cyrenepenya: Child of Eden's PS3 price slashed following meagre US sales

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Child of Eden's PS3 price slashed following meagre US sales

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