Pay up to $27 more as retailers cash in shortage. SHERWIN LOH finds out

THE price of joining Solid Snake in his final mission on the PlayStation 3 console might cost fans more than what they should pay for.

That's because the retail price of Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4): Guns Of The Patriot may be up to $27 higher than the price recommended by the game's publisher Konami.

The local pre-GST price set by Konami is $72 (regular edition) and $108 (special edition). The latter comes with an extra disc of special features such as documentaries.

However, a check with several game shops shows that the game is selling at between $79.90 and $99 for the regular version and over $130 for the special edition.

Why the huge difference in price? Konami's official release here is sold out, prompting retailers, whose copies are parallel imported, to set their own - and higher - price tags.

Luis Tanaka, Konami Singapore's branch and sales manager reckons that some of the importers slap on a very high margin, jacking up retail prices.

"We can only tell our distributors to instruct their retailers to sell the product at the official price. Currently, this is not followed by some of the distributors and retailers who are selling the products at a high price," says Luis.

The other reason could be that retailers themselves hope to cash in on the game, which is touted to be the last of the popular stealth game franchise. The game sold 1.3 million units during its launch last month and is now sold out in some markets.

Big variances in prices for parallel imported games are not new as retailers obtain their shipments from various suppliers, resulting in different costs. An import of the popular Rock Band music game, which does not have official distribution here yet, ranges from $330 to $400 at game stores.

Currently, checks show that only Sony Gallery stores are sticking with the official price of MGS4. Some 80 per cent of their stocks were gone by the second day.

Konami says that by the middle of this month, new stocks will arrive to top up the 5,000 units it has brought in so far. It is keeping a lid on the number of new units but says it is double of what was brought in on launch day.

One reason why Konami is controlling stocks here is because Asia has one of the lowest prices set for the game and it does not want the game to ship out of the region, says Luis. The regular game retails for 8,800 yen (S$111.20) in Japan and US$59.99 (S$82) in the United States. Demand here has been so high, Sony Gallery has even had walk-in customers who ask to buy units in bulk, possibly for re-selling.

But Sony Singapore's general manager and head of consumer business group Chang Seng Hock says that it limits each customer to two copies.

Both Sony and Konami are confident that gamers are wising up to the higher prices and are not falling for it.

Other publishers, however, have taken steps to guard against over-pricing.

"Ensuring that there is enough inventory of each game is one way to check against a grey market," says Christopher Ng, general manager of Electronic Arts Singapore, which distributes popular games such as the

Burnout franchise and the upcoming Spore.

"Having large numbers of retailers carry the products and releasing the game simultaneously on a global launch date will also help."

This article was first published in The Straits Times, Digital Life on 15 July 2008.