If you're a gamer in Australia, you're no doubt aware that we pay a bit through the nose for games here. Even though our dollar is matching up pretty close to the American dollar, we have an enormous markup on our games when compared to our overseas friends. Yes, there are costs to consider including import fees, tax, the retailers cut etc, but when you can buy and import a game from the U.S for roughly $50 cheaper than what your local retailer is charging, then there's something very, very wrong.
Screen Play recently chased up all the major game distributors in Australia to answer some questions on game prices, but unfortunately only one distributor responded. Ubisoft Australia General Manager Edward Fong had a few things to say about our gouging game prices...
Mr Fong politely reiterated the fact that Australia was tied to European prices courtesy of our shared PAL heritage and we are paying the same as our European cousins despite being a much smaller market and having higher distribution costs. He says worldwide company structures are unlikely to ever change to allow operations like Ubisoft Australia to take advantage of the currently weak US dollar.
So folks, keep on importing your games. I'm grabbing Unreal 3 Collectors Edition from Amazon for around $70. Retailers are selling that for $120 here.
1. Anonymous Fri, 9 Nov
Of about 15 people I know who bought the orange box, 5 of them got it retail even though they knew it would be exactly the same. Boggles the mind.
There's also that other issue of THQ blocking their games on steam for the oceania region. Certainly something fishy going on.
some people don't like digital distribution 1, the box has... sentimental value.
$53.45 without box
$99.95 with box...
Hmm... for $46.50 I could make you a box, next time send that wasted cash my way. lol
I emailed EB games asking for an explanation for the $45 or so price difference between the boxed version of Valve's Orange Box depending on whether you buy it in America or Australia. They informed me the content is exactly the same and that the price was set by EA games and their hands were tied on the matter.
Bought it with a credit card over Steam for $53.45 AUD, rather than the $99.95 that I would have had to pay had I gone to EB.
Hard to sympathize with entertainment industry authorities crying crocodile tears over the impact of piracy on their bottom line, while they're also engaging in such blatant profiteering at your expense. Pirate on kids...
"Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means - STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.'"
- Trent Reznor
The reasons the boxed copy is more expensive is because of EA's cut as they're the publisher and the retailers cut, then you got local taxes and import costs.
The Steam version doesn't have the middle men to pay.
COD4 is only $49 through Steam also.
I always buy my DS games from DVD Crave in Adelaide because the US version is always cheaper than the locally released version, that's including imports costs and taxes.
Figure that shit out?
wonder if that will change once its more common for people to buy stuff online.
probably only be a matter of time before companies start putting the price up for downloadable content once everyone uses it.
its weird that we get games months later and then we have to pay more for them here and we just go along with it.
its a pretty crappy deal.