Black Ops II $100 USD!? Seriously?
- Thread starter chozo_hybrid
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nz gameshop, ozgameshop, green man gamming and gamersgate are all your freineds, the same prices worldwide, no fucking stupid regional increase etc
and to all those saying its tax, that a blantant lie, steam has repeatdly said regional prices are set by the publisher, and yes some publishers charge 40USD more in non US regions cos they can
and to all those saying its tax, that a blantant lie, steam has repeatdly said regional prices are set by the publisher, and yes some publishers charge 40USD more in non US regions cos they can
Because these people have no patience.chozo_hybrid said:
Insane price inflation is one of the reasons I usually don't buy AAA game right when it comes out.
Where the hell are you looking where standard versions of games are more than $60 US? Have you tried a real store of any kind? Any of them? I'm legitimately confused here.chozo_hybrid said:
Oh people ... this here is why we get overpriced games:
In the mid 90s, when 1 AUD = 0.65 USD, prices had to go up.
Then, when the exchange rate changed (a little), prices stayed high.
So people bitched.
Especially about the law against parallel importing that meant distributors for any product had a monopoly, and could charge whatever they wanted.
So, sometime around the turn of the millennium, that law was scrapped.
When things started going digital, the retailers saw that they couldn't compete.
So they bitched to the distributors, who bitched to the publishers, who turned around and price-fixed as many places as they could.
Fast forwards to right now, when 1 AUD = 1.08 USD, and prices have gone up even higher.
Some publishers, such as squeenix or thq, have very good prices on steam.
Others, such as activision and ea, are fucking twats.
So no. There is no reason why digital games are overpriced, other than protectionism.
But remember this. Despite the antiquated business practices of eb games, there are stores that will import games themselves, bypassing the distributors.
I go to dungeoncrawl (on elizabeth st, melbourne). To people who live elsewhere, dungeoncrawl's online store will ship anywhere. I think their warehouse is actually in nsw, so go figure.
The bottom line is, if you're paying $90 for a game, either on steam or in a store, fucking stop.
There are options, and you're just being an enabler.
In the mid 90s, when 1 AUD = 0.65 USD, prices had to go up.
Then, when the exchange rate changed (a little), prices stayed high.
So people bitched.
Especially about the law against parallel importing that meant distributors for any product had a monopoly, and could charge whatever they wanted.
So, sometime around the turn of the millennium, that law was scrapped.
When things started going digital, the retailers saw that they couldn't compete.
So they bitched to the distributors, who bitched to the publishers, who turned around and price-fixed as many places as they could.
Fast forwards to right now, when 1 AUD = 1.08 USD, and prices have gone up even higher.
Some publishers, such as squeenix or thq, have very good prices on steam.
Others, such as activision and ea, are fucking twats.
So no. There is no reason why digital games are overpriced, other than protectionism.
But remember this. Despite the antiquated business practices of eb games, there are stores that will import games themselves, bypassing the distributors.
I go to dungeoncrawl (on elizabeth st, melbourne). To people who live elsewhere, dungeoncrawl's online store will ship anywhere. I think their warehouse is actually in nsw, so go figure.
The bottom line is, if you're paying $90 for a game, either on steam or in a store, fucking stop.
There are options, and you're just being an enabler.
Blizzard is currently selling Starcraft 2 Digital Deluxe version for $60.00 ($20.00 more than base) and all you get is:
- a single WoW pet
- non-stat decoration wings for Diablo3
- Banner sigils for SC2
That's what you get for increasing the cost of the game by an additional 50%
It's laughable to assume players buying SC2 are also actively playing D3 AND have a subscription to WoW in order to gain all the benefits. It's even more ridiculous to think that the value added by these trinkets are equally beneficial to 50% of expansions content.
People will pay absurd amounts of money for almost NOTHING.
If a game company can get away with it, they will.
- a single WoW pet
- non-stat decoration wings for Diablo3
- Banner sigils for SC2
That's what you get for increasing the cost of the game by an additional 50%
It's laughable to assume players buying SC2 are also actively playing D3 AND have a subscription to WoW in order to gain all the benefits. It's even more ridiculous to think that the value added by these trinkets are equally beneficial to 50% of expansions content.
People will pay absurd amounts of money for almost NOTHING.
If a game company can get away with it, they will.
Yes and yes.chozo_hybrid said:
Legend of legaia is one of my all time favorite games . The unique combat system was fun and interesting . Everything in that game was done flawlessly . The characters ( except the protagonist since he was silent) , the setting , the atmosphere , the story ( which kinda fell near the end but whatever), the difficulty curve , the secrets , the minigames . My only gripe is the game is a tad bit slow at time, but it's a vey fun game .
Also , i am a bit of a retro gamer , especially when ot comes to rpgs.
I think you may be wrong there. As far as I know, our game laws are about the same as every other country, except we usually get games a week or so after release in the US (Or in the case of Duke Nukem, four days in advance...). The only game we've ever really had a problem with was GTA4, since Australia wanted only a censored version, but since our copies were shipped through Aus, and they would only let the censored version come into the country, we ended up with the gimped version. It was incredibly ridiculous. Aisde from that...we've only got about three games that have been perma-banned here, two of those are Manhunt 1 (But not 2...?) and Resevoir Dogs. I forget what the other one was.Th37thTrump3t said:
But yeah...our laws seem normal. We even have a better rating system than Aus (And most other countries, it would seem).
I don't know what the most is I've paid for a game, but these days I refuse to pay more than £35 (~55 US$). Even then I usually wait til it's dropped
Honest question: now that the PS3 is no longer region-locked, why don't all Australian gamers just buy the American region games on eBay for $60? It can't cost $40+ to ship a video game to Oz, can it?
It was just a price I noticed on steam, but games in my country (New Zealand) often come out at $100+ so that's why I buy games from online stores and steam. I've never paid more than $30 USD for a game.TheSteeleStrap said:
I loved that game, the combat system was was got me into it, too bad the sequel didn't live up to it >_< I'm glad I spotted that and got it right then, it's been over a decade since I played it.krazykidd said:
I can answer that one. Because the dlc for games is locked to region I believe. So any dlc we would buy from the PSN wouldn't be compatible with the US version of a game.Ariseishirou said:
I didn't buy it, I've only bought 3 games on launch this year. None of them on steam, I was just surprised to see it going for that much on steam, when nothing else is close to that high.OlasDAlmighty said:
I'm getting Black Ops 2 from Amazon.co.uk alongside Halo 4 for 35 pounds a piece. I have no clue why they're so cheap but hey, I ain't complaining. Free delivery too! 
(That's 43 euros or 56 dollars)
(That's 43 euros or 56 dollars)
They charge $60 for the game and $50 for the "Season Pass". Maybe you saw a combined "special"..
To put into perspective how flawed and infamous the Call of Duty "Map Packs" are... you are paying $60 for a *Full Game*. Regardless of what that game is, you are getting all of it for $60. A complete single-player experience, a full multiplayer compliment with a secondary "Zombies" multiplayer.
Then you go ahead and pay $50 for a set of (usually) four map packs, with maybe some guns or something added in.
I don't know who started this trend, Activision is certainly not the only offender. But we used to have "Expansion Packs". You either made an expansion pack or you GTFO with your $20+ price tag.
To put into perspective how flawed and infamous the Call of Duty "Map Packs" are... you are paying $60 for a *Full Game*. Regardless of what that game is, you are getting all of it for $60. A complete single-player experience, a full multiplayer compliment with a secondary "Zombies" multiplayer.
Then you go ahead and pay $50 for a set of (usually) four map packs, with maybe some guns or something added in.
I don't know who started this trend, Activision is certainly not the only offender. But we used to have "Expansion Packs". You either made an expansion pack or you GTFO with your $20+ price tag.
Is that all? I recall Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 going for well over $9,000, just to get it a couple days before everyone else. I'm not kidding. And it was the standard Day 1 Version 1.0 edition. No DLC. No patches. Nothing. Just the base game and nothing else.