Grant ShepherdAussies paying too much
September 7th 2008 10:54
Category: No Category
Gamers in Australia are being forced to hand over around 100 per game compared to roughly $60 / $70 in the US.
An example of this was carried out by Laura Parker on Gamespot AU:
A copy of Too Human on the Xbox 360-when all prices are converted to Australian dollars--is A$99.95 in Australia, compared to A$68.40 in the US, A$96.24 in the UK and A$65.71 in Japan; Fallout 3 Collector's Edition for the PlayStation 3 is A$129.95 in Australia, but only A$91.27 in the US, and A$106.92 in the UK; Saints Row 2 on the PlayStation 3 is A$109.95 in Australia, A$68.44 in the US, and A$106.92 in the UK; and finally, a copy of Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Nintendo Wii comes to A$99.95 in Australia, while consumers are only paying A$57.02 in the US, A$85.48 in the UK, and A$71.26 in Japan.
When developers are questioned about this they are failing to give any substancial evidence or reasons as to why this is the case.
Obviously inthe past we had to pay alot more for our games due to the fact that our Australian dollar was substancially less than that of overseas neighbours. Remember the days when the Australian dollar was only about 50 US cents?
But in todays economy the Australian dollar has caught up to the US and is almost the same. But the price of video games has never changed.
Its mainly due to the fact that Australian consumers are willing to pay it. The Australian public have been paying these prices for as long as they remember and they therefore dont know any better. And what choice do they have? Every shop in the country are selling it for roughly the same price and it is too much of a hassle to import them.
But this is what a large proportion of the gaming community have started to do. Import their games from the US and Asia.
This is a scary thought bacause it may ruin the Australian video game industry.
If gamers start to only import their games it is going to make it even more difficult for the stats to change. This is because overseas developers wont see Australia as a popular market and therefore wont ship as many copies of games to our shores, which in turn may boost the prices even more.
I dont know how its going to change but i dont think importing your games from overseas is going to solve the problem we have here in Australia.
We need to support the Australian gaming industry to improve our chances of lowering prices. Because most developers obviously dont see Aussies as a popular target market. We have to change that!
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Comment by Joey Crews
Gamemonger
The World From A Cynic's Eyes
But I suspect you're right when you say that Aussies have been paying that amount for years, will probably always have to pay it and probably always will.
I have been looking at online digital distribution methods like Stardock and Steam. I think that for Australians this is the way out of us paying $80-$100 per game, but a lot of people look at this and think "Ack, but my broadband quota!"
Either way, I don't see an easy fix on the horizon any time soon.