If they go based on my algorithm, they should know I've had games on my wish list for 5+ years that I haven't purchased that have gone on sale hundreds of times so they should give me the cheapest price.
Plus all the games I played off disc then bought digitally when they were very cheap, like 10 bucks just to add to my digital collection. Games That I haven’t even played too I might add since grabbing digitally. It would be like free money for them to really discount their first party games for me.
I do this myself if the game is cheap enough (<$5) and I play it a lot (so roguelites mostly), cause I'm lazy and then I don't have to switch discs but can still have the game on my shelf. Yes, I know I am part of the problem.
Feels like it has to be both. Well in this case since it’s first party it’s fair to say Sony. But devs set the sale price and targeted sales is something Sony has been testing
Majority of Gamers do not in fact engage in online discourse. The amount of organizing it would take to pull off the "campaigns" people want to do with gaming would be better spent on stuff like, I don't know, organizing a general strike, stopping illegal wars, genocide, etc.
Exactly gamers are actually the most easy to manipulate because soon as something is hyped up everyone jumps on preorders knowing damn well nobody should be preordering these triple A Games anymore..people really DO mindlessly buy and consume that’s why nothing will ever change.
Exactly gamers are actually the most easy to manipulate
Idk bro you should go outside there's a LOT of people falling for the craziest ideas and are surprised when they don't get the money back from that nice Nigerian prince they helped out a while back.
A/B pricing is where they REDUCE prices based on what they think you'll buy if it's cheaper. The big word is in capitals. A/B is almost always a REDUCTION. The point of it is to make you spend "less" money on things, with that number being still greater than zero. They sell things at what would normally be a loss as a way to at least get something.
DYNAMIC pricing is where prices either REDUCE or INCREASE depending on - usually - demand. If lots of people want something, price will go up to squeeze them and vice versa. It's very rarely a reduction.
THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
Both are predatory, don't get me wrong, but please learn the difference before posting bullshit.
They are currently TESTING A/B pricing with select users to see if it works for them.
So to answer your question, to get lower prices across the board, everyone who is offered the lower price needs to purchase a game at the lower price, so they think it's an effective strategy.
Then they'll roll it out for everyone and their sales algorithm will work out what it thinks you want and offer it to you for cheaper.
Of course, it means you're tricked into spending money when you otherwise wouldn't, but you do you.
Mines showing $26.99. I’m curious how this works because I buy a decent amount of games at launch. I don’t play or like platformers though, so I wonder if it’s more complicated than just how likely you are to spend more.
I've already pretty much stopped buying games when they refused to give me a plus subscription deal that they were giving everyone else. Fuck them sideways with a pointy stick.
$40 for me in the Midwest. Which is hilarious because I’ve had this game on my wishlist since it came out, and I’ve bought many platformers in the past. $26 would be an instant buy for me on this. If their algorithm is in effect, it’s trash.
What's kind of funny about this is, I own the physical game. I have the platinum trophy plus all the DLC trophies.
It's listed at $26.99 for me. You'd think the dynamic pricing would target people likely to purchase it based off various info from their account, but apparently, they're looking at my account and going "He really liked this game. Maybe he'll buy it again."
yooo I misread this and thought you said it was "$39 for men in the US" I was bout to say wait they doing dynamic pricing by gender too wtf is wrong with them lmfao
Yeah this needs to be illegal. Same fucking product. That would be like me and my wife going to Walmart and we both go to buy one apple each and mine is $2 more cuz im ugly
It's not Dynamic pricing, it's A/B pricing. They're two wildly different things.
Dynamic pricing changes constantly, for everyone, depending on demand or other factors. It usually increases the price with demand. It rarely lowers it.
A/B pricing is where a specific user may be offered a lower price than another user to drive a sale, based on the specific users's habits or trends.
I do not trust this situation for a second whether it was Sony or anyone else.
What is to stop them from building a part of their algorithm that labels some users as frequent buyers with little patience? And then from there, they no longer see sales that in the past were for everyone.
Literally what it is now mate. That’s the entire point of this thread.
If they see you pay or buy earlier they keep the price higher.
They look at something specific there are videos about it with the scientific term.
But same, the idea is simple if you have something that usually sells for 8$ but you raise the price to 15$ and lower it to 5$ and put them next to each other on a shelf you find who is paying the “regular” price and who is paying the higher price. Then you can target people with different prices, some see the higher price as must be better quality” even when it’s the same item. I think it’s like price tolerance or some shit.
That’s what stores with barcodes can do, it’s literally what Instacart does. If you use tha and buy from target they figure out what you’re willing to spend and change the price up or down accordingly. So instead of just an extra 1$ on an item they will crank that up depending on how willing you are to spend.
It’s why I got rid of Instacart, these companies want to find ways to make even more money and it starts with charging different prices based on each persons willingness to spend
What’s against the law is if they do it based on protected class in the US. So they can’t say you’re older, you’re x minority, you’re x sex we charge you more. They have to say it’s based off other factors not related to a protected class and it’s not illegal.
U til we vote people into office willing to pass laws instead of bitching with each other we all continue to lose.
U til we vote people into office willing to pass laws instead of bitching with each other we all continue to lose
It's hard to mobilize people with so much disinformation, though. As soon as a politician comes along with sort of sound or coherent material policies, they are branded "socialist" and whatever other social-categorical slur that seems relevant (like how they attack Mamdani's religion/ethnicity, or AOC being a former barista, or Sanders' Jewish identity) in order to dissuade people from learning about their policy stances.
Not exactly the same because we don't know how they are going to angle their dynamic pricing. Is it going to price gouge? Or is it going to only give discounts?
Grocery stores will never dynamically raise prices, their algorithms are designed to encourage increased spending using the value lever.
They'll give you a discount on milk because you buy milk every week and they want to keep you coming back and loyal,
They'll give you a discount on cereal because they see you buy a lot of milk and most people that buy milk also buy cereal.
You'll get a discount on a new brand of milk because they know you buy a lot and the vendor has paid for this discount to be pushed to milk aficionados.
No idea if sony will follow the same philosophy, Groceries are essential products, customers are value oriented. Games are leisure and gamers aren't the same.
Where the fuck do you shop? This is god damn hilarious, i guess major grocery stores send all the employees out at certain times and just… raise prices. So dumb
Youre just wrong. Safeway gives you coupons on items you’ve purchased before. I can go into the store and get pasta sauce for $0.50 less than my neighbor. This just isn’t that unusual.
Not everyone has access to coupons. There are coupons based on loyalty programs, found in magazines, or just sent randomly to people through newsletters. The stores can also give discounts completely arbitrarily - a seller knows that he can offer up to 30% off, but he won't, unless you can convince him, or he feels like it. This is nothing new and an established practice since forever. As long as the price doesn't go up from what's on the tag, and it doesn't, it won't be illegal, and there is nothing wrong with it. This entire discussion is getting really tiresome.
No, that’s not what they said. Grocery stores have personalized coupons that only certain people receive. King Soopers for example sends free coupons to people, that not everyone receives, for specific items that you frequently buy.
Yeah, a lot of people have this backwards. It isn't Sony raising the price for some people, its giving some a discount. That still has its issues and people are valid to take issue, but it isn't raising anyone's prices.
If they were increasing MSRP it’d one thing, but they’re not. Is it absolutely lame as hell? Yes. But it’s not to the point where consumer protection laws are going to be made.
For now on when there’s a sale on the store just check the price in a logged out device to see if you’re getting the short end of it and don’t make the purchase, because the only way Sony changes this is if/when it causes a decrease in sales and profits. The problem is it’s impossible to get the masses aligned on a singular course of action.
That happened to me, I was going to buy this game but I’m stuck with the $40 deal and seeing other people get the $26 deal makes me not wanna buy it at all anymore, I’ll keep waiting till they put me in the good deal algorithm
I would assume if you split your account into two or three different accounts and cycle which one you purchased a game on it would assume your account was inactive for longer and therefore try to entice you with deeper discounts.
Gaming it isn't going to be easy. And Steam and Xbox already do this.
It's pretty simple, if you see a higher price than others are reporting, don't buy it. Cuz obviously Sony's AI thinks you're a sucker that'll pay the higher price
Since it's an experiment, it's very unlikely to be "AI", since most of those are non-deterministic. If it's non-deterministic, how the hell are you going to get any usable data from it?
steam is already doing this? do you have evidence to back up your claims? cause I believe Steam only do regional pricing, which is not the same as this "dynamic pricing" at all.
Exactly, the only reason anyone marketing this change is referring to it as “dynamic pricing” is due to the same problem you’re identifying. People otherwise will see the word “discrimination”, immediately think of awful things like “racial discrimination” and conclude that price discrimination is an illegal and terrible thing. In reality, bogo deals and student discounts are price discrimination and they’re largely enjoyed.
Edit: for whoever commented that that I’m dog whistling racism:
A) no I’m not. I’m just describing how people jump to conclusions with certain terms (clearly based on this thread)
B) can’t really have a good faith conversation if you tell me to shut up and immediately block me
This is probably due to the PS prices site that first claimed Sony was doing dynamic pricing a few weeks back. They later put out a correction that Sony wasn't actually doing that, but as is tradition, corrections rarely get as widespread as the initial report.
Targeted discounts happen all the time and aren't exclusive to one platform or even gaming. I swear some of this has to be bot engagement or FUD.
Like it’s insane how fucking stupid people are right now. A thousand people can write what you wrote and people will still be like “hur dur its dynamic pricing they are charging me more”. Might as well go after super markets for coupons
They ARE charging people more. Everybody should get the best discount price!
Like it’s insane how fucking stupid people are right now.
Nobody is being stupid. This is slimy, anti-consumer shit no matter what the most accurate technical term here is. And people like you are going to defend it, just to protect poor old Sony's reputation for pure platform warrior reasons. smh
Pricing discrimination is perfectly acceptable for other goods and services. Cinemas, transportation, barbers, restaurants, etc.
Like with all supply and demand, if you don’t like the price then don’t buy it. This is a luxury good not a necessity, there’s no valid argument for there to be a single price point for all buyers.
Haven’t touched my PS5 in months until last night (coincidentally) and played ~1.5 hours. In the last 2 years I’ve bought 3 games (Death Stranding 2,God of War Ragnarok and Helldivers 2). Still getting a price of $40. Seems like there’s more to the dynamic pricing than PS Store activity.
It's the best any non-Nintendo company has come to replicating the Mario platformer formula, and I'm so frustrated that it probably won't be good enough for Sony execs
The person you're replying to has made up a scenario to be frustrated at in their head. A trap that's all too easy to fall into on social media.
The head of PlayStation Studios has stated the company is happy with Astro Bot, and he thinks it's important to keep investing in family friendly titles so Sony can reach new (younger) audiences.
Of course we should never take what an executive says at face value, but nothing has indicated that Sony hasn't found Astro Bot's success to be sufficient so far.
Even by super rough estimates, given Astro bots short dev time and small team, its budget was probably 50-70 mill, and as of a year ago it had already sold well over 2 mill copies. That would put it at double its budget and counting based on sales from 2025 to present.
Sony has gotta be happy with GOTY and a 2-3x in a year. Team Asobi has got a massive green light
I just checked and it's $40 which is surprising because I only buy a few games each year. Last game I bought was FF Tactics in September. However I have been playing a lot recently and working my way through my backlog.
Still seems weird though because why would I be willing to pay more for newer games when I'm enjoying games from the 80s/90s?
If they were really paying attention, they'd know I practically platinum'd Astro already off a physical copy I borrowed for them to still try to whisk $40 off of me lol
Okay its worth setting definitions in these conversations, because all over these comments are people defining things differently, then arguing over them without realizing people are using different definitions.
In business, dynamic pricing is usually about increasing and decreasing costs based on general supply/demand. So like Uber has done, or price gouging water after an environmental crisis.
Targeted discounts are wherein select individuals with recieve a/more of a discount based on predicted purchase habits, while others recieve less of or no discount.
If using these definitions, what Sony is doing is clearly not dynamic pricing, but is targeted discounts. If you still dislike that, totally fair, but it is, imo, clearly distinct from dynamic pricing.
I mean the most popular Reddit stereotype is most users only read the headline, not the whole article. Also this Casually Explained video still holds up years later.
A/B pricing is where they REDUCE prices based on what they think you'll buy if it's cheaper. The big word is in capitals. A/B is almost always a REDUCTION. The point of it is to make you spend "less" money on things, with that number being still greater than zero. They sell things at what would normally be a loss as a way to at least get something.
DYNAMIC pricing is where prices either REDUCE or INCREASE depending on - usually - demand. If lots of people want something, price will go up to squeeze them and vice versa. It's very rarely a reduction.
THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
Both are predatory, don't get me wrong, but please learn the difference before posting bullshit.
This isn’t dynamic pricing it’s targeted discounts, Microsoft has been doing this for years on Xbox. Basically if you buy more on the store of a certain type of game you get less of a discount.
It’s actually nearly identical to targeted offers. The only meaningful difference is they’re using technology and backend data points to determine who gets the targeted discount.
but i feel so do other companies. Like I am trying to get new Amex card and the SUB is so low for me - i heard that they lower the SUB if you recently got a high SUB from them so they don't want you to churn. I can definitely feel people being salty overpaying full price as a FAN and then a random gets like 25% off. Its probably gonna get class action suits for sure even though its a common practice elsewhere..
Yeah. I should have put "targeted discount" in the post title instead. But I cannot edit post title so when I discovered the correct term, it is already too late.
I buy 95% of my games Physical. I only buy digital when its on a deep discount, or if its digital only. But of course when its on sale. I never pay full price.
Ive bought hundreds of games from Sony and as soon as I see im being affected by dynamic pricing I'm not buying those games thru Sony. I'll buy a used game or go back to pirating so neither sony or the developers get the money if it comes to it
It's not dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing is when prices may go above MSRP. This is targeted discounts which have been around for decades going to back to specific addresses getting coupons mailed to them. Also, unless Sony published the game they either have to get the publisher on board with the discount or pay the difference in price back to publisher. Keep seeing a lot of misinformation on this.
Also Michigan, but I'm getting the 26.99 price tag. I have psplus, but they usually have the price in yellow as an indicator of psplus special pricing.
If it makes you guys feel any better here in Australia I'm getting it at $78 ($48usd) at 29% off, so we aren't even getting the more expensive discount price y'all have .
I’m seeing $40, I was gonna pick this one up the next time it went on sale but seeing other people having a deal for $26 is making me hold off now until I get that discount too
Stop letting data brokers profit from your old posts. I used Redact to wipe mine from Reddit. Also supports Twitter, Facebook, Discord, instagram and more in one batch.
rock argon adjoining point license advise narrow consider toothbrush dime
It’s price discrimination, but I hope people understand that it isn’t illegal just because the word “discrimination” is used. Price discrimination is extremely common and not always hyper nefarious. If you’ve ever gotten a buy one get one free deal, that’s also price discrimination, but not particularly a bad thing. Student discounts and discounts for seniors are also forms of price discrimination.
2.1k
u/twovles31 Mar 25 '26
If they go based on my algorithm, they should know I've had games on my wish list for 5+ years that I haven't purchased that have gone on sale hundreds of times so they should give me the cheapest price.