301: Strapped for Cash

[MercurySteam]

It's funny that us Aussies are still paying $100 per game. And because the dollar is basically parody, it may as well be $100US. Thanks a lot EB Games.

 

[Kyouki1980]

I think I got a little inspired to stop buying everything off Steam. Unless it's a sale/deal, it's usually not cheap.

I buy almost all my games on steam now, except for my ps3 obviously ^_^, I simply wait for the game I want to come down in price or wait for it to come on sale. It's amazing. I love steam. So easy and convenient and with all the sales they have theres always great deals on great games.

And no... I don't work for Valve ^_^ LOL Wish I did though. ... .... I'd make sure episode 3 came out ^_~ hehe

 

[Kyouki1980]

As a person living in the Netherlands himself, I barely made use of the UK. Something with the pound-euro currency just makes me less trustful against a nation who is in the EU but refuses to use the Euro.

At any rate, discipline/patience are truly the virtues you need to master.

I live in Scotland myself and have never understood why the UK opted out of joining the euro. I think its some warped sense of nationalism by the far right. I honestly dont know for sure. Just makes no sense.

 

[Adam28]

As a person living in the Netherlands himself, I barely made use of the UK. Something with the pound-euro currency just makes me less trustful against a nation who is in the EU but refuses to use the Euro.

At any rate, discipline/patience are truly the virtues you need to master.

I live in Scotland myself and have never understood why the UK opted out of joining the euro. I think its some warped sense of nationalism by the far right. I honestly dont know for sure. Just makes no sense.

It has more to do with economics than nationalism, although the a lot of the public do hold quite nationalist views

OT: I didn't know that it was so bad in Poland, and I thought we were getting it bad.

 

[Art Axiv]

As a person living in the Netherlands himself, I barely made use of the UK. Something with the pound-euro currency just makes me less trustful against a nation who is in the EU but refuses to use the Euro.

At any rate, discipline/patience are truly the virtues you need to master.

I live in Scotland myself and have never understood why the UK opted out of joining the euro. I think its some warped sense of nationalism by the far right. I honestly dont know for sure. Just makes no sense.

It has more to do with economics than nationalism, although the a lot of the public do hold quite nationalist views

OT: I didn't know that it was so bad in Poland, and I thought we were getting it bad.

As the comments point out, things are even worse in Brazil. In Polands case its simply because Poland as a country is part of EU, and EU is considered a solid market by many companies. Food prices are for example about the same price-tag like anywhere in the EU. If they wouldn't be, smart people from the EU would simply concentrate on importing things from Poland as Euro is 4x more expensive than Zloty (meaning that minus logistics costs, its about 4 times cheaper to buy here). Price elasticity wouldn't let a "regional" price work in interconnected markets such as the EU one.

I think.

 

[Icenflame]

I'm in South Africa, Average salary for young professional starting is about 8000-10000 ZAR p/m
Xbox 360 Console averages from ZAR 2800 (400 USD) games go for 699 ZAR about 60 USD. The salaries mentioned above do not take into account unskilled labour those average between 2000 - 4000 ZAR p/m

I generally buy games second-hand via forums and or Cash Converter stores (2nd hand stores) to put it into perspective a game is on average about 1/4th of rent for a relatively cheap apartment. Also I discuss with my friends what titles they are buying so we don't get the same games therefore we can swap...

 

[Pat8u]

prirated games are wrong not for the stores but for the devs that get their Ips stolen and sold by priates all around the world, But I argree with some of this article its just I feel sorry for some developers programmers and artists (includes music)because they do not get paid that much A partically sad story of that is When blizzard had just started out they litterly had to survive two years on money their parents gave them

 

[Rednog]

Absolutely love the Counter Strike Source game in the jacket, honestly I still think it is probably the most played game here in Poland.
But I digress, it really sucks to be a gamer in Poland, my 360 controller crapped out on me and I went to a Saturn, it was like 200-220 or something zloty and I was like well...guess I'm not playing my 360 any time soon.
I've started to buy games from India and Russia just because they are far cheaper (though I usually have to wait like 2 weeks for shipping).
I'm honestly not looking forward to Poland switching over to the Euro eventually, I think it will make things even worse, even with some help from my parents, being a student here money gets insanely tight. Hell there have been some weeks where I'll go out with my friends, look at my budget after my hang over and be like crap I have like 50 zloty max for a week of food...back to 18grosh bread from carfour....

 

[Theotherguy]

it really sucks to be a gamer in Poland, my 360 controller crapped out on me and I went to a Saturn, it was like 200-220 or something zloty and I was like well...guess I'm not playing my 360 any time soon.

It's 120 zloty, I don't know where did you look for it, but even in crappy overpriced media markt/empik it's 149zl. And you can get a new one even cheaper on allegro.

I've started to buy games from India and Russia just because they are far cheaper (though I usually have to wait like 2 weeks for shipping).

I was in St. Petersburg for a few months and the only non pirate game I saw there was the one I bought, that is Valkyrie Profile: Lynneth on the PSP. You sure You're not buying pirates?

I'll go out with my friends, look at my budget after my hang over and be like crap I have like 50 zloty max for a week of food...back to 18grosh bread from carfour....

Chineese noodle soups ftw dude, belive me but either you're really low on cash or spend too much on drinking/live in 3 city or some other expensive place. I never had big money problems in Olsztyn/Toruń or Warsaw even tho I wasnt exactly a millionair when i was at the uni.

 

[Rednog]

it really sucks to be a gamer in Poland, my 360 controller crapped out on me and I went to a Saturn, it was like 200-220 or something zloty and I was like well...guess I'm not playing my 360 any time soon.

It's 120 zloty, I don't know where did you look for it, but even in crappy overpriced media markt/empik it's 149zl. And you can get a new one even cheaper on allegro.

I've started to buy games from India and Russia just because they are far cheaper (though I usually have to wait like 2 weeks for shipping).

I was in St. Petersburg for a few months and the only non pirate game I saw there was the one I bought, that is Valkyrie Profile: Lynneth on the PSP. You sure You're not buying pirates?

I'll go out with my friends, look at my budget after my hang over and be like crap I have like 50 zloty max for a week of food...back to 18grosh bread from carfour....

Chineese noodle soups ftw dude, belive me but either you're really low on cash or spend too much on drinking/live in 3 city or some other expensive place. I never had big money problems in Olsztyn/Toruń or Warsaw even tho I wasnt exactly a millionair when i was at the uni.

I'm really surprised you saw one for 120, at Saturn the glossy black ones were insanely expensive, though that was a year or so ago.
I usually buy the Russian/Indian games on ebay or some random sites, pretty sure they're not pirated since the CD key usually activates on steam or w/e associated company. I'll be home in 2 days, I can scan a copy of Splinter Cell Conviction in all its odd lettered Russian glory.
My budget ends up being really slim since my classes run from like today 8:00 - 19:30 so I really don't have chances to get any job as a student (medschool) and I pretty much have to live off of any and all the money I earn over the summer break, which doesn't add up to much and money runs tight a lot.

 

[DonTsetsi]

I know how it is, being part of the European market, but having much less income than most citizens of the other member countries. StarCraft2 was 1/4th of my monthly income at launch and it's not much cheaper now.

I think the only reason the price changes for you guys is because of currency exchange. It's still 60 USD here.

It's 60 Euro in the European Union, but my country is the poorest in Europe.

That's a perfect example of why it's a bad idea.

Out of interest DonTsetsi. What country are you from?[/quote]
Bulgaria

As a person living in the Netherlands himself, I barely made use of the UK. Something with the pound-euro currency just makes me less trustful against a nation who is in the EU but refuses to use the Euro.

At any rate, discipline/patience are truly the virtues you need to master.

Moving to the Euro is a dumb idea. That's why the UK is refusing to do it.

Just look at the trouble Greece and Southern Ireland are in because of the ill advised move.

A universal currency, or even just a continental currency, is a really bad idea anyway.

For one thing, not all of the countries using the same currency need the same interest rate. Europe is a pretty big place and there are countries at either end of the demographic scale who require very different needs. A country doing well needs a higher interest rate whilst a struggling economy needs a low one. How can that be regulated fairly when you have once currency?

Not to mention ridiculous side effects like tax harmonisation and loss of national control over currency.

You don't get it do you? I have no trouble with them keeping the Pound. I am WELL aware what Europe is facing but I simply don't bother with currency exchange rates and rather know what I am paying at that exact moment. But for you to get all political/economical about it, wasn't needed. Appreciated but futile.

But the author already gave me a website originated in The Netherlands itself with shockingly cheap prices.

The only thing I was replying to was the fact that you said

Something with the pound-euro currency just makes me less trustful against a nation who is in the EU but refuses to use the Euro.

I'm just pointing out why they refused to move.

And exchange rates are a good thing for countries less well off trading with better off countries. Take this guy for instance.

I know how it is, being part of the European market, but having much less income than most citizens of the other member countries. StarCraft2 was 1/4th of my monthly income at launch and it's not much cheaper now.

I think the only reason the price changes for you guys is because of currency exchange. It's still 60 USD here.

It's 60 Euro in the European Union, but my country is the poorest in Europe.

That's a perfect example of why it's a bad idea.

Out of interest DonTsetsi. What country are you from?

I'm from Bulgaria. Sorry about the messed up quotes

 

[Rad Party God]

Here in Mexico, a new game for either the 360 or the PS3 costs around $999 mexican pesos, wich is roughly $73 US dollars and they're not even the limited editions, same with retail PC games. Heck, even Super Mario Galaxy 2 costs roughly the same as Gears of War 3.

Back in my youngest days, I used to pirate a lot of NES games and I know, first hand, how it is to have a cartdridge with "10 games in 1", I too pirated a lot of PS1 games back then, ironically, I never bought a pirate cartdridge for the N64, because I knew those were of poor quality. Even 5 or 6 years ago, I still pirated GameCube and PS2 games, even a lot of PC games.

Those days are now long gone, as I found that PC gaming is much more affordable than consoles in my country, thanks to Steam, GOG, the Humble Indie Bundle and other sales, now, in the span of 3 years, I have more than 200 legit games, bought with my hard earned cash and I didn't have to go through shady torrent sites and questionable sellers in the flea market to buy pirated PC games, heck, once they sold me a freakin' blank disc with nothing written in it, I guess that karma can be a *****.