Fellow destructoids, I haven't posted one of these yet, so let me first explain who I am.
I've been a gamer for life, ever since I was shooting sharks in seaquest on my Atari 7800 (Which had Asteroids built in!) right upto now, where I'm still taking my time killing Yiazmat in Final Fantasy XII and running around in Team Fortress two spamming the chat by saying all my team-mates are spies in the voice of the Heavy.
Now, I'm Australian. Which means two things. I like to drink and make an arse (Yes, we say 'Arse', not 'Ass') of myself in public. Secondly, we're a PAL country, so we're always about 6 months to a year behind you NTSC folk in Japan and the USA when it comes to console games, and even the consoles themselves. Its a huge annoyance, but its something we've come to accept.
At least with PC gaming, the wait times now are almost negligible. And with Valve's 'Steam' program allowing worldwide unlocking at the same time, we're finally on par with you snooty foreigners.
Or are we?
The Australian dollar, right at this very moment is valued at 0.893680 USD (Courtesy of
XE.com. So, when I bought the Orange Box through steam, I only paid about $56 AUD, as it was $49.95 USD. But what about those that don't want to buy through Steam, or use credit cards on the internet? Well, effectively you're screwed. I snuck
this picture while I was at gamestraders today, and the whole orange box pack, is selling at $99.95 AUD as RRP. Not just at GT, but also at EB.
Now, given that purchasing it in a store, you get a case, a physical DVD, and maybe some pieces of paper inside if you're lucky. But should all that cost an extra $50? Shipping for ONE DVD surely cannot be worth $50!
With the Australian dollar so strong against the US dollar right now, why are we paying so much more for games? This has now got me thinking, almost ALL new games released in Australia retail for at least $89.95. Lets take an example.... What's something all the kids are playing now... Crysis! Using EB games as the seller.
EB Games Australia, retailing for $99.95
http://www.ebgames.com.au/PC/product.cfm?ID=7308
EB Games United States, retailing for $49.99
http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=B646828A
According to XE again, $49.99 USD = $56.0399 AUD at the current rate. So why are we paying $43 AUD more?
To flip it around on the Americans. If you were paying our price for Crysis, you'd be paying
$89.1802 USD for one game. If that were the case, there'd be an uproar! Rioting in the streets, silicon valley programmers being lynched and gaming executives lined up in the streets in front of firing squads. Well, we can only hope.
How is it considered fair to be charging us Australians so much more for games, when they are now exactly the same as the versions released across the shores? Its made me thankful for ideas like Steam, which means we pay the exact same thing as Americans for the exact same game. Go Valve! Australia supports you!
End of first blog item. Resume your normal lives and be thankful you're not gaming in Australia. :P
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The same goes for CD's and everything else, our market prices are being artificially maintained to squeeze us dry. These collusionist fuckbastard companies do everything they can to keep us from circumventing it too. Region locking, for instance, is just a way to keep us getting our games cheaper overseas.
This is actually illegal, which is why the ACCC refuses to outlaw modchipping, as it gives consumers more choice (and rights).
Goddamn capitalist penny-pinching son of a bitch whore-cunts.
So we have GST, shipping costs, import tax, the markup for the 'hassle' of importing it, and the price jumps by quite a bit. Now that's not to say they are not screweing us. I just about shit my pants when I found out RE4 for the Wii was over double the price of America (US$35-40 compared to AU$100). So while the price of import games will go up a bit, they really are taking us for a ride.
For example, in New York, where I’m from, the state has a flat sales tax of 4%, while all counties and some cities add local taxes between 3% and 5.5%. Currently, the total sales tax in New York City is 8.375% — 4% for the state, 4% for the city, and 0.375% for the city’s mass transport system, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. So a PS3 game would cost $65.01: $59.99 retail price + $5.02 tax. To give another example, the state of Pennsylvania has a 6% sales tax, so a PS3 game purchased there would cost $63.59.
And money, tell me about it :/
And valve just wants total dictatorship of your country, they invented Steam to get on your good side, the one with shrimp on the barbie, boomerangs, kangaroos, and other cliche Austrailian things
But to be fair, with all your sunshine and hardly any fat women then it's not all bad down under.
Well, cept on the internets...
Thanks for calling me sir, you are a very polite young man.
Problem is, is that a majority of people in Australian don't have chipped consoles. And given that we're PAL, if we buy cheaper NTSC versions of games, they won't run.
Lucky I got me a Modbo chip for me PS2. :) But PS3's/Wii's are now breaking if they're chipped due to firmware crackdowns. We almost have no option but to purchase games locally.
UNLESSS, someone can point me to an offshore store that sells genuine PAL games at USA prices... :)