Well yeah, it was like that when I ordered at Zavvi as places like Game and even Amazon (I think) were out of stock then too.

Like Timey says, Zavvi haven't exactly played this straight, leaving it so long then cancelling. I don't really care too much but I'm a bit miffed that a game as old as TLOU is still £30+ at most places when other much newer AAA titles can be had much cheaper.

When a game breaks even and then makes a load of cash profit I think it should be expected for it to go down in price. It's no wonder the movie industry looks upon the gaming biz with envious eyes.

I still need to re-order. GTA5 and RDR were easy peasy orders and I got good prices on both of 'em. Play.com looks like the best bet... gotta go look again.

Cheers again mate. I even saved another quid or so from Bargain Games' eBay shop!

Order placed!

Edited by deleted (Thu 23-Jan-14 20:44:37)

Play.com is just a marketplace for third party sellers, their is no direct to consumer sales hence the different prices and availability of stock.

yep and the fact its 3rd party sellers is why I am suspicous.

Does a small 3rd party seller have the buying power and clout to get the products much cheaper than someone like amazon? probably not, so something doesnt add up.

ebay is the biggest platform for independent sellers so why are these guys selling on play.com and not ebay?

Well they could be selling on Ebay, Amazon, Play and other places to maximise their sales. I don't see anything suspicious and I haven't often found play to be all that cheap for games either.

As with all online purchases its best to pay by credit card so if there are any problems you can call your card company and get them to deal with it.

if they are selling on ebay then they not at the same price.

my theory is they using play because ebay uses paypal which favours the buyer in disputes.

Well, I didn't make it clear but:

In reply to a post by SPOOKish:

Cheers again mate. I even saved another quid or so from Bargain Games' eBay shop!

Bargain Games were one of the cheapest suppliers on Play.com and also had an eBay store, so it's quite likely they do business through Amazon also. If you were to browse their game sales catalogue you might rethink what you believe about them offering games far below what other larger companies sell at.

£25 for TLOU compared to £30 from Amazon say, isn't exactly eyebrow raising. It's cheaper but it doesn't raise suspicions. Figuring out cost of goods isn't easy as it doesn't always follow a simple logic of what we might think of as 'supply and demand' and scale of economies. In the media market, games, music, film etc, it's anyone's guess how it all operates.

Looking back to the late 80s era, the cost of vinyl singles rose to some £4.50 odd or more I recall. If you factored in inflation and wage parity you'd be shocked to see what we paid and all the while the music industry were sucking up big bucks. So, obviously the price we pay doesn't really have to follow on from what we feel is simple demand and supply economics. I'd love to know how profitable it was working in the media industry but obviously there are big risks for game (and other) publishers too. What's fair? I bet whatever it is, we are paying a helluva lot more than that but not as much perhaps as before which is why the music industry are so angry they've been penalised by technological progress (and not just piracy or at all piracy some might say). Just my views not that I know any better either.

Edit - Got a dispatch message this morning. TLOU is on its way! Hopefully it won't be a used item or dodgy rip off shoddy copy of showaddywaddy or something.

Edited by deleted (Fri 24-Jan-14 12:44:18)

an example I have seen.

tales of symphonia £40 on amazon, £40 on ebay, £16 on play.com. play.com was 40% of wholesale price. Was it stolen? sold at a loss? fake sale with no delivery? who knows.

There will always be examples of malpractice, an exception isn't a rule unless it's commonplace.

Well said