Sony Computer Entertainment Japan started selling first party games at a discount on the PlayStation Store the same day they went into retail stores. Now Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is testing a similar tactic with LocoRoco 2. The game came out last week and retailed for £29.99 ($46). This week LocoRoco 2 is on Europe’s PlayStation Store and sold for a cool £23.99 ($36). Europe isn’t getting same day digital delivery, but one week is pretty close. Retailers can’t be too happy about that since Sony is undercutting them with downloadable albeit package-less copies of the same game.
So far Sony Computer Entertainment America hasn’t tried this strategy yet, but then again we haven’t seen any first party games from Sony except for Buzz and NBA 09 in the past few months. It’s going to be interesting to see if SCEA adopts this strategy next year and if the PSP will start favoring digital releases over retail ones.