Electronic Arts Faces Anger Over Major Price Hikes in India

[WWmelb]

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.

Sorry bout your post sounds as if it comes from someone who has never experienced true poverty. If you and your family in your 23 years of gaming had enough disposable income to pick up 7 different consoles etc, even if you had a few dry spells, you were never impoverished by the sounds of things. Correct me if i'm wrong.

I can't comment on the situation at hand india really, as i'm not an economist, however i can say that raising prices their because "people outside of india are ripping off the system" is bullshit. Combat those people that are doing the wrong thing, not the people in india doing the right thing.

Anyways. There were times in my life growing up where we turned the mains power off because we couldn't afford the power bills. If we wanted to eat, we went out and killed some livestock and butchered it. Our water tanks ran dry due to drought, and we couldn't afford to truck in water. So we drank clay-filled dam water that we bucketed to the house.

I grew up through the time when the NES and Master System were released, luckily before financial troubles kicked in, and my mother bought me a master system and 3 or 4 games which i played to death. This console lasted me until i was an adult and able to work and earn my own living.

Sure i got to play SNES/Mega Drive and then N64 and playstation1 which various friends owned, or the people that came and boarded with us owned, which was a real luxury.

I also had a PC which was gifted to me by an older relatives partner which lasted me.. well.. it was a 486 that i got when i was about 14, and it lasted me until i was 21 and built my first rig.

Fuck anyone who shits on the impoverished. And if you aren't qualified as an economist, and have basic "i'm on the internet so i know how to learn enough" you really don't have enough knowledge to comment on the economy in india and how it will or won't affect the average consumer.

Gah. Now i'm ranting.

If you have never been severely impoverished, you don't know how desperate one can be for luxuries to escape the depression of real life. Ironically, luxuries are necessities.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

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.

Thank you! Someone finally said it! I can quite easily say my rent is $160 and I live in Australia but that number means fuck all if I don't say the period that is for. That $160 is a weeks rent, some context would have been nice because that could be a weeks rent in which case he gets no sympathy from me.

 

[Galen Marek]

Rent here is 200$-$300 (can be lower depending on where you are or if you share), games are $99. My cousin pays $120 a week for comparison.

 

[FoolKiller]

It's not that it's unfair, they've just been getting it significantly cheaper than everyone else up until now, not to mention the people that have been exploiting the system outside of India.

Umm... it is unfair. But this is the problem with the concept of a world market where currency is not universal and the cost of living varies so much. Based on minimum wage in India, they get approximately 28 US cents an hour. If they work 40 hours a week it translates to 11.20 a week or about 50 dollars a month. In contrast, an Australian working minimum wage needs just three hours to make that.

So if the earnings vary so much as does the cost of living, why should the price be increased?

You argue that people outside of India exploit the system. Well, that's just great. So people outside India exploit the system, and you punish the people that didn't? Seems fair to me /sarcasm.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Logic

Well I'm glad someone said it at least.

I see these comments and I keep scratching my head as to why people can't understand the reason they had games go for so little over there.

Average wage seems to be around 5,130rs ($85) per month. And that's for a fairly respectable job. Many are forced to live on much less. Especially the poor bastards working in factories.
It's all well and good for people here to sit back and say "well 'x' is a luxury, so anyone who can't afford 'x' can go fuck themselves" but they should try living in their conditions for even just a few weeks and see if they still feel the same way.

You slave away in terrible conditions for the whole day, crawl home, sit down and you just want a couple of hours to relax playing some games either alone or with friends, then the big, faceless AAA companies spike the prices. I'd be pretty pissed off too.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

The have nots will always find a way. It's as simple as that. If people want it bad enough, by hook, or by crook, they'll get it, and there's very little, and likely only drastic things that can stop the have nots.

Considering the price of the game, and other games shot up, what, 4 and a half times normal cost, I'd say that there'll be piracy, some crime relatd to it, and a drastic loss in sales, and I doubt EA's going to recoup what's lost on this one.

The only reason game costs in most of the world got so high is because our economies could support them. That said, I don't think India is well suited for such a sudden price hike.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

So to combat people accessing Origin and paying a little less for games, we're going to make them so expensive that all the locals resort to piracy and those people find their bargains elsewhere.

Capital job, EA.

EDIT: Yeah, it's about the same percentage of rent as developed countries in some instances, but that's not particularly the point. People are poorer in India, generally, so less people are going to be able to afford those price hikes. Nevermind the rent. And for a lot of other products, like clothes, India's prices are absurd to begin with and don't scale with wages.

 

[Something Amyss]

I like that people are ignoring the tweet that gives the context that this puts the games at over a third of the guy's rent. No disparity there, MIRITE

I'm for the idea that games are a luxury and it seemed like they were getting very low prices.

Face it, video games are a luxury.

And as a luxury, it's quite easy to price yourselves out of a market.

Honestly, I'm not sure what it is with people thinking that the "luxury" argument works only one way.

 

[Something Amyss]

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.

I'm sure you would adapt to the cost of living and wages just fine. Do it, and report back.

 

[Logester]

Here's what I got from checking Wikipedia about world wide minimum wage rates and conversion rates...
1USD = 60rs.
Old price 999rs = $16.55
Rent price 9000 = 149.14
New price 3499rs = $57.98

Minimum wage varied from 118 rs ($2.18) per day to 185 rs ($3.40) per day. By this math, it takes 76 days to pay his rent on minimum wage.

 

[Yuuki]

But man, it must be so hard being you.

This is why assuming things about people on the internet is never a good idea.

I might be living in New Zealand, but you have no idea of my origins, where I was born and what kind of life I lived for...well, most of my life.

It appears you didn't go to either of the stores and probably skipped most of what I told you about the prices of everything else. Instead you went into a long pointless explanation of what poverty is and what GDP is and minimum wages. Holy shit.

So you are basically sticking your fingers in your ears and completely avoiding the fact that none of your logic is applicable to any of the products on the two biggest online stores I listed. You are completely avoiding the fact that iPhones, all business software, all big brands, etc cost the SAME in India as they do everywhere else, they are not "made cheaper for the region" or any bullshit like that.

Why are you avoiding it? I mean christ, do I have to start listing out individual products now? *sigh* Well hopefully you're not going to pretend I didn't type this...

Windows 7 Home Premium: RS 8,699 [http://www.flipkart.com/microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-32-64-bit-full-pack/p/itmdfndn3jkpdpgm?pid=OPSDYHDPZHAS26MF&ref=45c4251f-e91c-4069-9a27-e30c9a7d2096&srno=t_1&otracker=from-search&q=windows%207%20home%20premium]
All other Microsoft Office Products [http://www.flipkart.com/computers/software/office-tools/pr?sid=6bo%2C5hp%2Ccqk&q=office&ref=acf409d8-bc61-4485-b451-085411c91594&otracker=from-multi&srno=po_0&allLinkPos=popular&q=office]
All Laptops [http://www.flipkart.com/computers/laptops?sid=6bo,b5g&_pop=flyout]
Apple iPhone 4S 16GB: RS 36,800 [http://www.flipkart.com/apple-iphone-4s/p/itmdkmjuqqyc7qgh?pid=MOBDKMJE8SUJNQYH&ref=d070803a-ec04-4e44-8e4e-b8bc32cd8382&srno=t_2&otracker=from-search]
Sony Playstation 3 500GB: RS 22,990 [http://www.flipkart.com/sony-ps3-500-gb/p/itmdkf7cxkdqwvz2?pid=GMCDEUF2VF6F3NHV&otracker=ch_vn_gamingcons_main_PS3%20Hardware]
Microsoft XBox 360 Kinect 250GB: RS 34,890 [http://www.flipkart.com/microsoft-x-box-360-250gb-kinect/p/itmdf2dajuzyngsh?pid=GMCDF28ZWFEXGVVJ&otracker=ch_vn_gamingcons_main_XBox%20360%20Hardware]

Do I have to keep listing more shit till you get it?

Why are you skirting around what 99% of products actually cost in India (again, as seen on the above stores), solely focusing on games and how "poor everyone in India is" and pretending that your logic doesn't apply to all other products, only games?

Why?

Which is why I said "enough of this", because you're never going to get anywhere if you simply decide to skip/avoid 80% of people's posts.

Good day.

 

[Setrus]

I thought digital distrubution was supposed to lower prices...? What happened to that?

captcha: brush your teeth
But I've only just finished breakfast...fine.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I thought digital distrubution was supposed to lower prices...? What happened to that?

captcha: brush your teeth
But I've only just finished breakfast...fine.

Brick and mortar happened. Digital distribution can't really undercut them without causing bad tension. People can't always do digital downloads, so brick and mortar is still needed.

It would be nice if stores dropped prices, though. Maybe adopt quantity of sales via low prices as opposed to high prices and limited sales to make ends meet.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

You know what they say: if you sell something for a million bucks, you only need one person to buy it.

So what would you rather have? A million stupid, lazy, ugly, lazy, dumb, stupid, serfs playing your game, or one millionaire?

/sarcasm

 

[spartandude]

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.

i gotta ask, where do you live? because if its in the UK/US and you only have to pay £40/$60 rent i want in

 

[Ironside]

On the one hand this seems like EA will just be cutting out millions of Indians from being able to acquire their products and so they will now get nothing from them instead of $16. However on the other hand they will still make plenty of money there considering that according to various sources there are more Indians earning more money than I do than there are people in my entire country, so the market will still be pretty big for EA.

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.

i gotta ask, where do you live? because if its in the UK/US and you only have to pay £40/$60 rent i want in

There are plenty of places in the UK where the rent will be less than £160 per month. Quite a few of them might be pretty crappy, but not all of them.

 

[josemlopes]

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?!

Most things that arent food, water or medicine are a luxury, you dont need it to live, therefore a luxury.

And like someone already said, this is what happens when games go region free, same price for everyone no matter how much people earn in their countries.

I thought digital distrubution was supposed to lower prices...? What happened to that?

People got in rage and it didnt happened. I kind of get why people raged though, consoles still arent ready for a digital only thing(not even the X180 was). PCs do manage it well since when you buy a new PC you can play all your old games in it

 

[shirkbot]

-snip-

And? You've only proved that the prices are the same. You haven't proved that they are actually in line with wages, or even that people aren't mostly just buying cheaper alternatives. For goodness sake, half the outrage isn't even the price itself, but the combination of the price quadrupling and that the justification is stopping people from getting cheap games from India who do not live there. There are few products that could experience a price jump like that and see no push-back of any kind, not to mention it's punishing people who have nothing to do with the problem.
If you want "fair" price adjustment then the price should have gone up a little in places like India and come down a little in other places. As it stands, this is just a painful reminder that part of the inequity around the globe comes from the myriad currencies, and that region free is going to have to find a logical way to deal with them.

 

[Roxor]

Why not just add up the prices for each region (converted to a common currency), divide by the number of regions, and use the results as the single global price?