UK supermarket Sainsbury's has called on video games publishers to drop the price of their product.

MCV reports that Sainsbury's made it clear its entertainment conference last week that it would not continue to take a hit on the cost of cutting games RRPs.

Non-food MD for Sainsbury's, Luke Jensen, said that the firm would not continue to "bleed margin" on the industry's behalf forever.

"This is a journey we need to take together, and if it's not one we take together, it's a journey that won't happen," he said.

"I've heard people in the entertainment industry complain about the fact that prices are being driven down, but the fact is that what is happening is happening. The customers are leading the charge, we have to follow."

Kim Bayley, director general of the ERA added that the way consumers value entertainment has changed, and both retailers and publishers should share the effect of these changing expectations.

"Retailers need to offer their products at a value which consumers are prepared to pay. Consumers tell retailers consistently that they don't always value entertainment in the same way as they have done historically. It is only natural that the effect of these pricing expectations should be shared between retailer and supplier."

Speaking to MCV, an unnamed publisher criticised Sainsbury's for trying to devalue the industry and place it in the same position as DVD and music.

"I don't understand the logic of Sainsbury's wanting publishers to de-value their titles and to follow the path of DVD and music," they added.

"The grocers played a key part in destroying value in these categories, and I can't believe they would even have the cheek to suggest that we should want to follow suit to drive their share ambitions."

"Consumers have benefited from prices that haven't moved upwards while the experience has increased and the production costs have escalated.

"It seems to me that any call for downward movement in publisher pricing is misdirected."

If you want cheap games buy a PC.
Yes, console games are expensive, but people do buy the consoles at less than cost so the "console tax" is the only fair way to do it.

Non-food MD for Sainsbury's, Luke Jensen, said that the firm would not continue to "bleed margin" on the industry's behalf forever.

This.

Personally all my PC games I get a few months down the line, never pay more than £10-£15 which I think is perfectly reasonable. As for PS3 games I do the same (just got ACII with all the DLC for £17) and any others I get 2nd hand as they've always been in perfect condition. Again, that pricing is fine with me.

Any brand spanking newly released games I tend to just put on birthday or Christams lists.

Annoyingly sometimes buying a game on console is the only way to avoid awful DRM and online activation (effectively tying you to the product forever, no selling it etc). Which is [LIFTED].

That is stupid. The average console might not even be connected to the internet. I have never connected either of my two consoles.