Well, I would have picked it up if it was a lot cheaper because at launch I'll buy a whole sort of stuff I might not have ever bought. So, to Ubisoft, that is a lost sale because of that terrible pricing. Then, by the time the price comes down, no one will want the game anyway because better games will be out.
I can never say for certain, but I think it would've been beneficial to the customer (well, I can say for certain here), the publisher and Ubisoft to launch at a price of a maximum of $14.99 to $9.99, maybe digitally only. At a price of $39.99, they will probably end up losing more money in potential sales than they would have made by launching at a much lower price because you will turn off potential buyers because of the initial price tag and then lose them permanently later on when a game like Warrior's Lair comes out. I mean, that is some seriously silly pricing. I understand that it is a physical retail case for brick and mortar stores, but $39.99 is pathetic. I mean, $19.99 is a much, much more reasonable price for a physical cartridge based port of a ~$5 iOS game that was ripped off from Diablo, Gauntlet and Balder's Gate. Ugh.
However, Sony needs to be a lot more aggressive in making (forcing?) the publisher keep the price either the same as the iOS versions for ports and maybe just a dollar or two increase for substantial additional content for the same game. If this type of premium expense over iOS version is going to be a common theme, I expect a lot more hardship for the Vita than it is already going to have to deal with.
I really wish Warrior's Lair was ready for launch.
