As rumours of Metal Gear Solid V’s relatively short length began to surface, some folks began to worry about the price. What would we be expected to pay for an experience that, some reviewers were reporting, was less than two hours long? In Australia we didn’t have any official information outside of estimates on some retail sites. Now we have the official word.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is set to retail at $49.95 in Australia, across all platforms including the next generation versions on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
It does reportedly take a short time to get from the beginning of Ground Zeroes through to the endgame, but finishing the game is apparently just the start, as the game is packed with content that encourages replay value. Ground Zeroes has been designed to help ease players into a new, open world Metal Gear Solid experience, so I’m inclined to view it as Metal Gear Solid V’s version of Tanker level in Metal Gear Solid 2. That was one of my all time favourite gaming experiences of all time, and one that I probably replayed roughly 10 times.
I guess what I’m saying is this: I’m holding off on the judgements about the game’s value until I’ve actually played the thing.
Comments
37 responses to “Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Priced For Australia”
Great news, especially if there’s lots of replayability involved.
Also, the demo of the tanker level was awesome to play over and over. So many guards I apparently didn’t kill by making their head a pincushion for my sleeping darts
Still too pricey for a two hour campaign. Gonna wait till it hits the $20 bin.
Agreed. MGS is my favourite franchise, but $50 for a prologue is too steep. I’ll wait until the inevitable bundle with the Phantom Pain is released.
$50… Sold! (Although, it still is $69 for PS4 @ ebgames.com.au)
WIll be picking this up at launch, then back to the shops the next day for inFamous: Second Son 😉
then back to the shops the next day to trade in for inFamous: Second Son
Fixed 😛
So, they lowered the Australian price to match the US standard price?
Yeah but Australia doesn’t have $8 minimum wage.
Nope, the price was lowered for current gen to match with previous gen so that it is affordable for all.
And @youramishdaddy, yes there are lesser than $8 minimum wage in Australia. I used to work at a restaurant that try to avoid paying tax as much as possible and only paid everyone $6-$8 per hour. Wages were given as cash with no PAYG.
That’s illegal, no two ways about it. The American minimum wage is federally legislated at $8 and ours at $16. If you are an adult and you aren’t getting paid that, your employer is committing a crime.
That doesn’t give you insight to the lower socio-ecomonic side of the Australian population, it just makes you a fool.
Yeah but the difference is that what that restaurant was doing, or possibly still is, is illegal.
I know right. But sometimes there is just no choice and you need the job and money. Even fast food restaurant here are paying below minimum wages by hiring underage students but they are getting away with it by abusing the law which actually allow that to happen.
Which brings me to the point again. There are people working below minimum wages in Australia as well and it does not justify why Australians have to pay premium for our product just because we can. That reason is bullshit. If they want to factor in worker wages and import fee plus shipping fee management fee. Fine by me but why is digital games which does not require any of above still cost the same?
Because they have to store the game on a disc, ship it to Australia, and then upload the game onto the internet before people can buy it in Australia digitally.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure if I making myself clear. It’s just basic inflation. If we have more disposable income, the costs of goods go up due to supply/demand. It’s a simple interpretion of the pricing so don’t bank on it. You can’t really bring income that isn’t taxed into the equation.
I’m with you on the digital sales though. That shit it just unjustifiably expensive.
Digital games cost that amount because retail is a significant factor in distribution. Retail or shelf games are integral to making the game known and widely available – a source of marketing. If digital games undercut retail games, retailers will not want to stock those games since revenue WILL decrease. This then ties in with the opportunity cost of those shelves – blah blah blah. Retail games cost that much since publishers will probably want to hedge against variations in currency rates. Other factors may be (or most likely) price discrimination. Transportation is no longer a viable reason for increased prices since it is hardly an expense most of the time, but warehouse space may be since real estate is expensive here. Wage is not necessarily part of the equation since that is often a distributed cost and retailers have reformed labour costs ever since retail has had trouble in recent years. Rent usually is part of the equation though.
HOWEVER, department store have similar cost structures to those in the US and UK, so its probably the speciality stores that are given some sort of preference or price leadership due to drawing bigger audiences of gamers (maybe – haven’t looked too far into retail store bureaucracy).
This is a problem though since decreasing prices will probably increase profits for Australian retailers, developers (inherently) and feedback into better long term profits due to more well-known and easier to overcome price barriers since consumers aren’t idiots in this day’n’age and are more sensitive to prices seen overseas. Problem is publishers set the sale price to retailers, who also need to add in costs – blah blah blah.
Yes we get paid more but everything is more expensive like rent. If we didn’t get paid so much we wouldn’t be able to live.
A vicious cycle.
that’s not very legal
Neither are the people that are working there so they cancel each other out.
Works out to be $33.36 AUD ($30 USD) for those with USA PSN accounts.
This is where its at 🙂
Indeed. Why are we being downvoted? Just letting people know of a cheaper way of getting it.
Glad that this happened when it costs the same across all platforms in Japan.
Wow, $50! That’s directly in line with the $30 USD price over in USA, and definitely doesn’t include some sweet bonus to the local distributors!
Question: This is the local retail price but what’s the online price going to be?
if history is anything to go by, it’ll be exactly the same on PSN as RRP in shops.
I think I’m gonna go cry now 🙁
In the US (as confirmed by the verified Metal Gear Solid Facebook page), the physical versions of Ground Zeroes across all platforms is $29.95, but the digital versions for PS3 and Xbox 360 are $19.95, while PS4 and Xbox One are still $29.95 (their original price before the price drop, I believe) . Certainly doesn’t make any sense to me, and I have no idea if we’ll end up with anything similar, but that’s the current situation elsewhere.
I’ll wait for the inevitable MGS5: Complete Edition that will come out the same day that MGS5: Phantom Pain comes out
Exactly. I’ll be very surprised if Ground Zeroes doesn’t get thrown in as a bonus with the full game when it hits shelves.
Might be a long wait. It will most likely be Phantom Pain by itself and you will get a discount code to buy digital Ground Zeroes. Give it around 6 months to 1 year after Phantom Pain you will get the Metal Gear Solid 5: Enhanced Edition with both game and updated texture and extra SP mission.
Another 2-3 years later we will get Metal Gear Solid Complete Edition, compilation of MGS1 – MGS5 playable on PS4 and X1.
Will be a fair bit of wait.
He mgs fans I have not played mgs before do you think this will be good way to get into it or will the story be very confusing?
Cheers
The story is always very confusing, so it’s hard to say.
Haha…this guy, eh!?
Stop what your doing and go play Metal Gear Solid 1 right now!
…or at least MGS3 HD edition.
Sorry no sale – $50 for a 2 hour prologue is not a fair transaction. A new release movie retails on DVD for $20. This game in the US retails for $20.
Dead Rising Case Zero – a three hour prologue open world game that appears to cover a similar surface area retails for $5.
I can’t believe there are people on this page willing to pay through the nose for this – you are sending a bad message to publishers that people are that desperate for shiny new games that they’ll pay any amount.
Remember they’re only charging this much to Australians (the US exchange rate is at 90 cents) because they think they can get away with it – don’t let them.
With ya buddy… On top of that there is only 30 seconds of gameplay
2 hours long with a 1hr 45min long cut scene !