, we cater for about 20 different currencies across more than 30 countries. We’re both legally and ethically obliged not to be misleading in our communications, and by only listing prices iin, say, £ and €, we are potentially giving gamers in territories who do not use those currencies a false impression of the cost of an item.

So we’re left with two options: either publish every currency price for every item, or ask you to click through to PlayStation Store to see an accurate local price, which is generated automatically based on your ISP’s location.

If you were to take a typical PlayStation Store promotion featuring around 100 discounted items, the blog post would have to feature around 2,000 separate prices to be compliant. That would not only be impractical to create, but it would also make the blog post very difficult to read.

Duly, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove pricing information and ask you to click through to PlayStation Store.

So, I hope that gives you some background into why the change has been made. We’re always looking for ways to improve how we communicate with our readers and customers, and the topic of PlayStation Store pricing is certainly something that will remain in our crosshairs. Thanks for your understanding, and your valuable feedback.

Some people have made the sensible suggestion that if you are logged in, then the site should know your home country and display the prices accordingly.

Yes, this is a sensible suggestion, and a more sophisticated ‘logged in’ experience is certainly on our shopping list. That said, unfortunately it’s not quite as straightforward as a click of the fingers – it’s a significant undertaking with fairly wide ramifications. In short, it’s not something we’ll be able to facilitate in the short-term. But further out, maybe!

Source: EU Blog