Sony Interactive Entertainment reportedly isn’t experimenting with targeted price increases, as the test is limited to varying discount levels for select PSN users.
A recent clarification from pricing tracker PSPrices has corrected earlier interpretations about a large-scale pricing experiment taking place on the PlayStation Store. While an initial indicators suggested that Sony Interactive Entertainment may be testing elastic pricing that could include targeted price increases for certain PSN users, the updated information indicates that the program is instead focused solely on experimenting with different discount levels.
The confusion involved a program identified in PlayStation’s back-end systems as IPT_LTM, which PSPrices discovered through a datamine of PlayStation Store API responses. Early indications suggested that the program may show different users different prices for the same game, potentially including higher than standard prices for some players. However, PSPrices has now issued a correction clarifying that the data had been misinterpreted.
According to the updated explanation, the price variations seen in the IPT_LTM program were not increases at all, but rather discounts of different depths compared to the retail price. The misunderstanding came from an example involving the PS5 version of GTA V. Initially, a test price of 29.99 US Dollars was assumed to be a price increase compared to another experimental price of 26.99 US Dollars. However, the updated post clarified that the standard price of the PS5 version of the game is 39.99 US Dollars. Both experimental prices therefore represent discounted offers rather than higher pricing.
As PSPrices explained in its correction, “Previously we interpreted the 29.99 US Dollars price for GTA V as a ‘test increase’. In fact the retail price of GTA V (PS5) is 39.99 US Dollars, and both experimental prices (26.99 and 29.99 US Dollars) are discounts of different depths, not increases. The IPT_LTM table has been updated to include retail prices for context.”
