Amy

THE BUZZ: When release dates and prices for the upcoming survival horror game Amy were announced last week, some saw concern in the price difference between platforms.

The reason? For North American customers, the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game was set at 800 MS Points ($10), while the PS3 version priced at $13. The reason for this difference—as it was explained by the developer—was that the price of the Xbox Live Arcade version couldn’t be set  per-country, and due to the difference in exchange rates, that point price was what made the most sense for most countries.

PlayStation 3 owners, however, felt the price difference wasn’t fair to them. Even if $13 was a reasonable price for the game—and most agreed that it was—it felt like PS3 owners were getting punished through no fault of their own.

So, today, Amy‘s developer Lexis Numerique announced that the PS3 version of the game would get a price revision to $10 instead of the originally-announced $13. However, there’s one caveat to that change—the game will now be released on January 17th—the same as the XBLA version—instead of coming a week earlier as previously planned.

EGM’s TAKE: This was a position that Lexis Numerique no doubt never wanted to be in, but at the end of the day, that situation was somewhat unfair to customers in North America. So, I’m glad to see the company revise their strategy for the game—even if it means the game now comes a week later.

It does seem a little strange that games can’t have different pricing per-territory on the Xbox Marketplace. On one hand, it’s good to make sure that one country doesn’t get gouged over another. On the other, it brings up situations such as this, and means that prices can’t be set lower in countries where a more niche-level game just wouldn’t make sense at the usual price.