icemann on 23/11/2012 at 08:11
Was just reading over at AusGamers.com about the various markups that game companies do for games sold in Australia even in the case of digital downloads where there is no reason at all as to why it's done other than because they can.
(
http://www.steamprices.com) - A site where you can compare prices on steam of a game from region to region.
A few rip off examples I found today on the above site:
Max Payne 3 Collection - Aus: $49.99 - US - $19.99
Modern Warfare 2 - Aus: $67.49 - US - $14.99
Civilization V - Aus: $34.99 - US - $14.99
Even taking the 10% GST into the equation it doesn't result in
that much of a markup. Shame you can't create steam accounts with fake address details. Would get the prices deserved rather than these marked up prices.
reizak on 23/11/2012 at 08:40
The nonsensical digital prices might also have something to do with appeasing the brick and mortar stores, which are courting death as it is and get a bit tetchy about anything that might hasten their inevitable demise.
demagogue on 23/11/2012 at 10:22
Part of the mantra that information wants to be free, is even when you want to sell it, it wants to at least be treated equally, so people don't feel prejudiced just because countries have different copyrights, so you can sell cheap in one market and milk another. It's not like Australian & US copyright standards are all that different anyway that Aussies are really paying for something with that premium (upholding Aus values in their copyright standards or whatever). I mean IP is about what's best for the consumers in the end, but with digital distribution it's hard to see how segregated licenses helps the consumers much. It's not like they need the extra money to ship the stuff if it's digital distribution.
icemann on 23/11/2012 at 15:11
This article here explains the situation alittle better:
(
http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3256952)
For those that can't be bothered reading it, to sum it up it it basically says that their doing it because they know that people will pay that much for it, and until people stop they'll continue. The government here has started to do an investigation into the issue, though more on the business software end and the companies questioned (apple, Microsoft etc) have been very evasive on it and not forthcoming with responses. Not surprising.
Over here IKEA has been getting into ALOT of trouble for doing very similar things with their furniture of massive markups. Been covered in the media quite a fair bit and alot of people stopped shopping there due to it. Then suddenly oh wow all their prices dropped quite significantly a few months later after the media got involved.
Muzman on 23/11/2012 at 15:56
It's completely infuriating. What I don't understand is that steam were doing their own thing for a while. You could get new release games quite cheaply and it was great. Then suddenly they hit parity with the usual BS prices from stores (who always pull the 'cost of doing business in australia' malarkey if anyone asks. Of course digital has no such problems. It's amazing to think that steam would just roll over on this or that EB might have the kind of clout to effectively fix prices everywhere digital and physical.
zacharias on 24/11/2012 at 00:58
For aus taffers Ezy dvd now has games and they seem pretty cheap/close to import/overseas prices (eg. Far Cry 3 $33 on pc) but i've yet to order anything so can't really comment on the service.
Muzman on 25/11/2012 at 09:52
Somewhat relatedly; WFT is up with Greenman games and Dishonoured at the moment?
RPS crowd are telling folks to go get it there but it doesn't show up in any search or listing. You can bring the entry for it up via google but it has no price or 'add to cart'.
Gonna try spoofing my IP and see what happens.
ed. Oh, twitter says they've run out of keys for the time being (the time being probably being until after the sale is over) *sigh*
Malleus on 25/11/2012 at 10:44
Quote Posted by Muzman
ed. Oh, twitter says they've run out of keys for the time being (the time being probably being until after the sale is over) *sigh*
Keep checking the site, the same happened during the Spec Ops The Line sale, and they restocked keys within an hour.
Muzman on 25/11/2012 at 12:29
Hm, alright. Cheers
