Maybe it's because the US dollar has been getting weaker vs. our currencies.


OH WAIT, that should have the opposite effect.

Yeah, this is exactly why indie games are on the rise. Not only are they creative, innovative, and flexible in ways that big-budget, big-team games can never be; but they are also fair and flexible in their pricing. If an indie game doesn't have standardised worldwide pricing, then it allows you to pay whatever you want. It's why the Humble Indie Bundle has sold over $1.5 million in just over a single week.

Except buy it from that site, which even with a $30 shipping cost would cost LESS than the direct download from Steam.

Also, I know it isn't in the Australian or Kiwi cultures - but it is perfectly legal to haggle a price with a retailer.



I wouldn't say that we are likely to get anywhere, but you could always just walk into EB games and haggle the price down to $60 US.

Apparently, selling a game at $80 is already close to selling at cost, which is how rubbish the system is. The only reason big chains can afford to sell at $70-75 is either loss-leading, or second-hand trade.

Exactly, that’s where I get all my tangible games.
As for the price difference, there is no mathematical reason as to why the prices are so much different. This problem was discussed to death on the CivFanatics forums (Sid Meiers: civilization fan website) before civ 5 was released, and adding the cost of freight (further to travel and smaller market compared to the states and Europe), Taxs (Australian GST, and luxury goods import tax) only added up to a max of $15-20 more than that of our fellow gamers around the world, and furthermore according to the Tax Act of 1997 (the most current act in effect) those taxes and import charges, technically should not be added to 'Digital Downloads', as they are below $1000, and from outside the country (my money goes to Valve a foreign corporation, who pays for the game licenses in advance) which excludes the GST...

So from my understanding the answer is... you can charge as much as the consumer is willing to spend...
Might not like it but I can’t find another reason.

Game distributers, and publishers ---------> :flamethrower: :sadvaultboy: <-------- Australian/New Zealand gamers

...

AMERICA
:mohawk:

A chill wind blows. :cryvaultboy:

Overall, though, Steam is *usually* cheaper than retail. It's just some publishers don't make it so, like Borderlands. It was originally in the AU Steam store for $60, but a few days later got bumped up to $90. Imagine the outrage!

The wrong people having the ability to make a decision like that can hurt a lot of things. For example, in Japan (where the game industry has a lot more clout) it's illegal to rent games.

Out of curiosity - I met an Aussie in my travels a couple of years ago and he loved ranting about the Aussie internet access being monitored by the government - is this completely locked down or something? If piracy was no longer an option in Aus (not advocating it or anything, please don't lock down the thread), it may be why game vendors get away with such horrible pricing.

Also, NZ is also pooched just for being a neighbour to Aus - if a game is edited due to Australia's ESRB equivalent, NZ gets the same version - for - as far as I can tell - no good reason other than it makes more monetary sense to send them the same copy Australia gets. Of course I only have peripheral knowledge of this stuff (whenever I am bored and in front of Google and the topic strikes), so I may be off on every point except for Japan now allowing rented games.

I've heard you could use a proxy with a IP from the US, to lower the price. I dont use steam normally so i cant confirm it

out of curiosity, is there some sort of sick taxing law that corresponds with the ridiculous outlook on gaming in australia?

We fought a long and arduous (and facepalm-worthy) battle against the political and religious conservatives about that, and can you believe that we're still not out of it?

The Government monitoring didn't care so much about piracy, but more about the accessibility of child pormography, because everyone knows that's what most people think when they hear the word "Internet". The contention was that there would be a nationwide blacklist that disallowed access to sites carrying child pormography — all well and good, except:

1. Anyone can see how unwieldly such a blacklist would be unless it was predictive (which causes lots of problems with legitimate domains, like the dentist's website that appeared on the leaked blacklist), and
2. The blacklist naturally extended to politically sensitive topics that the incumbent Government and its lobbyist friends didn't agree with. Euthanasia, for example.

As of now we're not hearing much about it. We know it's still in the background, and they're trying to slip it by us, quiet-like, so we don't notice.


Surprisingly no. I don't blame you for expecting that there would be some kind of 'Interactive Media Integration Tax' or something.

52.95€ To pre-order in Finland.

http://resource.mmgn.com/pwnage/user_20901_JL33M5X8.jpg

Has a weakening dollar?
Has higher tax rates?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say... :unsure:

It sure would be interesting to see what he would have to say about the price difference in this situation!

And thats exactly WHY they charge that much. Because we have, and will pay up for it. Its become standardized, which bites.

you can do that, however there are 2 things that you need to know about first.
1) you will need a US credit card (from my understanding) or a Aus card that is valid in the states (you will be charged a surcharge on international fees)
2) more importantly steam does NOT like you doing it and WILL ban your account permanently, and will not reimburse you for ANY of the games you have bought off of them.
ie. dont do it... its really not worth the hassle and the risk


read my above post, i outlined the 2 taxes that would affect the gaming industry (that being the GST and the luxury import tax, both shouldnt matter for Direct Download)

As for skyrim it is really important that people do NOT pirate the games, are the prices are unfair? yes, but that is NOT Bethesda's fault, it is the fault of price gouging by oppurtunist distributors, if you cant afford the AUD$100-120 price at game stores or $80-99 from online retailers, there are many places that you can import the game from, such as play asia, amazon (i think) and Great ape (new zealand company that have had good deals when other big names have come out). That way we still help Beth make great games and we vote against price gouging with our precious dollours, hopefully spuring some competition in the market.

sorry for the rant... this topic just really itches me the wrong way >.<