Why is this game $70 in Australia on Steam?

[Humodour]

What makes you think I'm willing to pay an extra $20 or $30 just because I'm Australian? The dollar is at parity with the USD, there's no shipping cost...

 

How ridiculous and rude. I'll just import the game from America.

[Purkake]

According to Yahtzee it's the "awesome beaches" tax.

 

 

Also, I'm guessing that it's not the first game to cost $70 in Australia...

 

[Gorth]

According to Yahtzee it's the "awesome beaches" tax.

 

 

Also, I'm guessing that it's not the first game to cost $70 in Australia...

 

It's been a while since I last bought a game here that was less than $100

[Humodour]

It's been a while since I last bought a game here that was less than $100

 

That's why I a) switched to Steam (but increasingly publishers are putting up rubbish Australian prices on Steam), b) wait a few years till the game is cheap.

 

But I'd like to support Obsid and buy the game when it comes out. That's difficult when the publisher wants to rip Australians off for a few extra bucks. I highly doubt our disposable incomes are 50% or 100% larger than those of Americans.

[Purkake]

Oh boo hoo, it's the same in Europe and pretty much everywhere outside of North America.

 

Deal with it.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Purkake

[Gorth]

Oh boo hoo, it's the same in Europe and pretty much everywhere outside of North America.

 

Deal with it.

Did a squirting cucumber pee on your leg or something?

[Purkake]

Just pointing out that this is neither a new phenomenon nor particularly unique to Australia.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Purkake

[Gorth]

I know. I used to live in Europe. When the US Dollar was higher than the Euro, prices for Digital Rivers EU customers would be in US Dollars, when the Euro pulled ahead, they could suddenly change their system so people would pay in Euro (on a 1:1 exchange mind you). Parallel (sp?) import FTW

[Tigranes]

Just pointing out that this is neither a new phenomenon nor particularly unique to Australia.

 

This is, of course, irrelevant?

 

Same deal in NZ, I'm not sure what I'll do. It's probably a big file to buy online and download... bandwidth costs would probably balance it out

[Zoraptor]

Here you go $50 USD download and they even throw in the same free Space Siege deal as Steam too.

 

Also, D2D has the same deal at the same price

 

So far as I can tell it isn't listed on Impulse.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Zoraptor

[Gorth]

Here you go $50 USD download and they even throw in the same free Space Siege deal as Steam too.

The only place I've bought games online from before. I've been sticking to buying DRM free games though, so I wouldn't know if such things would lead to any kind of hassle?

[Rostere]

My preorder in a Swedish store cost me only an amount of money equivalent to 55 $...

[obyknven]

price ~ $ 13+-2 in Russia

[Bos_hybrid]

You really should ask Sega, since they're the publisher and it's them that decide the price. Still it's not a new price, I was complaining about it last time AP was listed on Steam. You can go with GamersGate, but I would imagine AP is going to be a large DL.

[ginji]

A retail copy could always be found for a cheaper price... why do you all want to pay for a download?

I'll never understand.

Edited April 12, 2010 by ginji

[Raithe]

Amazon.uk pre-order is

[kreese12]

Speaking of price differences... try living on just over the border of the US in Canada, where are money is basically on par with the US dollar, but pretty much everything is cheaper in the States, like from beer to cars to books.

 

I dunno. Lord of the Flies would probably say it is because of the imperial Empire wars, I don't know.

Edited April 12, 2010 by kreese12

[Zoraptor]

For those wondering about the download size, IIRC when it was due for an October release GG had a size listed of just over 8GB. I could be wrong though, as I was not seriously considering a download since the bandwidth costs would be astronomical on my 3G connection.

 

A retail copy could always be found for a cheaper price... why do you all want to pay for a download?

I'll never understand.

You won't be able to get it retail for cheaper in NZ/ Australia, at least not if you want to play soon after release and not for the equivalent of 50USD unless you go for an offshore retailer like cdwow and even then the price is roughly the same rather than being a saving, and their free delivery can take a very long time to arrive. Retail being cheaper is true in a number of places like the UK (except, apparently, when I'm there as they had not a single decent deal last time), but not here.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Zoraptor

[ginji]

You won't be able to get it retail for cheaper in NZ/ Australia, at least not if you want to play soon after release and not for the equivalent of 50USD unless you go for an offshore retailer like cdwow and even then the price is roughly the same rather than being a saving, and their free delivery can take a very long time to arrive. Retail being cheaper is true in a number of places like the UK (except, apparently, when I'm there as they had not a single decent deal last time), but not here.

 

But if the price of the download is the same or just a little cheaper, then what's the point? If I pay 50$ for a boxed game, i should pay 10$ for just a bunch of files (full of DRM).

If you want to pay less, you should wait for the price of retail copy to drop (since the price for download is almost the same at launch and it never drops... and you can't buy used).

If you want to play soon, then just take the retail, for almost the same price.

 

There is internet, Ebay, Gamestop (yeah, those bastards), malls, other american Videogame stores I can't remember the name, dozens of online shops, forums... we're not in the '90s anymore, we have a wide range of possibilities to go cheap without having to wait months and months (actually, I usually wait months ), and the best thing gamers can do is to "buy" nothing and pay for it.

 

It's your money, I can't and I won't tell you what to do with it. But the situation is becoming ridiculous.

Edited April 12, 2010 by ginji

[Zoraptor]

I pretty much agree, DD is not a great way to buy under many circumstances, certainly not as good as it 'should' be, and I only buy DD if it has a significant discount- I bought Majesty 2 for the equivalent of 11 NZD when it's 80 retail, for example- or if there's no alternative. I won't be buying AP via DD but probably will end up preordering retail, as when it comes right down to it while I know I will be able to get it cheaper later I don't mind paying full price, on occasion, as the price for games is not unreasonable- I'd blow more money going skiing for a day.

 

A lot of titles never drop below 30$ here (~20USD) so often it is considerably cheaper- or next to impossible if the publisher doesn't think it's worth importing them (eg Call of Pripyat)- to get them any other way. And before most sites got the regional pricing it was a considerably better deal, almost always, to go DD over retail if direct cost was the only consideration.

[Bos_hybrid]

But if the price of the download is the same or just a little cheaper, then what's the point? If I pay 50$ for a boxed game, i should pay 10$ for just a bunch of files (full of DRM).

If you want to pay less, you should wait for the price of retail copy to drop (since the price for download is almost the same at launch and it never drops... and you can't buy used).

If you want to play soon, then just take the retail, for almost the same price.

 

There is internet, Ebay, Gamestop (yeah, those bastards), malls, other american Videogame stores I can't remember the name, dozens of online shops, forums... we're not in the '90s anymore, we have a wide range of possibilities to go cheap without having to wait months and months (actually, I usually wait months ), and the best thing gamers can do is to "buy" nothing and pay for it.

 

It's your money, I can't and I won't tell you what to do with it. But the situation is becoming ridiculous.

 

You obviously have no idea of the pricing of games in Aus/NZ. Take Zors example, or mine of paying $40AUD for L4D2 instead of $90AUD that's a big difference. Unfortunately publishers don't like the rest of the world paying the same for the game as Americans, with Act/2K and now EA putting up prices(DA & ME2 have increased in price by $20USD). I would like to think such increases will stop people buying from Steam, but I can't help but feel that's why the publishers are doing that.

[Tigranes]

But if the price of the download is the same or just a little cheaper, then what's the point? If I pay 50$ for a boxed game, i should pay 10$ for just a bunch of files (full of DRM).

If you want to pay less, you should wait for the price of retail copy to drop (since the price for download is almost the same at launch and it never drops... and you can't buy used).

If you want to play soon, then just take the retail, for almost the same price.

 

ginji, not everyone lives in America. In New Zealand (and probably Australia), online is nearly always cheaper than retail. In many cases, significantly cheaper. And for older or less advertised games, it's much easier to find as well. In short, retail is more expensive with a limited selection - completely opposite to your guesses, it's rarely worth it.

 

In fact I dont even know where you're coming from for some of this - download prices never drop? digital download has worse DRM than boxed copies? It's the opposite.

[Humodour]

But if the price of the download is the same or just a little cheaper, then what's the point? If I pay 50$ for a boxed game, i should pay 10$ for just a bunch of files (full of DRM).

If you want to pay less, you should wait for the price of retail copy to drop (since the price for download is almost the same at launch and it never drops... and you can't buy used).

If you want to play soon, then just take the retail, for almost the same price.

 

ginji, not everyone lives in America. In New Zealand (and probably Australia), online is nearly always cheaper than retail. In many cases, significantly cheaper. And for older or less advertised games, it's much easier to find as well. In short, retail is more expensive with a limited selection - completely opposite to your guesses, it's rarely worth it.

 

In fact I dont even know where you're coming from for some of this - download prices never drop? digital download has worse DRM than boxed copies? It's the opposite.

 

Spot on.

[ginji]

ginji, not everyone lives in America. In New Zealand (and probably Australia), online is nearly always cheaper than retail. In many cases, significantly cheaper. And for older or less advertised games, it's much easier to find as well. In short, retail is more expensive with a limited selection - completely opposite to your guesses, it's rarely worth it.

 

Actually I'm from Italy (the country where everything costs more and everyone earns less) but luckily I can purchase games outside of this country, like in UK or France (when the game is multi-language of course). I don't know the situation in New Zealand, I don't know if online shops ship games to your country (some of them don't ship to Italy, for example)... I even don't know if you used a PAL or NTSC signal for your TVs (but I think Australia used PAL, right?) and if european games are good for your console's region.

But seeing online shops like Amazon, The Hut, Play, BlahDvd or Game, with everyone fighting each other to give the lowest price (I've preordered and bought Sonic Unleashed for 20 Euros... the regular price was 60-70 Euros) I don't think that DD is the only way... I think (and I hope) you have a choice.

 

As for DRM: you're getting them anyway, so at least get a box, a disc and a manual

 

 

You obviously have no idea of the pricing of games in Aus/NZ. Take Zors example, or mine of paying $40AUD for L4D2 instead of $90AUD that's a big difference. Unfortunately publishers don't like the rest of the world paying the same for the game as Americans, with Act/2K and now EA putting up prices(DA & ME2 have increased in price by $20USD). I would like to think such increases will stop people buying from Steam, but I can't help but feel that's why the publishers are doing that.

 

The fact is I can't understand paying more than 5$ to get nothing.

But that's just me, I guess.

[Tigranes]

I guess I can see why you think that way. Sadly, not everyone ships to NZ/AUS, and shipping costs a lot. Buying from halfway across the world is very different from you buying from a EU-neighbour. While you might not have it as good as US/Canada, you still have a huge amount of options as to where you get your game from; we don't have such a luxury, and DD emerges as the best option by far in most cases.

 

The fact is I can't understand paying more than 5$ to get nothing.

 

Basically, imagine you spent 70 euros a pop on the last 10 games you bought. And imagine that you could have got all of them for 40-50 euros a pop, if you got them digitally instead of in a box. The difference? You don't get the box.

 

I can't understand paying 20 euros extra to get an extra box, do you? That's the situation in NZ/AUS, really.