Sony "obligation" causes Salt and Sacrifice pricing chaos [updated]

Ska Studios has matched Salt and Sacrifice on the Epic Games Store to the PlayStation Store's price. A contractual "obligation" was seemingly enforced by Sony, raising concerns about regional costs on the PS4 and PS5 stores.

Update:
Push Square has received a statement from Salt and Sacrifice developers Ska Studios. It states that Salt and Sacrifice's “pricing was always intended to be the same on all storefronts at launch.

"Storefront pricing was adjusted in various regions ahead of the game’s global PC launch at 9 AM PT on Tuesday, 10th May, 2022. The price has not changed on any storefront or in any region following launch, nor did any platform holder demand any changes to the game’s original pricing.

“Developers Ska Studios and Devoured Studios apologise for any confusion regarding the price correction prior to Salt and Sacrifice's launch and, as a two-person development team, remain focused on supporting the game following a successful launch.”

Thoughts on the update, anyone? Let us know in the comments below!

Original Story:
TechRaptor spotted a Reddit thread dedicated to the topic. Later, Ska Studios responded to the price increases and reductions across the various countries' digital versions. The news was picked up by ResetEra, before being reported on by PushSquare.

Regional PlayStation Store issues cause price increases

Players noticed that the prices for Salt and Sacrifice had been changing up and down across the globe on the Epic Game Store (EGS). In the UK, on the PlayStation Store, the price went from £15.99 to £12.99 to match the lower price on the EGS — with several confirmed refunds being issued to players who bought at the higher price. However, in turn, the EGS prices went haywire in different territories. In the notoriously inflated Brazilian market, the cost is over 2.7x more than the initial value as the cost was raised from R$37.99 to R$104.90 on the EGS. Meanwhile in Turkey, where the Lira is particularly weak at 0.05 the value of the British pound, the EGS price has gone from ₺33 to ₺153 — nearly 5x the initial cost.

The question is, then, what on earth happened? Well, when quizzed on the matter by Twitter user linuano, Shayne Lynch, co-owner of developer Ska Studios, responded by saying: "All prices had to be adjusted to match the PlayStation prices (which we don't have control over). We're obligated to keep the prices of PC and PlayStation [the same] because of our agreements with Sony and Epic."

So, Sony must have had an agreement in place that the PlayStation Store would offer a value match for the EGS for a certain amount of time, and that is not what was being offered. So, Ska Studios dropped the price on the PlayStation Store in Western territories. However, unlike the EGS, on the PlayStation Store you cannot alter every territory independently from one another. So, as regions like Brazil and Turkey suffered huge spikes in price, under the Ska/Sony/Epic deal all prices will have had to match Sony's valuation on the PlayStation Store — thus raising prices across the globe while dropping them in regions with stronger currencies.

It seems, then, that Ska Studios had zero control over the matter, while Sony calling in the contractual obligation has hampered prices because of its inflexible and tricky PlayStation Store backend. What do you think? Is this on Sony? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.