PlayStation 4 Price Rises By $50 in Canada

[aceman67]

*snip*

I just pulled up the email from the last purchase on steam (Rust for 19.99 USD), I was not charged sales tax (I live in Alberta, so that would've been 5% GST or General Sales Tax), and the currency conversion made the total purchase $22.83 (If I were to make that purchase today, I would be charged $22.19).

Since as of this post, 1 Canadian Dollar is worth $0.91 US, the price hike for Sony products is totally unwarranted.

But there's also some other things to consider when things of artistic nature are sold in Canada.

Take music/books for example. Even if an artist or book author is selling their work through a distributor like Warner Music Canada/Pocket Books, portions of all sales must be paid directly to the artist ON TOP of normal royalties. This is why books and music are sometimes more expensive in canada.

There's also tariffs and taxes associated with importing things into the country as well.

That being said, if I'm going to buy a PS4, I'm driving the hour and half round trip to Sweetgrass Montana and buying it there.

 

[Foolery]

Just when I thought I had saved up enough loonies, Sony throws me a curved hockey stick and lumberjacks up the price.

70 bucks for a retail game?
Bite me, eh. No thanks. 60 is bad enough, and I'm definitely not wanting be like Australia.
I wouldn't even bother with gaming if I lived over there.

Anyway, gives me a reason to pass them over in favour of Nintendo and the odd bit of PC gaming.

 

[forgo911]

I just checked the current conversion rate on Google.
As noted above, how is it fair for us to pay $70+ for a game retail if we can buy it off steam for $10 less.

I agree overall that this price hike was a poor decision but I would raise two points in response to this particular point:

First of all, while I am aware that often they are pegged at the same price, digital distribution should logically be cheaper than physical media. For digital distribution there are no shipping costs, no costs associated with producing the physical media, and Steam sits in the same supply chain position as a wholesale distributor so the costs of the end retailer are also removed. What I am saying is that it costs less to distribute a game digitally so with the developer and publisher receiving the same take and Steam making the same margin a wholesaler would the price to the consumer should be less. The real outrage here is that often this isn't the case.

Secondly I understand (and do correct me if my understanding of Canadian tax law is incomplete)that in Canada your sales taxes vary from state to state and that you pay somewhere between 5% - 15%. As Steam is based in the US a purchase from Steam would incur no sales tax at all.

Living in Ontario, my HST is 13% so yes you are correct. Also it's provinces, sorry It's just something that sends my OCD off the deep end.

Sony, Sony, Sony...What shall we do about you. It seems you have hit your head off the stairs on the way to work today. The biggest advantage you had was the price difference and you just shot yourself in the foot...with a rocket launcher. Without the big difference in price, people will be less willing to switch from the xbox360 to the ps4. Instead of trying out your system, they'll stick with what they are comfortable with. People who spent all that time getting gamer score and tailoring their xbl experience will-for the most part-be willing to spend 50 dollars more on the console where they get to keep everything.

Also the people who think that because of some shitty deals that they won't take advantage of this deal in Canada, could be wrong. I expect that ms will seize this opportunity to secure a market and lower the price of the xbone; if even only 10-25 dollars. By further shrinking the price difference between the two consoles, ms will gain a huge advantage and create some positive PR.

 

[Tiamattt]

That price hike just makes me more jealous of this

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/8578-Four-PS4s

 

[Weaver]

I simply don't make enough money to spend $70 + tax (which comes to $80) on a video game. Sorry, Sony.

Our dollar might have dropped, but it's not like our wages magically increased.

 

[JayRPG]

Well then, Fuck You Too, eh? It's bad enough they charge 60 dollars for games that feel incomplete or purposely cut out content(Looking at you Stick of Truth) but now you expect me to pay more because I'm 100 km north of the border? Fuck off.

Hey, be grateful that games are only $60... ours are $90-100 and our dollar is worth the exact same. 1AUD = 1CDN

For real though, I guess it isn't just Australia and New Zealand who get fucked over with this shit.

Though going back to CDN and AUD being equal at the moment, your PS4 is getting a price hike to $449, our price from release was and still currently is $549 - which means that even after your price hike, I could buy one from Canada and import it here for cheaper than it is to walk down to my local retailer.

 

[mrhappy1489]

Here's the thing, (I'm going by Australia here so maybe it's different but I doubt it) the PS4 has been selling like gangbusters, selling out the second stock is in and having lay-buys that require you to put in money well months in advance just to get on a waiting list for the next lot to come in after the next lot comes in. This shows that they really haven't reached a market equilibrium and that there are going to be shortages for ages until demand drops (seeing as how they can't really increase production that much). What this means is that it is simply easier to raise the price now, cop the drop in sales for a little while, while probably still selling a decent amount of consoles, then lowering it again when demand piters off. I know it seems a bit dickish and it kind of is, but it's probably the best thing that sony could do at the moment, that way they can hopefully produce enough stock to sell to customers, rather than having excessive wait times. In the longish run (3-6 months) I'd wager that the price will be back to the original level, if not a little lower.

 

[Denamic]

Well, everyone knows 1$ = 1?, because the Euro is stronger than the US dollar. Of course, the same thing could not possibly be true in reverse. Adjusting the price DOWN? Unthinkable!

Hey, be grateful that games are only $60... ours are $90-100 and our dollar is worth the exact same. 1AUD = 1CDN

By that logic, everyone should always be grateful no matter what happens to them, because there's ALWAYS someone worse off.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Congratulations Canada! Now you're standing at the side of Scandinavia and Australia.
Isn't it fun paying shitloads more than others?

 

[porous_shield]

I hate that companies are so quick to raise prices but then never put them back down when the situation reverses itself and they definitely never adjust prices that would be in the consumer's favour.

Steam will be the next to raise prices in Canada when they do their regional pricing thing they are rolling out.

PlayStation 4 Price Rises By $50 in Canada

PlayStation consoles, cameras, and DualShock 4 controllers are all seeing price hikes within the Canadian North.

Wouldn't the Canadian North be the territories, as in the north of Canada, in the same way if someone said the US South it would be the southern states?

 

[regalphantom]

While this sucks for Canadians like myself who do not own a PS4 but are considering purchasing one, this isn't as surprising as you might think. The Canadian dollar has fallen roughly 10% against the US dollar since the PS4's release (we went from hovering at or slightly above parity to 10 cents below it). Given that for whatever reason economists like to have our dollar cheap in comparison to the USD, and that it isn't realistic to expect the CND to fall even lower, the price adjustment is realistic considering that, at the $400 dollar rate, they would be making roughly $40.00 less per console than if it was sold in the States. That's not to say that Canadians DON'T get arbitrarily priced screwed, and I doubt that should the dollar become stronger in Canada that we will get price drops, but in this case its less of a 'the sky is falling' situation than people realize.

 

[TheLastFeeder]

Cry harder, Canada. We folks from the old world pay 399?, which equals $555,05 US. We need several price drops to even reach the price tag you're complaining about after the raise!

Funny to see this pop up at every other thread. It's called "Regional Economy" and 399? sounds pretty good for many regions.
Iceland has a 503,49? price point for the ps4, in South Africa it costs 456,68? And in Brazil it cost 1.328,40? last time I checked.


It sounds like you have it just fine over there.

 

[Mr C]

I got a PS4 as a birthday pressie from my awesome wife last month. I really like the system and would recommend it to anyone...except Canadians. If I was you guys I'd certainly wait for a price drop below the original launch title, or buy an Xbone out of spite. An option unavailable to me, as I live in Asia

 

[Weaver]

I just checked the current conversion rate on Google.

$400 US is approximately equal to $443.92 Canadian. Is there something I'm missing? Because I don't see how people could be too upset, unless it's over that ~$5.08.

Don't let me get in the way of you getting pissed, though.

Because they were selling it for less. It doesn't matter that it works out to be more or less even with the dollar conversion, they released a product at a certain price point. Raising the price above that price point without adding value for the customer will cause backlash, regardless of what the product is.

It also doesn't help that we're already paying above US cost for pretty much everything else, so 'Adjusting' games and consoles upwards 'Because Canada' feeds on existing resentment. As noted above, how is it fair for us to pay $70+ for a game retail if we can buy it off steam for $10 less.

Except that it's because of your dollar losing value in comparison to the US dollar that your prices are increasing, it's not because Sony hates you and is trying to rip you off. You want to hate someone, hate your politicians for causing the downward swing. You guys had nearly matched us in value for quite a long time, and it's hard to argue that the US has "recovered" economically speaking, so the problem's gotta be on your end.

Not that I'm rationalizing higher prices, mind, but seriously. If your dollar is worth less, it's only logical that it takes more of those dollars to reach the same "value". And based on the conversion rates right now? The price hike doesn't really look all that "unfair" to me.

Also, the whole "why is it fair" argument doesn't really fly with me, since I'm one of those folks who thinks digital purchases of a game should be cheaper by default anyways.

In 2007 our dollar was 10 - 20 cents stronger than the US dollar for about two months. Prices here stayed exactly the same.

The real issue is once the prices go up, they never fucking ever go back down.

 

[Weaver]

*snip*

Sure, then why were games priced US prices since like 1985 with our dollar being WAY below US parity (like 30 - 40 cents below) since about 1970? Honestly, our dollars have never been closer than the last 5 - 10 years.

It's also worth noting, you have to price things with what people can afford. We all didn't suddenly get a 10% raise.
$80 after tax is just too much for me to afford. This is why games in Russian territories are $15 - $20 USD. If they weren't, no one could afford them. We don't have a $22/hour minimum wage like Australia does, and we have a lower median income than America. If their goal is to just make shit so expensive no one would buy it, then I guess they did their job.

 

[richardbranson]

Next-gen game prices for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have already been increased to $64.99 at 4SaleUSA's Price List.