How PSN sales work?

[YonahFuriae]

Like, is it the publishers/developers who chose them, or is it Sony? I was waiting for 'Sense — A Cyberpunk Ghost Story' to be on sale, and just today I've noticed it has a sale on Switch for 11.99€. I thought maybe after this PSN sale ends they'll do the same, but then I checked and it was not the first sale for this title on Switch, but the third one, while on PSN it had 0 since it released. I just want it on PSN for the added fun of trophies, otherwise I'd get it for Switch, but if they don't make a sale I won't care about trophies.

 

Also, when I got some Senran Kagura games on the previous PSN sales, I've noticed the DLCs never went on sale, at least on Spain, as if this was some kind of rule, as it happens with more games, like they don't care or know DLCs exist. While on Steam the same DLCs have periodic sales.

 

So yeah, I was wondering how the sales work on PSN.

[Silocia]

Sony announce they are having a sale and developers/publishers can opt in and choose the sale value.

 

However, when I've heard of Indie developers discuss this on podcasts and stuff in the past, it appears that its not always straight forward and in some cases they literally don't know how to put their games on sale. I cant remember the game or podcast I'm specifically referring to. I'll try to dig it out and link it if I find it.

 

A little edit and a tip for people; A game cannot be on sale consecutively. This is why you'll see for example Ubisoft spacing their games out. They'll have AC on sale and then in the next sale have AC Gold on sale and in the next back to AC. If you want the gold in a sale, just wait for the rotation.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Silocia

[HuntingFever]

You have to be invited by Sony, before being able to take part in a sale, then it's up to the Developer/Publisher to decide what will be on sale and for how much. Unfortunately, some items are destined to never go on sale for whatever reason so don't get discounted.

Edited June 1, 2021 by HuntingFever
Update.

[DaivRules]

Publishers can also submit to have their own titles marked down independently of a Sony-coordinated "Sale". So Sony decides "Sales", but publishers can request to put their titles "on sale."

You should probably just reach out to the developer on Twitter or through email and ask if they intend to put their PS title on sale in the future.

 

 

[Tsundokuist]

Just to clarify, the promotional events (e.g. Days of Play, Big in Japan) can have their own promotional rates for the publishers (the cut Sony take from the sale). 
 

For example: If you buy a full price Square Enix game today Sony keep 30% of your money. If Sony invite Square Enix to a promotional event Sony’s cut on the same game sold in that promotional sale could be as low as 0% (Sony’s cut could even shift depending on the level of discount the publisher applies).

 

I suspect smaller publishers/indie developers don’t get offered these rates as often/at all.

 

The game you’re looking at may be on sale in Nintendo’s eShop because Nintendo offered to take a lower cut or just feature the game on the main page of the store if they discounted it for a period (increased exposure/free advertising for the game basically) whereas Sony haven’t.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Tsundokuist

[Ashbo]

They wait for us the majority to buy the games full price, then throw them on Plus and reduce them in the sales! 

[MrTacoNinja]

17 minutes ago, Ashbo said:

They wait for us the majority to buy the games full price, then throw them on Plus and reduce them in the sales! 

 

^^Exactly this. Sure seems like it.

[dakk55]

27 minutes ago, MrTacoNinja said:

 

^^Exactly this. Sure seems like it.

 

It's a conspiracy I tell you!

 

It always seems to happen when I buy a game or the DLC at full price. Ironically enough, the only times I ever buy the DLC at full price nowadays is the PS3 and they stopped doing sales after they stopped adding PS3 content to the PS Plus Monthly free games.

[YonahFuriae]

Thanks for these replies, they contain interesting information I didn't know about. I was curious to see how they work and who's the responsable for them, especially after seeing these differences between stores.

[YonahFuriae]

Yay! It got a sale, together with games I was expecting even more than that one for a long time, Momodora, Cofee Talk, Minoria and Maitetsu that I already buy back in the day for PC but wanted to have it on PSN, love this sale~

[ShadeSplit]

There are other games like this. To this day, the PlayStation version of Elliot Quest has never been on sale. A year ago I saw a thread mentioning that the Switch version was on sale for 9 cents. Yet there are quite a few small/unknown games that do go on sale. So it most likely isn't a straightforward process.