Poll: Games prices in Australia

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Does the Australian government hate video games or something? Because that is a huge rip off.

our former attorney general for south australia did hate them, can't say for the rest of the government

the cost pretty much comes from the low population compared to other western countries, the fact that australia is very isolated shipping wise, the lack of an R-rating, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

 

[C95J]

Does the Australian government hate video games or something? Because that is a huge rip off.

our former attorney general for south australia did hate them, can't say for the rest of the government

the cost pretty much comes from the low population compared to other western countries, the fact that australia is very isolated shipping wise, the lack of an R-rating, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

oh okay, that seems a bit more fair, but still unlucky for any fanatic Australian gaming fans...

 

[thedoclc]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/05/monday-musings-the-price-is-right/ is a nice article about it.

Essentially, the reasons include:
1) Taxes on imports put in by the local government
2) Market conditions - they can get away with it
3) Increased cost of supply due to economies of scale
4) Global fluctuations in monies. Ubisoft deals in Euros while Bungie deals in dollars. Usually, the Australian branch reports to the home office and accounts in that currency. Since the Australian dollar can fluctuate, the prices settled at $100 AUS to accommodate both feast and famine.

A similar situation exists, for example, in Mexico. New video games are sold in Mexico for approximately $80-100 USD after the exchange. First, there are taxes. Second, there's an economy of scale in the US: greater demand, greater sales numbers, etc, able to allow a lower cost. And third, video games in Mexico are pretty much the purview of the rich and of Americans there for a brief period (such as me), so the companies can afford to put off people who can't afford their products anyway and charge those who can more. It's called price discrimination, and it's something companies do all the time. It's not always to your disadvantage; military and student discounts, senior citizen discounts, early bird specials, and special group rates are the same thing. You charge different prices based on not only on costs of production, but on all parts of supply and demand, and part of demand is motivation of groups of clients.

For the record, I'm -not- complaining about the higher price I'm paying in Mexico during my stay. It's my choice, pay it or not. I just change my spending habits. Instead, I'm buying more tequila and less video games. I don't need video games. I -like- them.

And today's prices aren't that bad; NES games used to cost $50 USD back when a new luxury car cost $8,000 USD and gas was under a dollar a gallon. Prices have gone down, adjusting for inflation. I remember paying $80 USD in the mid-nineties for Final Fantasy 3 (yes, FF3) on my SNES.

 

[CoL0sS]

NO!!! It's the same situation here, and I refuse to pay that much. I order most of my games online. Also the funny thing is that prices don't necessarily drop after some time. Just last week I found Freedom Fighters (2003 game) for 60$. Imagine that. But some people are comfortable being ripped so these games sell anyway.

 

[GiantSpiderGoat]

Jb Hifi normally puts it down too around about 50 - 60 dollars as soon as they can. I think its because of some government tax that this happens. Well that is my opinion anyway. Liberals are as much to blame for this as labor is. Although I only really like the West Australian branch of the Labor party.

 

[Vaccine]

I own, count them, 13 games on my PS3 since I got one at launch, I have a wishlist that's fairly goddamn long, but yet, I'm not paying upwards of $100 for games that much anymore.

The only game I find myself playing is WoW simply because, frankly, it's cheaper than supporting a gaming habit on a console.

One brand new PS3 game($100) per 2-3 months is around $400-600, a year. To be fair, I'd end up buying more than that if I was still mostly a console gamer, more like $1000-1500 depending how busy of a year it is for the industry.
WoW only costs me around $200 in subscriptions a year.
So yeah, clear choice for me.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

It'll be about 8 bucks shipping, though you'll need to mod your console to read games from USA, being different regions and all.

Yes...it's pretty rip-off down here.

I never got the whole regional thing with discs. Or is the problem with regional made consoles? Whatever, it makes no sense, the countries should come together and agree, this is the disc we are going to use, it will run in all consoles that it is made for.

So an important point to note the Australian dollar and the US dollar are almost 1 for 1.
That said most games here are expensive, Fable 3 is $120 AUD yet a quick search online shows in the US it is $60. Given exchange rate wise this means if I was to fly to the US I could pay about half what I pay here I was curious. Would you guys who live in the US still buy games if they cost twice as much?

I don't really get it. Are you guys over there having to pay some kind of huge import fee? Or are you having to pay an "our government hates video games fee"? Or are your retailers just ripping you off to get a 60 dollar extra profit? Because there is no other reason you guys would be paying that much.

Are your consoles over priced too? 299 for an 360 here, with the comparison to your games, you guys would be paying 599 for your consoles.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Does the Australian government hate video games or something? Because that is a huge rip off.

That is what I was thinking. That or they are paying some insane import fee, or the retailers have banned together, to get a 60 dollar extra profit from the games.

 

[Elijin]

Well....in my experience...

www.playasia.com
www.365games.co.uk
www.game-lane.com.au

All three of these sites offer most games you could want, including backlogs. They also list which region the game comes from, the format (PAL/NTSC) and whether the games are region locked. Cost of shipping varies between sites from free, to a small cost for next day delivery, to free but ~week delivery time.

So yeah, do what me and all my friends do, dont buy them anymore. Its really not that hard, and your wallet will thank you.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

The better question is: why would you be buying video games in austriala anyways?

Just import them, I thought you guys had enough reasons to do so anyways.

 

[Luke Cartner]

So an important point to note the Australian dollar and the US dollar are almost 1 for 1.
That said most games here are expensive, Fable 3 is $120 AUD yet a quick search online shows in the US it is $60. Given exchange rate wise this means if I was to fly to the US I could pay about half what I pay here I was curious. Would you guys who live in the US still buy games if they cost twice as much?

I'd really suggest Steam mate, their prices are (afaik) universal. But yeah, that pretty much sucks, unless you standard is somehow twice the one in US, which I kinda doubt... seriously don't get why else they'd ramp up the prices that much for Aussies, outside the usual "because we can".

And I steam (although quick note some games such as fallout new vegas are forcing steam to charge regionalised prices so steam is a cure all for this) however many games just are not on steam. Also steam doesn't cover console games.

 

[Luke Cartner]

Does this overpricing include PC games? and do you have steam?

Yes on both counts.
PC games can be lower than console games however not by much.
Yes steam is available and if the producer hasn't thought to regionalise their prices (like they did with fallout new vegas) I can buy the games at US prices (if the game even is on steam).
My question wasn't so much about what options I had but would people in the US put up with this..

 

[Luke Cartner]

It'll be about 8 bucks shipping, though you'll need to mod your console to read games from USA, being different regions and all.

Yes...it's pretty rip-off down here.

I never got the whole regional thing with discs. Or is the problem with regional made consoles? Whatever, it makes no sense, the countries should come together and agree, this is the disc we are going to use, it will run in all consoles that it is made for.

So an important point to note the Australian dollar and the US dollar are almost 1 for 1.
That said most games here are expensive, Fable 3 is $120 AUD yet a quick search online shows in the US it is $60. Given exchange rate wise this means if I was to fly to the US I could pay about half what I pay here I was curious. Would you guys who live in the US still buy games if they cost twice as much?

I don't really get it. Are you guys over there having to pay some kind of huge import fee? Or are you having to pay an "our government hates video games fee"? Or are your retailers just ripping you off to get a 60 dollar extra profit? Because there is no other reason you guys would be paying that much.

Are your consoles over priced too? 299 for an 360 here, with the comparison to your games, you guys would be paying 599 for your consoles.

Our console are not over priced, they are about the same. Just the games. To my knowledge it is simply a case that the producers charge the retailers more... Its not a tax or anything, it is simply what JB hifi or eb games pay is just that much higher..

 

[Luke Cartner]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/05/monday-musings-the-price-is-right/ is a nice article about it.

Essentially, the reasons include:
1) Taxes on imports put in by the local government
2) Market conditions - they can get away with it
3) Increased cost of supply due to economies of scale
4) Global fluctuations in monies. Ubisoft deals in Euros while Bungie deals in dollars. Usually, the Australian branch reports to the home office and accounts in that currency. Since the Australian dollar can fluctuate, the prices settled at $100 AUS to accommodate both feast and famine.

A similar situation exists, for example, in Mexico. New video games are sold in Mexico for approximately $80-100 USD after the exchange. First, there are taxes. Second, there's an economy of scale in the US: greater demand, greater sales numbers, etc, able to allow a lower cost. And third, video games in Mexico are pretty much the purview of the rich and of Americans there for a brief period (such as me), so the companies can afford to put off people who can't afford their products anyway and charge those who can more. It's called price discrimination, and it's something companies do all the time. It's not always to your disadvantage; military and student discounts, senior citizen discounts, early bird specials, and special group rates are the same thing. You charge different prices based on not only on costs of production, but on all parts of supply and demand, and part of demand is motivation of groups of clients.

For the record, I'm -not- complaining about the higher price I'm paying in Mexico during my stay. It's my choice, pay it or not. I just change my spending habits. Instead, I'm buying more tequila and less video games. I don't need video games. I -like- them.

And today's prices aren't that bad; NES games used to cost $50 USD back when a new luxury car cost $8,000 USD and gas was under a dollar a gallon. Prices have gone down, adjusting for inflation. I remember paying $80 USD in the mid-nineties for Final Fantasy 3 (yes, FF3) on my SNES.

THE AUD has been close to 1 for 1 over along period it has been > 90 c o the $US for the better part of 5 years and even higher recently.So I dont buy this, this essentially is price fixing which is technically illegal in Australia..

 

[Cronq]

Different markets have different prices for similar/identical products. Just take a look at real estate, what costs $80k in New Mexico will cost you $1.5 million in New York.

 

[Vrach]

Different markets have different prices for similar/identical products. Just take a look at real estate, what costs $80k in New Mexico will cost you $1.5 million in New York.

Bullshit. Lemme see a different price for Serbia where the standard is much lower and the game price is higher (with no real chance on 'deals' outside places like Steam). They're just slamming a higher price on places where they can get away with it, they're not at all adapting prices to different markets.

 

[thedoclc]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/05/monday-musings-the-price-is-right/ is a nice article about it.

Essentially, the reasons include:
1) Taxes on imports put in by the local government
2) Market conditions - they can get away with it
3) Increased cost of supply due to economies of scale
4) Global fluctuations in monies. Ubisoft deals in Euros while Bungie deals in dollars. Usually, the Australian branch reports to the home office and accounts in that currency. Since the Australian dollar can fluctuate, the prices settled at $100 AUS to accommodate both feast and famine.

*snip irrelevant parts*

THE AUD has been close to 1 for 1 over along period it has been > 90 c o the $US for the better part of 5 years and even higher recently.So I dont buy this, this essentially is price fixing which is technically illegal in Australia..

Edit: Did a little more research, and so editing out a mistake.

Price fixing is illegal in most capitalist countries for most goods. It's illegal in the US as well. The problem is you'd have to prove there is an agreement to charge that price in order to accuse the companies of price fixing. If Bungie, EA, and Epic got together and all decided to charge $100 AUS, then yeah, you've got price fixing. If EA did it, so Bungie followed suit, and then Epic did it too, and they never talked about it, then it's not price fixing. So there's two ways it could be happening, and I doubt anyone could bring a suit against any of the companies and prove they were fixing prices.

Cartels usually require few suppliers of a product to be effective, and there are a -lot- of developers out there, which is a strike against the idea of the companies colluding on prices. It doesn't disprove anything, but nothing's proven, either. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some collusion.

 

[thedoclc]

Different markets have different prices for similar/identical products. Just take a look at real estate, what costs $80k in New Mexico will cost you $1.5 million in New York.

Bullshit. Lemme see a different price for Serbia where the standard is much lower and the game price is higher (with no real chance on 'deals' outside places like Steam). They're just slamming a higher price on places where they can get away with it, they're not at all adapting prices to different markets.

...they're charging what they can get away with charging in different areas? From the supplier's point of view, that -is- adapting to different markets.

 

[Nouw]

I pay more for games and I've been doing so for quite some time. Have you been to NZ? Bet you won't take the bullshit we take.
This is not a request to pity me/us, but to simply acknowledge that someone else has it even worse.

I've gotten used to it, over-priced or not.

 

[Vrach]

Different markets have different prices for similar/identical products. Just take a look at real estate, what costs $80k in New Mexico will cost you $1.5 million in New York.

Bullshit. Lemme see a different price for Serbia where the standard is much lower and the game price is higher (with no real chance on 'deals' outside places like Steam). They're just slamming a higher price on places where they can get away with it, they're not at all adapting prices to different markets.

...they're charging what they can get away with charging in different areas? From the supplier's point of view, that -is- adapting to different markets.

...except that they can't actually get away with charging that price in Serbia, so 95% of the people here pirate the games and only 5% (if even that much) is actually sold legally

So no, really, no offense, but from no argument are they doin' it rite