I love Bethesda and want to pick Brink up but I refuse to pay AU$90! (about $96 US)

Do I really have to import yet another title?
What's the chances of getting a response from the developers and publisher?

Import it is. Only $40 instead of the criminal $90. Just have to wait a bit longer. Sigh. Disappointed Bethesda.

Please don't do this to Skyrim.

In sweden its around 110 USD and yeah, that is expencive.

Wow, why? no one will buy this, when you can import it.

It's $108 in NZ.

EDIT: And that's the BEST price I've found for it...

WTH?
Seriously? Are all big releases so expensive there or is it just Brink?
I think you need to have some stern words with your retailers!

Mainly the greedy publishers (Activision and the like). Sad to see Bethesda joining them.

It's from a decade old stigma of the dollar being about half the US dollar. Though now that we are OVER a dollar for the US it's just insulting. Publishers are forcing higher prices.

It's been most noticeable on steam when you compare the US & AUS stores. Worst offenders on Steam are here: http://www.steamprices.com/au/topripoffs
It's just cash grabbing. Especially when it's digital content. No justification except for a cash grab from what they see in stores.

Believe it or not, the best deal I found was importing from Great Britain. Even with our poorer conversion rate with GBP it still works out a fairer price.
It's still cheaper to buy it there and have it shipped here than it is to pay for the damned game down the road. Just disgusting.

Ed:
BRINK
Release: 9th May 2011
$ 89.99 (Australia)
$ 49.99 ? $ 49.99 (-44.45%) (Mark-up from USD)

Essentially a raised middle finger to Australian fans right there.

Still cheaper than in the uk.

Short answer: because generally speaking, people (unquestioningly) pay the price

Long Answer: Blame Namco Bandai Partners Australia, the Aus steam distributor for Brink, and distribution contracts drawn up in blood in Australia's gaming (read:economic) dark ages. That and global macro-economics.

What do games normally release for in Australia? I would assume they are not going to release one triple "A" title for more than 10$, or your 10 Aus, over other big titles. It is simply how your economy works. For kids, I can understand the issue, I've seen many people from Aus complaining of the same thing "It cost xx much dollars for this here!" I have friends who've been there, and the beer isn't much cheaper.

However, to cut this short. The population of Australia MUST be paid a higher wage then people in the US, other wise your economy would collapse over night. So please stop with this currency comparison of the price of your game, because in the end, it's the same darn price. OR -- The software in your country just all around costs more. Either way, its all the same.



I can however see, if, in normal circumstances you can purchase all of your other big name titles at, or around the same price as us here in the States $49.99--$59.99, I can understand that would be upsetting. I just have a real hard time seeing them truly just shoving you guys a price hike. Also, if this is the case, please make a list of other "AAA" titles that release at the American Price where you live.

That's too bad, especially when people here would argue it isn't even worth the $60.

Sorry to paraphrase, but to be succinct, you are correct - in a generally accepted sense - paid comparitively higher wages.

However, this translates to a situation where our wages are seen as an impediment to investment, thus employment (regular and predictable employment, not underemployment), is not neccessarily a given - we are captive to our population demographics. I'm sure you understand this, its probably no different where you come from.

I felt your comments, although generally correct, are an over-simplification that don't do justice to what has been discussed here. Just sounds like you were saying 'quit ya' whingeing mate' ;-p.

Phew, glad I got that off my chest....and yeah beer is expensive (but @least its good).

* And on 'AAA' rated games (?) they all retail $80-110 dependendant on the retailer/dist platform. What I guess most are upset about is getting shafted by Steam for the same RRP via digital disttribution. This is where the apples and oranges comparison falls aprt for most (I believe).
EDIT: grammar

Are you serious... I could buy 2 or 3 with how much it costs here compared to you...

Umm.. what?
I don't know where you're buying it from but I got it from steam for ￡29.99 which is much cheaper than 110 USD.
That was pre-order (PC obviously) and i think included a ￡5 discount... but that's still only about 57 USD (which is about the going rate for normal places in the world :wink_smile: )

All that and you still don't have a proper rating system that allows games for advlts only (kinda banning them if they can't get a lower rating)?
So your games are too expensive for kids to buy but the only games advlts can buy are made for kids? That sounds like an awesome situation.

As for the Steam vs Retail thing: Often steam has its hands tied as it has to come to some arrangement with local labels / publishers to be allowed to sell in the territory. It can't just randomly set the price it thinks is best and thats why you end up paying RRP even though it's digital distribution.
Basically publisher X has sole distribution rights for territory Y. Steam wants to sell X's games in Y but X still dictates the price and due to trade agreements Steam cannot get the distributer from another territory to distribute games at a better price in Y.
TL;DR ? -> it comes down to publishers and economies and Steam are kinda hamstrung.

This argument is REALLY starting to annoy me. It is, quite frankly, a straight out lie. And it keeps getting perpetuated by idiots on the internet. One person got it right: it's expensive because we pay it.

Here's a vague indicator (from Wikipedia, and only about minimums, not average, so maybe not the most brilliant source, but should give some idea) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country.

Yes, Australia has a minimum wage (as of that chart being made) of approximately double the US minimum. Great. They need it.

New Zealand, where it's slightly MORE expensive than Australia for ALMOST EVERYTHING (because we get it all shipped via Australia, so we have to pay their prices plus extra shipping), has a minimum wage that's about $1000 more than the US minimum. WTF?

Germany around 57$, wow and I thought this is expensive...

Greetings

I hope you're not directing that at what I said and simply quoted the last person.
It may be expensive "because you pay it" but that has nothing to do with Steam pricing (which is what I was talking about). Steam pricing is expensive because that's what the publishers set the price at for your region.
The "it's expensive because we pay it" argument get's into the whole supply and demand argument and all sorts of economy bull which I find part ridiculous, part annoying, part boring and part understandable.
For example: when I lived in South Africa games were expensive because the market is small, it was mostly imported stuff and the resellers were greedy asses. I'm guessing that due to the remote location the AUS/NZ shops take a similar line.
The stupid thing is that they could probably make the same or more profit by taking an American mindset to sales and dropping profit for a greater turnover. If you drop the price to the right point you can increase your profit.
Unfortunately most businesses see this as extra work that they don't need to do because they make a profit already. That and the publishers have a bit of a stranglehold on the situation.

To really get into the reasons though requires a far greater understanding of economics than I care to ever garner however.

Wow. Great post. Very informative, so many things I had no idea about. I'm sorry to here about you guys getting poked in the shorts like that. :blink:

This.



This.



This. But nobody except Keynesian economists believe theres anything rational (let alone sane) about it.



This. +1.

Great game though hey, despite what any of us paid for it? ;-p

its because you wont send your women over here........

Someone holding a gun to your head making you read this?

It's easy to say "it's expensive because we pay it" when you have options. SA doesn't import from amazon and doesn't have the other stores so we basically have to take what we get.
Sure, I can "boycott" the game in protest as I'm sure that will REALLY make waves with Bethesda. But unless I never want to play again, I'm at the mercy of the price fixing.

Dude: At least webafrica has the freezone thing with the Steam server. I remember having to eat away my 3Gb cap to install a game bought off Steam that I wouldn't be able to play online until the next month unless I bought more expensive (and slow) internet cap. Telskum for the loss!
London internet is so much better. And I'm on a "slow" BT line
I feel your pain (ex Capetonian here).

While it's easy to blame Bethesda and the computer games industry, you can't seriously say they're the only ones applying such a logic...

The same applies here in Canada (except, it seems, for computer games, strangely enough). Books are always more expensive than down south, even though the CAD is worth more than the U$D... same goes for pretty much every toy, game or hobby gaming articles (gee, Warhammer is 25% more expensive in Canada then in the states).

It seems that the manufacturing markets have yet to acknowledge the fact that the USD is not the powerhouse it used to be, and refuse to risk losing out on a drop of the CAD (or AUS)'s value. The exchange rates haven't really been linked to prices charged at the counter ever since what, the 70s? They've pretty much assigned a set rate (now, 1.1 CAD = 1 USD = 1.75(?) AUS) and stick to it no matter what. There WERE years where we ended up paying less up here than they did in the states; it's been a long while, though, and still I doubt the prices will be adjusted any time soon...

What if they did change the price to reflect the current AUS worth and then your dollar's worth went downhill? They most certainly don't want to run the risk of suddently end up losing out. Additionally, are you sure there aren't laws that restrict repricing of items (in case the AUS drops and they wanted to adjust the price back up)?