Canadians over the past two years have been experiencing a
steady rise in the value of its dollar, particularly in relation to the U.S. greenback.
Gamers north of the border in particular get to enjoy many of the benefits of
the strong dollar, including price drops of both videogame hardware and
software to reflect the updated exchange.
New release videogames that once retailed at a standard of
$69.99 are now launching at $59.99, and all
consoles except for the Wii (which is still $20 more in Canada) are sold
at the same dollar figure in both countries.
One area that didn’t transition so quickly was with downloadable
content. Microsoft changed it denominations of its points cards in response to
the dollar, as the point prices on Xbox Live Marketplace are the same for every
region. Canadian pricing in the PlayStation Store, however, carried dollar
figures that continued to be higher. That’s all changing soon, Sony said today.
In time for the weekly PlayStation Store update on May 1,
SCEA said that it will adjust the pricing for DLC available for the Canadian
market.
“We are continually looking for ways to enhance the player
experience on the PlayStation Network, and downloadable content through the PlayStation
Store is just one of our areas of focus,” said Grace Chen, Senior Manager for
the PlayStation Store. “We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the
expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PlayStation
Network experience.”
Sony said that it will execute the adjustments “in a phased
approach prior to the regularly scheduled PlayStation Store update, with prices
adjusting during a window of time prior to the scheduled update on May 1st.”