The community has spoken, and Lexis Numérique has listened. AMY has received a three dollar price drop on the North American PlayStation Network, but the alteration means that gamers will have to wait an extra week before they can play the survival horror title on Sony‘s console.
After announcing its plans to release the much-anticipated game onto both XBLA and PSN this week, the independent European publisher received complaints from gamers on this side of the pond. The reason for their dismay was a disparity between the revealed list prices for each version. While the Xbox LIVE Arcade release was listed at 800 Microsoft Points (the equivalent of ten American dollars), the PSN version was listed at $12.99. Despite only being a three dollar difference, it sparked some outrage within the community, especially considering the title was incorrectly thought of as being a PSN exclusive.
It has since been explained that the price difference was a result of European conversion rates, where Microsoft Points are more expensive than they are here. However, the publisher acted in good faith by hosting a poll on its Facebook page, where gamers could voice their opinions. It provided two different options: one for those who supported a three dollar price drop to $9.99, and another for gamers who were fine with the pricing structure the way it was.
Not surprisingly, the final tally was overwhelmingly in support of a price reduction, with approximately 70% of the entrants picking that option. True to their word, Lexis Numérique will honour that result. Due to the change, however, a one week delay is necessary. This means that AMY will not be available on the PlayStation Network until January 17.
Whether a three dollar price drop is worth waiting an extra week for is negligible. There will be people who say yes, as well as others who feel the opposite. Though, it must be said that the necessary postponement was mentioned in the text adorning the poll. Thankfully, the XBLA version will still be available this Wednesday, January 11.
Below, you will find an official release regarding AMY‘s price drop and its resulting release date change. It can also be found on the game’s Facebook page.
Hi all, thank you very much for your commitment in the recent discussions over the price of AMY in the US.
70% of the voters advocated for a price drop. Honoring our commitment, we asked Sony to drop the price of the PSN version in the US to $9.99.
Because of technical constrained of the PSN Store linked to the servers, this price change will postpone the release of the PSN version of AMY in the US to next week, Jan 17, 2012. This price drop will not affect the release of AMY in the other territories, or on other platforms, as the release date for the XBLA version is still slated for January 11, 2012, for 800 MS points in the US
We sincerely apologize for the confusion, and especially to those of you who have been supporting us for months and who would have liked a immediate release.
Once again, the initial move might have been awkward, but it was a good-faith attempt to balance the price difference of MS Points that are more expensive in Europe that in the US. We now realize that we won’t be the ones to find a fair solution to avoid European players to pay their games at a higher price than in the US, as has been the case for years. But at least we tried…
We thank you for your understanding. We now hope that you will have real pleasure playing AMY. This would be our best reward.
PS1: We need to precise that we never announced AMY as a PSN exclusive. Even though it’s true that Sony has been giving us a tremendous support, we’ve always announced AMY for the PSN, XBLA and PC (coming in several months). AMY has even been awarded “Game of Show” at E3 by XBLAFans.
PS2: To those of you who believe this was an attempt to make a few more bucks, we need to precise that we initially wanted to sell AMY at 1200 points, but this would have meant a high price for European players. In addition, we believe AMY is a full game that could have been sold at a regular price at retail but we chose to go digital.
