Sony Tests Personalized Discounts on PlayStation Store

Sony Interactive Entertainment is conducting a large-scale experiment with dynamic pricing on its PlayStation Store, offering personalized discounts to select users across dozens of regions, according to data from price-tracking service PSprices.

The test, which involves more than 150 games and has been active since at least November, does not include price increases but varies the level of discounts shown to different users. Discounts range from about 5 percent to 17.6 percent on standard listings, with even steeper reductions during sales events, such as up to 56 percent off Helldivers 2 for some participants. The experiment targets regions including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia, spanning 68 territories in total. It excludes major markets like the United States and Japan, which PSprices attributes to stricter regulations and greater market sensitivity.

PSprices detected the testing through unusual structures in the PlayStation Store's public API, including identifiers such as IPT_PILOT and IPT_OPR_TESTING. These markers indicate A/B tests where users are randomly assigned to control or experimental groups, resulting in personalized pricing...