It seems it's not just consumers that are slightly hesitant on dropping $29.99 - or in this case £29.99 – on Konami's Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, because it appears that the game has received yet another price drop, this time by Sony themselves. VideoGamer reports that the Metal Gear Solid V prologue has received a small price cut on the European PlayStation store. Originally £29.99, the game has now been dropped to £24.99.
Ground Zeroes PS4 is retailing for £29.99 (or $29.99 in the United States) in stores for a physical copy. Sony has price dropped the digital version by £5 quite suddenly. We're not sure whether or not this is due to the game's reception, which has been fairly divisive; some are praising the game's gameplay and others are not too fond of its price-point and the amount of content it offers.
Sony may have dropped the price of the digital version of Ground Zeroes due to a simple restructuring of digital v.s retail pricing, selling the former at a lower price as they do with a lot of their digital copies on the PlayStation Store. But if that were true, then that exact same discount would be available outside of Europe, and it's not. The current listing price on the North American PlayStation Store is still $29.99, same as retail. Then again, inFAMOUS: Second Son is being sold for full price digitally, so Sony's reasoning is up in the air.
Last month Konami announced a price drop across all versions of Ground Zeroes, on last and current generation consoles. This was due to backlash to the game's reported completion time by journalists that previewed the game in Japan.
Ground Zeroes' price has only been reduced on the European PlayStation Store. The Xbox One version is still £29.99. We'll have to wait and see if this discount will be added to other territories and to the Xbox Marketplace. I wouldn't be surprised if the game dropped in price in retail stores fairly soon, too.
I have yet to play Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC, please), but $30 does seem a little steep for one map, one story mission, and a few side-missions. I'll have to wait and see for myself, but it's hard to remain optimistic when some publishers can and have tried to treat their consumers unfairly.
