PlayStation Store

The price of PlayStation 4 titles in the UK is a topic that hasn’t really been touched on a whole lot in the lead up to launch. We’ve avoided the subject largely because we expected things to settle down shortly before release, but it looks like that’s not going to be the case, and we’re going to be charged a hefty premium at first.

Consider a popular title such as FIFA 14, for example. This game can be scored for £39.99 ($64.81) on the PlayStation 3 from Amazon.co.uk, a figure that’s more or less in line with most current generation blockbuster releases. However, a Blu-ray copy of the game for the PS4 will set you back £47.00 ($76.71) from the exact same retailer.

It gets worse, though. Sony launched the PS4 version of the PlayStation Store in Britain overnight, and the prices of some titles are borderline prohibitive. The aforementioned FIFA 14, for starters, will cost you an outrageous £62.99 ($102.09). Considering that the title’s selling for $59.99 on the North American online plaza, it’s quite sickening to see such gouging.

Unfortunately, while the EA titles are undoubtedly the worse – the publisher also wants £62.99 for NBA Live 14, a game that it has publicly admitted isn’t even very good – it’s not like Sony is actually setting a much better example. Knack will cost you a steep £47.00 from Amazon.co.uk, but you’ll need to stump up £52.99 ($85.88) for the digital version.

While we appreciate that the platform holder can’t do much to convince third-parties to change their pricing structures, the least that it can do is lead by example and try to drive digital costs down by attaching reasonable figures to its own content. Retail prices are known for dropping quickly in Britain, so we hope that once the hype surrounding the launch period has passed, boxed titles will once again adopt a much more reasonable cost. However, digital content must follow suit, too.

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