Live in the UK? Get LBP for cheap!

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 20th 2009 at 3:00PM }

With LittleBigPlanet hovering around the £10 ($14.57) mark at several UK retailers, it's easy to see why industry execs have been critical about how quickly the isles slash software prices. Media Molecule's critically acclaimed title, which has sold two millions units globally, has a current suggested retail price of £44.99. As MCV points out, the price some retailers are selling LBP for is about the same as its official strategy guide.

Meanwhile, in the US, LittleBigPlanet is still $60. Import away if you want, but keep in mind that while the game is region free, the DLC is not.

Tags: littlebigplanet, media-molecule, sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SpiderMike @ Apr 20th 2009 3:12PM

Yes, sometimes it pays to be UK. We dont get raped by price hikes. We just have to pander to SCEA's regime.

monty @ Apr 20th 2009 3:13PM

lol, not surprising, i go up to the north (of ireland) all the time to get my games.. its waay cheaper than buying them down south...

i can buy a new release there for about €40 compared to €60 here.. great innit..

I.AM.IRON.MAN @ Apr 20th 2009 3:14PM

the 'isles' don't slash to quickly!

this is a rather random exception, most games hold their prices for at least a year, unless no one is buying...

don't even get me started on the price of pre-owned games, sometimes they're more expensive!

FireLord91 @ Apr 20th 2009 3:30PM

Most online retailers games go down in price quite quickly (GamesTracker is good to find this stuff out). It's only retail shops that sell them for ridiculous prices, although gamestation is pretty good especially for trading in.

monty @ Apr 20th 2009 3:14PM

oh btw..

http://www.play.com/Games/PlayStation3/4-/3433970/LittleBigPlanet/Product.html

MatthewJ @ Apr 20th 2009 3:41PM

The thing is though, how exactly does this price cut get passed back to the publisher? I would have thought that its the shops themselves taking the hit on profit?

rohan @ Apr 20th 2009 3:49PM

funny this should be here, i walked into EB the other day (Gamestop) and was looking through any new games that i should buy (not at EB mind you) and what should i see but LBP at 69.99$ CDN just a week ago it was 59.99$ and a used game 54.99. Rip off central!

sho220 @ Apr 20th 2009 4:10PM

i'd definitely buy this game at $15.

Pat @ Apr 20th 2009 8:03PM

Just a correction to the article: you can get LBP for $39.99 through amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/LittleBigPlanet-Playstation-3/dp/B001IVXI7C/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1240259698&sr=8-1

Chillski @ Apr 20th 2009 4:40PM

hmm 15 dollars plus est s&h to the states ur probably looking at 25 dollars... and than u have to put up with the fact u cant get sweet ass dlc that this game has

Marac @ Apr 20th 2009 4:51PM

I bought my copy at www.thehut.com for £11.73. Sweet!

firefor1012 @ Apr 20th 2009 5:05PM

most shops in England actually sell a game for no more than £40 brand new, Then you can buy pre owned games for less than £20, it suprises me when i go on this site sometimes and see a "special promo". that a game has gone down from $60 to $50, That would be considered expensive for a game in England. Gta 5, cod4 and cod5, LBP, Street fighter, Fifa 09. I paid no more than £40 each for these games on the release date. Where does Joystiq get these "£49.99 rrp's" from?

Joe @ Apr 20th 2009 8:14PM

RRPs for almost all games are £49.99, just no one actually sells them at that.

DigitalTwisted @ Apr 21st 2009 5:09AM

As has been said every game in the UK has an RRP of £44.99 - £49.99 for the consoles, just most don't sell them at that price.

I got FIFA 09 for example at Asda at midnight on launch night, £28. You just can't argue with deals like that, and it's about damn time, as it's only recently that this phenomena has occurred as in the past we have had to deal with high prices staying high for ages.

I love the way the world works, I get my own place and get all the extra costs that come with it and think to myself, no way can I afford a next gen console now, never mind games, and here I am with a bigger collection for my PS3 than I ever did at any given time for my PS2.

Crazy.

ZeroNow @ Apr 20th 2009 5:37PM

Yup I got LBP brand new for £10.50 inc pnp, and metal gear solid new for £12.99. Can't believe it's still full price in the US!! All of their games are averagely cheaper than us anyway so ner!

P @ Apr 20th 2009 10:17PM

Unfortunately, just as was the case with the original story over xmas/new year about UK prices being slashed, its a load of rubbish, or probably more a case of being taken out of context.

Sure, SOME games might see a sudden drop, prices get slashed on decent games while plenty of the junk you wouldnt touch seems to stick at £40-45.
LBP has been available at under the £20 mark (new) for most of 2009, and thats how much the platinum range sell for over here.
A perfect example of how this story is rubbish can be seen with something like CoD4, that barely dropped in price for the first 12 months.

Why this happens is probably down to supply & demand, I can only assume that with LBP the expectation was far higher than the demand, meaning retailers and sony have more copies than they know what to do with, and half-price is better than a warehouse full of games collecting dust.

There certainly isnt some unwriten 1 month price slash which seems to be what these 2 stories imply, the story is highlighting the fact that shops are too eager to empty shelves for new titles and take a small profit rather than being patient (or stocking in quantities they can manage!). There are plenty of stories which pop-up on here about recently released games being around $30 at whatever store/site while the UK its still just under RRP price, its just how things are, and the UK certainly isnt getting a great deal from it.
Also worth pointing out the pound is weak and its only just started to pick up again, its currently down 35-40% on last years GBP/USD rate so the rate helps a little too, but not that much at £15 for LBP.