Australians Being Ripped Off... Yet Again

[Harry Reems]

I have a real gripe with the whole crap over Steam pricing. Nearly every developer has jumped onto the "They're AU, hike up the price" bandwagon, and it is really getting up my nose.

Of all the latest release games to come, we have:

Bioshock 2: $79.99 ($91.32AU)
Metro 2033: $79.99 ($91.32AU)
Aliens vs Predator: $64.99 ($73.98AU)
Napoleon Total War: $69.99 ($79.69AU)
Battlefield Bad Company 2: $49.99 (56.92AU)

The only game that I would consider buying from this lot would be BFBC2, as it is the only one that is at a price, that I feel, is reasonable for Digital Distro copy. The Publishers believe they can charge obscene amounts of money for something that costs them significantly less to actually distribute.

I can buy a boxed copy of Bioshock 2 for less than half of what Steam is charging from Ebay. I truly am sick and tired of being treated like an idiot by greedy publishers, and am not willing to bow down in servitude to these mongrels anymore.

And they wonder why people pirate games?

[Vulcan21]

Regional pricing really sucks, although to be fair, one publisher seems to be doing good things lately via Steam and that's suprisingly EA games.

Mass Effect 2 (Great game) was also $49.99 along with BBC2 and both those titles are fantastic value at that price.

[Reoh]

...you should see how much Adobe overcharges Aussies for their products, even downloaded from the same website.

[Speedy]

Harry check out the first post in this thread http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/left-4-dead/272244-howto-buy-uncensored-l4d2.html

I followed this and picked up the AvP preorder for 25 pounds (bit under A$50).

[Pure Mongrel]

We are having a similar discussion regarding XBOX Live. MS points cost more for Australians and items cost more MS points to purchase for Australians.

A huge example of how bad it can be is when they put back catalogue games on XBOX Live Marketplace all the games were more expensive for Australians.

At launch of back catalogue the prices were way out of whack (for instance):

Mass Effect - For US players $19US. For AUS Players - $99.95 AUS

Prices have changed, but are still over inflated for Australian players.

[Drac]

Originally Posted by Reoh

...you should see how much Adobe overcharges Aussies for their products, even downloaded from the same website.

They've been doing that for years, monopolistic bastards.

[Drac]

I still don't really understand where these inflated prices come from, is it the publishers, local state/federal taxes or something else?

The same thing happens with Console hardware and accessories, they're always hugely inflated over here yet computer hardware and other electrical goods like HDTV prices rise and fall depending on how well the AUD does against the USD.

Does anyone have any clue as to why this happens?

[Mighty Brush]

Because it can.

Price is set as what people are willing to pay. Unless people don't buy them, they will stay that high.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Drac

I still don't really understand where these inflated prices come from, is it the publishers, local state/federal taxes or something else?

The reason it happens is that the local disti or retailer (say EB Games) will say, if its cheaper on Steam than retail, we won't stock your title. And the local disti toes the line and forces the publisher to screw the prices up higher.

So you end up with JB/EB having the game at retail on special cheaper than Steam. I believe it should be ruled collusion and challenged as anti-competitive.

[welshman]

Basically what Mixer said.
It started if You remember with CoDMW (The first) which was selling on Steam at US$49 (About AUS$60 ATT and about AUS$89 retail). So what people where doing was, armed, with a printout of the Steam store page they would march into EB (and others) and demand that They beat (The US$) price under their "Beat any Price" policy ( I was there when someone acually tried this and it was hysterical to watch).
I had a Friend who worked in the local EB and She told Me that once EB and other retails cottoned on to what was happening they protested to Activision basically threatening a Boycott of ALL Activision products if Steam wasn't brought back into line and over night CoDMW went from US$49 to US$89.
If You also remember this too happened to Borderlands with the 30 dollar overnight hike.
I think the problem then got worse when Acti and 2K told Steam You must sell this for 89 Dollars in Australia........except they forgot to mention "In Australian Dollars" and thats why You are seeing the Steam price cost more after conversion than Retail price....I think it's the only way to explain why the Steam price is more over inflated.