So, I'm an NBA fan. I loved NBA 2K10 despite the rather epic, almost Activision-worthy saga of how 2K Sports screwed over the PC community, but that's by the by. The fact is NBA 2K11 ranks second only to StarCraft II as my most anticipated game of this year. Yes, ahead of even Black Ops.
Whether this game is a sports sim or a puzzle RPG is however beside the point. I've been scouring the internet and checking steam constantly for any hint of the game's release. Today I check the "coming soon" tab and voila! There it is. But there's a problem.
First of all, I click to go to the store page for the game and get greeted with this:
But the real slap in the face is the price. On the US steam store it is $29.99 USD. On the Australian steam store it is $49.99. This is not quite as blatantly outrageous as the Borderlands insult ($29.99 for the US and $79.99 for Australia), but it is still grossly unfair.
Self evidently, one of the main selling points of digital distribution has always been that the location of the customer makes little or no difference to how the item is sold, hence negating the need for pricing differences (which mostly result from shipping fees, taxes etc anyway).
Suffice it to say I will be firmly raising my middle finger at whomsoever felt it acceptable to do this to Australian consumers, and promptly purchasing it from the US steam store at the US price. And yes, that is entirely possibly through legal means, so no need to modhammer me for saying it.
Also, the Australian dollar hit 99 US cents today. Price differences of that magnitude just cannot be justified.
Whether this game is a sports sim or a puzzle RPG is however beside the point. I've been scouring the internet and checking steam constantly for any hint of the game's release. Today I check the "coming soon" tab and voila! There it is. But there's a problem.
First of all, I click to go to the store page for the game and get greeted with this:
That's a little odd, but I can deal with it. Oh, and when I go to the US steam store (http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=us) and find that it has a functional store page AND has already been released
But the real slap in the face is the price. On the US steam store it is $29.99 USD. On the Australian steam store it is $49.99. This is not quite as blatantly outrageous as the Borderlands insult ($29.99 for the US and $79.99 for Australia), but it is still grossly unfair.
Self evidently, one of the main selling points of digital distribution has always been that the location of the customer makes little or no difference to how the item is sold, hence negating the need for pricing differences (which mostly result from shipping fees, taxes etc anyway).
Suffice it to say I will be firmly raising my middle finger at whomsoever felt it acceptable to do this to Australian consumers, and promptly purchasing it from the US steam store at the US price. And yes, that is entirely possibly through legal means, so no need to modhammer me for saying it.
Also, the Australian dollar hit 99 US cents today. Price differences of that magnitude just cannot be justified.
