The pricing and release dates of PlayStation games continue to dominate the news in weekly trade papers CTW and MCV. Roger Bennett, Director General of trade body ELSPA (European Leisure Software Publishers Association), has called for launch dates to be changed from Friday to Monday in response to the furore surrounding V-Rally 2 hitting the shelves a week before Infogrames' listed date.

"We deplore the fact that release dates are broken," he told CTW. "Those who are known to have broken dates should and must be punished. Curtailing supplies is not an option. There is another solution, which is to change the standard release date from Friday to Monday or Tuesday. The music industry release on Mondays and don't seem to have the problems encountered in our industry."

Meanwhile, MCV concentrate more on the pricing issue. Full-price console games enjoyed their biggest week of sales after Virgin Megastores cut PlayStation prices to £29.99. According to MCV, the week ending July 3 saw a 49 per cent increase in full-price PlayStation game sales, a move which Virgin's Bart Saunt feels has vindicated their policy.

"If the price really makes no difference to sales volumes, why aren't we still at £44.99 for triple-A titles?" he told MCV. "Why not go to £54.99? Of course lower prices have had an impact."

We like £29.99.