Electronic Arts Faces Anger Over Major Price Hikes in India

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I don't quite see the big deal. I'm for the idea that games are a luxury and it seemed like they were getting very low prices. Rs999 translates to roughly $16, the prices are literally just more in line with the rest of the world now.

True they now pay around the same as we do in the US & UK, so that sounds fair from our perspective. However you have to consider that the average wage is generally much lower in India than here in the west, so it becomes a big deal for Indian gamers as few can likely afford that. Generally makes better sense to price products in such a way that they are affordable to the average person in that country so as not to out price them from buying your products and limit your market in that country. That is one of the reasons why Valve splits Europe into two regions, to offer prices suitable for that region and encourage buying games rather than piracy. If your products cost a third of someone's rent, then your pricing is a little disproportionate.

 

[lacktheknack]

So the Indians are supposed to pay the same as everyone else now and this is supposed to be an outrage because...

Face it, video games are a luxury.

I'm not exactly wealthy either and can spend 30 bucks per month at best. Do I cry? No!

I wait till prices drop naturally or I get a good offer. Also, as CrossLOPER said, when they can effort the equipment necessary to play Battlefield 4 (i5's and Radeon HD 7xxx don't exactly come cheap), they can afford spending a bit on the latest games as well.

CrossLOPER was trying to be satirical. You've been Poe'd.

Also, no. Indian goods cost less because everyone is paid less. Computer parts DO come "cheap" in India. I don't get how it meshes with the rest of the world, but it does, and raising the price of games literally above what they can afford is not how you tweak the market.

 

[Yuuki]

Tell me this... how would you react if a game cost a third of your monthly rent? What would you say if the price of your games went up from $90 NZD to $300 NZD?

By that logic my actual rent would shoot up to $1000 to reflect that proportion...which is why you're wrong on multiple levels.
Firstly, loaves of bread are made locally, there is FIERCE competition in a country that densely populated, manual labor is worth peanuts and therefore the cost of daily commodities (again, made locally) is extremely cheap if you compare it to US or NZ.

Rent is VERY cheap in India compared to US/NZ due to the intense competition (again, LOCAL shit)...that's why that guy on twitter was able to make the games vs rent comparison. Let me know when you can find a place in US that has a $150 (RS9000) monthly rent. Doesn't freaking exist.

Are games made locally? No, of course they're not. There is no competition in India against AAA titles, their only source for industry-standard games is from abroad. Games which are made by foreign developers and imported in as retail copies (a lot of India still functions on CD/DVD's btw, internet is absolutely shit). Which means they need to pay the same amount of money as the rest of the world, or at least something close. I'm not a total asshole and I can grant as much as a 20-30% deviation on price, almost like a permanent sale.
But getting over 72.5% of the price off? Sorry but that is absurd.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It was kind of inevitable really. With the next gen consoles being region free they were going to have to start making a worldwide standard price for games to stop us buying new titles for half nothing from lower priced markets

^Bingo.
For all of the sarcasm outrage and snark, this is actually why this is happening.
Regions, for all the flak that gets thrown at them, are necessary to prevent arbitrage.

Otherwise, you will end up with someone buying bulk games in one region on the cheap and selling them in another reason at their marginal price (which is higher) making huge profit for no effort, with the result of one region being shorted on games (and thus, those that remain, if any, are sold at a premium or acquired through illicit means) while another is flooded but at a higher price.

I'm not a total asshole and I can grant as much as a 20-30% deviation on price, almost like a permanent sale.
But getting over 72.5% of the price off? Sorry but that is absurd.

There's nothing absurd about it. It happens all the time.

The actual cost of producing a physical copy of a game is pennies. Practically free online.

India has developed industry, more than enough that local production would be viable. It's quite likely that EA has contracts with local production and distribution for that region's games. Printing DVDs and shipping within the country would domesticate the costs, making the good profitable.

(there are the issues of country/local laws and tax codes, but I do know this: EA wouldn't bother with the region at all unless they had a way to make their games profitable.)

 

[klaynexas3]

And all I could think about was this: rent is only $150 there? Fuck, I should save up for a move.

But in all seriousness, that's still unfair for them, considering how low the GDP is there. I hope EA changes back soon, otherwise it will be a massive crock of shit. Hell, I hope most of these companies do, because from the looks of it EA is the only one, they're just the ones that took such a drastic step. I hope their PC games sales plummet there so as to discourage other companies from following.

Come on, give us at least one train wreck. The Xbone averted disaster, but you can still crash EA. I really want to see a massive failure at least somewhere.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I don't quite see the big deal. I'm for the idea that games are a luxury and it seemed like they were getting very low prices. Rs999 translates to roughly $16, the prices are literally just more in line with the rest of the world now.

But India is relatively poor compared to the various first-world nations that the prices are being increased to. Gaming, as a hobby goes, is rather cheap, and if you increase the price in nations where the vast majority of the population are further locked out of it, all you'll do is hugely increase piracy rates, no helped in that I don't believe India has many enforceable anti-piracy laws.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Now watch what the headlines will be in a few months:

India Faces Anger Over Major Piracy Hikes From Electronic Arts

I hope you're happy EA.

 

[spartandude]

so they take one of the regions with the least disposable income and jack up the prices? GENIUS!

I don't quite see the big deal. I'm for the idea that games are a luxury and it seemed like they were getting very low prices. Rs999 translates to roughly $16, the prices are literally just more in line with the rest of the world now.

see now that would be fair if their wages were inline aswell, however as anybody could tell you they are not.

 

[FalloutJack]

Now watch what the headlines will be in a few weeks:

India Faces Anger Over Major Piracy Hikes From Electronic Arts

I hope you're happy EA.

Had to fix that post a bit. Something about them being really tech-savvy in India. Probably nothing. I'm sure they're all TOTALLY just going to buckle down and pay though, absolutely!

*SARCASM OVERLOAD HAAAALLLLP!!!*

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"to clamp down on gamers who have been accessing Origin India via VPN to take advantage of the region's lower pricing. "

Genius! Now piracy in the country AND worldwide will also triple!
Better make some even more EVIL DRM to punish the ones that still will buy honestly!!!!

 

[Vivi22]

EA Regional Director Chris Gatherer said in June that the goal is to bring PC game prices in India in line with the rest of the world in order to clamp down on gamers who have been accessing Origin India via VPN to take advantage of the region's lower pricing.

How many people are actually doing this? I'd like to see EA give actual numbers if they're going to pretend this is a real problem and not some bullshit excuse they made up.

 

[Yuuki]

Products are priced based on the country in question, specifically their wages, import/export policies, etc.

India's prices for games are "absurdly cheap" because their wages are absurdly low. As the original article points out, one man's rent in the country is approximately RS9000, or roughly $149.14 in the US. Thus, their video games originally cost about 11% of their typical rent costs. To compare with the US, rent usually hovers around $600 depending on where you live, thus a video game costs about 10% of your rent. This is how it's supposed to be, it's a comparable price given your living costs and wages.

What EA is doing is driving up their prices to RS3499, which means that yes, their games are now much closer to $60 US ( in actuality they're still a little lower). However, this also means that a single video game costs about 39% of their rent.

If that rate were to be applied in the United States, you'd be paying about $233 per game. Still sound "fair" to you?

The only reason this is a problem is because region locks are finally going away. Yes, the removal of region locks creates a complex problem that means some countries will pay "less" than you have to pay. And you may consider this "not fair" if you wish. But screwing over a country because their wages and standard of living are considerably lower than ours is not the right response.

Enough of this.

I'm simply going to link you to two of the largest Indian online tech stores which sell the same shit that is found across the rest of the world, and you are free to go nuts with price comparison/conversions to see how "cheap" products are in India.

http://www.flipkart.com
http://www.theitdepot.com

Flipkart also sells stuff like sportswear (clothes, shoes, etc) - I'll let you look up how much international brands like Adidas, Nike, Puma, Apple, Asus, Dell etc cost. It's the same, if not more expensive. Windows 7 Home Premium costs RS5700 ($94 USD) and the same product costs $90 USD on Amazon.com. How the fuck are games any different?
In fact the games section is the ONLY place on that site where the pricing is completely out of whack, with PS3 and XBox360 games going for as low as RS200 ($3 USD) and averaging at ~RS900-1200 ($15-19 USD) for the newest games. Sorry but that is plain wrong.

After going through those stores, tell me with a straight face that games should be kept at those prices while everything else is priced at standard internal conversion prices. These Indian stores get the kind of traffic that can't even exist in US, countless purchases happening every day. Countless Indian consumers are buying the latest products at international prices and keeping these stores thriving, they can easily afford to do it.

Here's something you don't know - over the past 2 decades there has been a very strong rise of the middle-class in India, a middle-class that can comfortably afford to pay for all the luxuries and entertainment that you and I have in our homes. Gamers in India have been getting a free ride on super-low prices for years, some of them even buying multiple retail copies and simply handing-over games to friends to keep, it's that cheap for them. I know this.
PS4 or XBox One isn't going to be cheaper in India compared to US or Aus/NZ, the prices will be roughly the same everywhere. And Indians WILL buy the consoles at full price, they will be queuing up to buy them.
I haven't even mentioned the biggest issue here - the practice of foreigners using VPN via Origin to buy bulk-games from countries like India and then re-selling the keys in developed nations for (just short) of full price. That is quite literally stealing.

I'm not exactly a big EA supporter, I usually despise their business practices and ethics...but they are being perfectly reasonable in this case.

 

[5-0]

You know what, "Electronic Arts Faces Anger" should be an Escapist headline everyday.

 

[Omgsarge]

To be honest, the marked will decide if the new pricing is fair. If people continue to buy games and EA makes more profit that way, everything is fine. They were right to raise the price because enough people obviously seem to have the disposable income.
However, I would be surprised if revenue doesn't go down because of this. Whose bright idea was it to double and triple the prices in one go. Why not raise them slowly and see how the market reacts? Many gamers will be put off by this, no matter how much disposable income they have. Seems like a clumsy business move to me. To be honest, I could care less if people from India get games cheaper than I do. Its a completely different market altogether. Guess the poorer or student gamers get shafted though.
Also, the reasoning is kinda lame and clumsy. You raise prices because people access the Origin India for cheaper games? How is that the fault of the actual gamer in India? Smells kinda like the typical approach to combat something like piracy.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I don't quite see the big deal. I'm for the idea that games are a luxury and it seemed like they were getting very low prices. Rs999 translates to roughly $16, the prices are literally just more in line with the rest of the world now.

Trollolololo!!!

Games are a luxury?
I hope you get bankrupt and can't afford to play a game for the next five years!
Surely not having this luxury won't affect your mood at all?!

Bankrupt might not be the appropriate word, every person I've known that went "Bankrupt" went to a court and their bills were cut to where they only had to pay like 1/25th of what they owed if they ended up paying at all, which in turn freed up so much money with their income coming in, that they were able to afford all the needs and even wants and save money for the future.

What you're looking for is beyond bankrupt, because bankrupt these days really doesn't truly mean you have no money.

Besides, unless a person has been a part of the crazy stupid, "I sell all my games to get all the new ones I want"(because they inexplicably can't wait till they can truly afford a new one or just another used/new one to add to their collection), they should have a backlog of all the games, consoles, and whatnot they own so they can replay them in the mean time. Seriously, I'm 27, I have been gaming for at least 23 of those years, and I have a collection of 7 consoles and 4 handles and a run of the mill PC, and over 300 games.

I feel pretty safe in saying, if I couldn't afford a new game in five years, I wouldn't be bored. It wasn't five years, but I've gone a few years at different times where I only got one game during each of those years, the extra time was spent on playing old games and doing other things I'm interested in that don't cost money, or nowhere near as much money as buying games.

But really, your point is invalid, because it doesn't change the fact that games are a luxury.

Seriously, boohoo that some people can't afford to get games, or get games that have gone up in price. Go through it like anybody else that has to work their way through poverty or hard times, that don't complain at companies because their luxury items are expensive, because they have a head on their shoulders and know that they are a luxury and they know how to deal with out them.

Again, retorting, "Let's see how you like it", doesn't do anything to make any kind of real point.

Seriously, I can't think of anytime in my life where I got mad at a game company for the price of games, because that is just silly. I buy games when I can afford them, and I don't buy games when I can't. Simple.

 

[Jay Knowles]

so a game is 1/3 of a weeks rent? a new game for me is 100% of a weeks rent. maybe I should move to India.