I am wondering about how come most games range from $70-100(PC new releases). I went to Singapore and the prices are $40-60(sing dollars) and less given the currency exchange. Half life 2 is $55 (sing) compared to about $80 (AUD)here. I think EA has a printing plant there but how come the prices are that low there. You could almost get 2 for the price of 1 here. The games are legit btw. Not sure about console games prices though but I suspect the same.
I understand well enough of price skimming strategy but I dont understand why such a huge price difference. Is there a 'tax' or something?
Anyone got any ideas why such a pricing strategy?
This is why I buy a lot of my games from www.dvdboxoffice.com It has US prices, free worldwide shipping, and I own a NTSC gamecube so I can get games for it at a reasonable price (100 over here, would be 64AUD from dvdboxoffice)
Another reason is, in any region where piracy is particularly rampant (including many asian regions), the publishers/distributors are actually dropping their prices to compete with the prices of the pirated copies. Although they generally still cost more, they are trying to hit an amount where people are willing to pay the extra $5 to have a legitimate versions (eg. so they can play the online portion of the game...).
As for australia, from my limited knowledge, the prices of games sold here was generally set years ago against the equivalent american prices, and a US$50 was quite comparable to $89 or $99 game here. However, since then the aussie dollar has improved significantly, and we really shouldn't be paying more than $70 or less for a US$50 game. I'm not sure wether it's retailers or distributors taking the extra large piece of the pie now.
Probably mcdrewski's answer is the most accurate.
CYer, Blitz
pirated games costs less than 2 dollars. yes 2 dollars from the last time I visited South east asia. A very, very sickening sight for developers. Compared to a legit copy you can have a large game library of 25 games in the black market. I dont think a printed manual can compete for customer preferences in those regions. Online gaming is a incentive to obtain the legit copy but the competetion is from the local Lan cafes running cracked copies of the popular games such as counterstrike,WC3 etc bypassing the need for online play. But consoles have a more difficult problem as there is very little to convince potential customers to buy the legit version.
I agree that australian customers probably agree to the market as mcdrewski's theory but why hasn't someone import from outside and charging less because of the lower cost. This would undercut most costs towards the retail price. Unless the retailers here are too greedy is my opinion. Having us gamers paying to their dictate. I believe this distribution point has too much control on game prices here.
I chance upon this local hardware/software retailer in the Age newspaper www.csw.com.au
It's selections are a bit limited but the prices can be as much as $30 of retail prices.
Even World of warcraft is at $67 inc GST.
Who says Christmas has to be expensive.
Here's a long, but very interesting and entertaining read about how to price software.
[url]http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html[/url]
It'll answer all sorts of questions for you.
Sinple answer: they charge what the market will bear.