Sony has been testing some dynamic pricing models on the PlayStation Store over the past half year, per reporting and analysis from deal tracking site PS Prices.
Since November 2025 (and perhaps much further back with a different mechanism), users might have seen varied pricing depending on if they were in a test group or control group, and with the test having expanded in February 2026 to include more games and region, this can now also include varying discounts during sales.
The reason why this has gathered more attention in the last couple days, though, is because Sony messed up. The intention here is to offer slightly lower prices to people to entice them to buy a game. What’s happened in the case of Assassin’s Creed Unity, however, is that the game for the control group and users who are not signed in is £3.74, while those seemingly in the test group can only buy it for £9.99.
Imagine seeing the news that AC Unity is now 60fps on PS5, spotting that it’s £3.74, but then logging in and being presented with a higher price point? Yeah, I’d be hacked off and feel that it’s a shady practice too.
But personalised and exclusive discounts are really nothing new. It’s often occurred on Xbox that players of a game are messaged about a specific promotion based on their interests – 30% off the new FIFA because you owned the last one, as a fictional example – and Sony has been holding double discounts and sales exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers.
Pushing this to A/B testing has value for Sony and publishers to understand more about the price points that strike the best balance between price and selling volume to get the best overall profit for the companies involved. A sign of how seriously Sony is taking this is that they’ve included their own games like Astro Bot, God of War: Ragnarok and Helldivers 2 in the testing, offering a 10-12.5% discount, while third party examples were tracked up to 17.7% by PS Prices.
This is all about discounting games, as opposed to something like taxi surge pricing where price increases during high demand, but it does feel shady when compared to more clearly defined sales and discount windows. At the very least it leaves a bad taste in the mouth to find out that some people are seeing a discount and you’re not, and once you’re aware of that, it adds a psychological barrier to buying.
Right now, for example, Helldivers 2 Super Citizen Edition has a discount of 20% to £39.99, but some will see a 58% discount all the way down to £21.00. Knowing that the game could be nearly half the price and with no clear reason why is… unappealing.
So, all the more reason to use price tracking sites to understand more about how you’re using your money.
