Australia Asks About High Game Prices

[samsonguy920]

The answer to the digital distribution question is because publishers can't risk undercutting and pissing off retailers yet; it's the same situation everywhere else.

Pretty much. I've figured it was higher over there partly because of the cost of shipping, but also whatever tariffs and such Australia tacks on.
Makes me wonder if this guy...whatshisname...Stephen Conroy, the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy..boy, that's a mouthful. Let's just call him Bob.
Anyway, it makes me wonder if Bob has done his research on his country's import and export laws and trade agreements. That might be the best place to start. And it might just reveal that nothing can be done without pissing off select governments, like the US, China, and Japan.

 

[Andronicus]

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

AU$15.51, actually. [http://www.fairwork.gov.au/resources/fact-sheets/conditions-of-employment/pages/minimum-wages-fact-sheet.aspx] While I realise this is still pretty high, as Judgedread said above, it's not exactly a cruise paying your way through life down under. I've done my fair share of complaining about Australian game prices, but in actual fact, just about everything in Asutralia costs more. That extra $8.26/hr more disappears very quickly, even before you've managed to make your way to EB games.

Course, maybe we do deserve to pay more? I dunno, I just don't know that much about the state of the economy to calculate what the fair amount for games we should be paying is, although I still imagine it'd be considerably less than what we're paying now. That, and if you're a kid who happens to like videogames, whose minimum wage is actually considerably less than the national average, then that extra $50-60 starts looking a bit more ominous.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I can answer that for ya, because there getting away with it. If they thought they could charge 100$ in the USA and more money they sure as hell would.

 

[Baresark]

I may be wrong in this but: I thought that Australian businesses paid high import tariffs for games and gaming hardware. So, of course, selling the physical product is expensive. So why is the digital just as expensive? If they are selling physical versions of games while simultaneously selling digital versions of games, they can't have the price be different. So, it stands to reason (in so far as I am not wrong about my very first point) that in order to sell digital games for cheaper, they must also lower import tariffs on physical copies of games. Which means that games won't get cheaper since governments aren't going to deny themselves the money of a high tariff item. I also seem to recall some argument recently that it's because the price is in US Dollars and not localized like it is in other countries, but at the typing of this comment the exchange rate was 1:1.0284. So that excuse clearly doesn't fly anymore.

If I am wrong, then by all means, correct me.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

But when a gov makes the minimal wage twice what 'others' pay out, then see products being sold for twice what 'others' pay for...

Er, uhm... Never mind. I've bitched the same song often enough.

EDIT: *smiles at the above post ; )

both of these

yes, everything might be expensive in australia, but so is it over here, gaming is no different from any other market. seriously, try surviving on 8$/hr while scrounging for solid hours at a job, it won't get you many video games after taxes and other bills kick in, i promise you that.

 

[Vivi22]

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

I can't speak to what their wages are like, though at least one person here has said the cost of living is also higher. But for the record, the current exchange rate puts the AUD pretty much at par with the US Dollar. The exchange used to be quite a bit different which was part of the reason prices were so high.

As to why they're still high: the simple answer is that Australians got used to paying them and Publishers never bothered to change them because people kept on paying them.

 

[uncanny474]

On behalf of my colleagues in Australia:

"It's about bloody time, ya wankers!"

There, did I say that right?

 

[Astoria]

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

Sigh I'm sick of seeing this arguement. Yes we get paid more but not by that much. Minimum wage is more like $12/hour. We also pay twice as much, sometimes even thrice as much for things like electricity, food, housing ect. If you worked out all the numbers we probably don't have things any easier than everyone else.

OT: Good about time. Hopefully this is more useful than that stupid petrol watch thing they introduced that did nothing to keep petrol prices fair.

 

[ResonanceSD]

On behalf of my colleagues in Australia:

"It's about bloody time, ya wankers!"

There, did I say that right?

Yup.

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

But when a gov makes the minimal wage twice what 'others' pay out, then see products being sold for twice what 'others' pay for...

Er, uhm... Never mind. I've bitched the same song often enough.

EDIT: *smiles at the above post ; )

both of these

yes, everything might be expensive in australia, but so is it over here, gaming is no different from any other market. seriously, try surviving on 8$/hr while scrounging for solid hours at a job, it won't get you many video games after taxes and other bills kick in, i promise you that.

Thank you for saying that. I get so annoyed when they're like "YOU GET PAID MORE SO IT'S OK TAHT EVERYTHING IS MORE EXPENSIVE"

 

[ThunderCavalier]

$100+ dollars?

Now I can see why Yahtzee gets really pissed when he finds games boring or unfulfilling.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Conroy had better bring the goods this time if he wants to redeem himself for the filter fiasco.

I was just thinking that...

 

[Evil Smurf]

On behalf of my colleagues in Australia:

"It's about bloody time, ya wankers!"

There, did I say that right?

Yep. Now drink this VB and shear a sheep. *checks you have done that* You are now an Australian citizen! Congratulations!

 

[MercurySteam]

About damn time they started looking into this. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Yep. Now drink this VB and shear a sheep. *checks you have done that* You are now an Australian citizen! Congratulations!

We don't all shear sheep and to be honest, VB tastes like ass. I prefer Fat Yak or Strongbows.

 

[Weaver]

While we're at it, can we lower book prices in Canada too?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

On behalf of my colleagues in Australia:

"It's about bloody time, ya wankers!"

There, did I say that right?

Yup.

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

But when a gov makes the minimal wage twice what 'others' pay out, then see products being sold for twice what 'others' pay for...

Er, uhm... Never mind. I've bitched the same song often enough.

EDIT: *smiles at the above post ; )

both of these

yes, everything might be expensive in australia, but so is it over here, gaming is no different from any other market. seriously, try surviving on 8$/hr while scrounging for solid hours at a job, it won't get you many video games after taxes and other bills kick in, i promise you that.

Thank you for saying that. I get so annoyed when they're like "YOU GET PAID MORE SO IT'S OK TAHT EVERYTHING IS MORE EXPENSIVE"

i'm not saying it doesn't suck, and i'm not saying australians probably don't pay a bit more than usual if you ratio it out, so I do hope they find some ways to cheapen it out, as there are some unnecessary imbalances in the system (especially for digital games), but i'm just saying having an equal pay to what americans/everyone else pays per dollar isn't necessarily right either.

 

[ACman]

You only have to put with what you're willing to except. You don't want publishers boning you Australia? Be prepared to do something about it!

Well now the government is. Finally.

 

[risenbone]

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

Dunno where you got $18AU/hour from but I can tell you minimum wage in Australia is not that high. I worked minimum wage in Australia a bit over 10 years ago and I was making about $6AU/hour plus tips (I was a kitchen hand). Sure the wage has most likely gone up in a decade but I seriously doubt it's tripled and thus call BS on your numbers. I did at one time make $18/hour but that was working for Australia Post as a postman and included a bunch of bonuses for shift starting time, danger money and a weather bonus for having to work outside no matter the weather.

 

[ACman]

Australian salaries are much higher and the conversion rates, they are actually paying less than any place in the world. $1AU is not equal to $1US. Even their minimum wage is like $18AU/hr

I am so sick of that line of reasoning. The claim that minimum wage is somehow a reflection of purchasing power is ridiculous.

The AUD is currently worth 0.9724 USD. There is no significant freight or conversion costs for releasing a piece of software. The only reason for software to cost 50-100% more in Australia is publishers agreeing to take profit windfalls from the drop of the American dollar rather than to act competitively.

 

[Mr C]

Welcome to arse-backwards reasoning. We don't have a high prices because we have a high minimum wage - we have a mandated high minimum wage BECAUSE THINGS ARE SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE. Of course, that high minimum wage is then used as a justification for the prices, but it's a complete cop-out. There is nothing inflated about the value of the Australian dollar - it's simply that in a recession (which we didn't actually have) resources remain valuable. And boy do we have resources.

Quoted because this is the first sensible post showing an understanding of economics.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

About damn time they started looking into this. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Yep. Now drink this VB and shear a sheep. *checks you have done that* You are now an Australian citizen! Congratulations!

We don't all shear sheep and to be honest, VB tastes like ass. I prefer Fat Yak or Strongbows.

Fat Yak is awesome!

According to a caller on Hack (A journalism show on youth radio network Triple J) who worked for a large software company, they use a weighting system that varies by region and the amount of competition in the market, that can add around 1.5 times to the price. But interestingly, this same weight scale applies to government purchases too.