Setting the RRP (recommended retail price) for a videogame is a delicate art. Price a title too low and people may think its quality is impaired; price it too high and consumers may feel they’re not getting good value for money.
Child of Eden on Xbox 360 is a recent example of a game’s publishers getting the initial RRP wrong.
Despite an aggressive and highly visible marketing campaign for this ‘casual’ title, Child of Eden reportedly only managed to sell 34 000 copies in the US during its first month and entered the UK charts at the lowly position of 25 in its debut week.
A big part of the problem was surely its RRP of $50/£40 - just a fraction lower than a regular release and quite a bit more than other games from the ‘casual’ genre. This relatively high price became an even greater sticking point for consumers when early reviews revealed that the game could be completed in a couple of hours.
The PlayStation 3 version of Child of Eden is due on September 23rd in PAL territories, and the RRP this time round is a mere £20 - half of what the Xbox 360 version went on sale for. Online retailers such as Amazon UK and Play have already knocked down the price to £15, although their US equivalents are still advertising the PS3 version for $50 - a figure which is bound to fall closer to the game’s release date.
What do you feel is a fair price for a game which angles towards the casual end of the gaming spectrum, and only offers up a couple of hours of content in the process?
You can browse through our previous coverage of Child of Eden and keep your eyes peeled for a review of the Xbox 360 version soon.
Source: Eurogamer
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Comments:
I wonder if the Xbox 360 version's price will also be dropped as low as that, and if it is, if people who have already bought it will feel slighted. Game prices drop shortly after release all the time, but this seems to be a special case.
If the prices for the PlayStation 3 version stand, there's also going to be fallout over platform preference etc. - unfounded criticism, but it's going to look bad for Ubisoft.
The sales figures are really sad, it was never going to be a huge seller but I didn't expect it to sell this little.
My funds have been sadly lacking recently, I really want to pick up Child of Eden (so that I can actually have a decent Kinect non-exercise title), hope they drop the Xbox price. Rez was a fantastic title, still have a PS2 version at home.
definitely! i did my research across the U.S. and UK amazon stores and the xbox version has been reduced a bit in price, but it's nowhere near 20 pounds yet. as far as i know, the ps3 version has 3d support (the 360 one doesn't) so that's another reason to pick up the ps3 version if you haven't bought child of eden yet. having played the game quite a bit, i think 3d will suit this type of experience perfectly - especially true stereoscopic 3D outputting at 720P like the ps3 does. it's going to feel incredibly futuristic if you play it on a high quality 3D tv with playstation move and 7.1 surround sound!
"The way of the future..."
The Xbox version is already £20 at Shopto.net. By the time 23 September (that's my birthday, btw) rolls around I'm pretty sure you will be able to get the Xbox version at the same price as the PS3 one. By the end of the year you will probably be able to import it for £10 to £12.
I think Child of Eden sounds awesome and I was hoping it would do well, but I thought trying to sell it at full price was always going to be tough. They should have released it at a more budget price.
Agreed - if the Ubisoft knew the title wasn't exactly packed with content, it should have priced it accordingly. A PSN/XBLA release might have worked, too.