heywood on 28/11/2012 at 06:22
The cost of living here is just high in general. Food, clothing, housewares, consumer goods, cars, restaurants, alcohol, housing, you name it... Games are no exception. But if you want to see some real sticker shock, visit Norway.
Muzman on 28/11/2012 at 17:27
Quote Posted by heywood
The cost of living here is just high in general. Food, clothing, housewares, consumer goods, cars, restaurants, alcohol, housing, you name it... Games are no exception. But if you want to see some real sticker shock, visit Norway.
Things have always been slightly pricey, sure. Usually for geographical and economies-of-scale reasons. But that's what the problem has been for retail lately and why Gerry Harvey has been bitching non stop. The artificial maintenance of these high prices has allowed a flood of cheap imports to sweep in and they're struggling to keep up. This is particularly in the areas of second tier consumer goods and electronics.
At any rate, whatever the mark up on these things and for whatever reason, none of it comes close to media like games and music, which have been two and three times the price of pretty much anywhere else.
I'm one (probably the only one) who wouldn't mind if it was some huge sales tax designed to protect the local industry or something. At least then there's some transparency. This is just basic anti-competitive behaviour it seems.
Pyrian on 28/11/2012 at 18:19
Businesses will tell you any number of nonsense lines about prices, but the truth is that there is only one price constraint that matters to them: The point at which higher prices reduce sales enough to decrease profit. If you'll pay for it, they'll be happy to charge you.
gunsmoke on 28/11/2012 at 18:27
I always felt bad for Eva and the rest of you in that area. Hell, Canada too.
Angel Dust on 29/11/2012 at 00:46
It's not really that bad, gunny, as there are, at least here in NZ, plenty of other online stores that sell games at more reasonable prices. I pretty much only buy stuff from Steam during the sales now and go to places like nzgameshop if I want something on, or fairly soon after, release. And then there's the indie stuff which you can usually buy directly from the developer at the standard price that everyone else pays.
EvaUnit02 on 29/11/2012 at 06:44
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
It's not really that bad, gunny, as there are, at least here in NZ, plenty of other online stores that sell games at more reasonable prices. I pretty much only buy stuff from Steam during the sales now and go to places like nzgameshop if I want something on, or fairly soon after, release. And then there's the indie stuff which you can usually buy directly from the developer at the standard price that everyone else pays.
I totally agree with you for most part but the trouble with digital sales is that tiny ass datacaps is still a big problem for many people in NZ. I.e. my flat only has 80GB per month.
Also remember that places like nzgameshop.com and WOWHD (CD Wow formerly), are foreign-located dealers in imported goods, who only have localised storefronts. (Eg 365games.co.uk is the main site and NZgameshop and ozgameshop are storefronts). The actual LOCAL retail stores are all still price marked up scammers.
gunsmoke on 29/11/2012 at 17:33
Dust: you were one of the others I feel bad for. IIRC, we did a couple swaps so you could get something for US prices (I think bob_doe_nz, too), and the difference in pricing was SHOCKING. some of them being fucking TRIPLE what the good ol' United States of America.
I think eva and I were talking once about a new release and he was going through Hell and back scouring the web for deals on discs (the stupid data cap in Oceania is freaking punishingly small) and was paying upwards of $120!
You guys typically regularly seem to have to wait weeks, or oftentimes months, for a reasonable price drop. And like I said, even if you find something you run up against that tiny cap. Considering that games these days can run 20+ gigs, it makes an already frustrating experience that much more tricky by limiting your digital options.
:( sad face to down under.
zacharias on 30/11/2012 at 00:51
I live in aus and I don't care about the price of games! The price of housing however..
icemann on 30/11/2012 at 01:22
House prices are awful at present. Renting seems to be the best way to go currently.
Standard house prices are around 350-500k roughly at present.
