Buying Games in your country: What's it like?

[ShyWinter]

Great... This sucks. I don't want to pay $150 for games, while the Yanks get 'em for $80. Really, I should start getting into PC gaming or something...

Yank:
Holy crap! I can't believe that anyone could pay that much. I live near Boston, USA, and new releases for the Xbox 360 and PS3 here are $60USD. New release for PC: $50USD. Now that's for game stores like EB Games and Gamestop as well as huge Electronic stores like Best Buy. Personally, I think Microsoft is too greedy with the Xbox LIVE nonsense of making people pay for multiplayer while PC gamers (with the exception of MMORPG gamers) can latch onto a server and play for free. That's why I have COD4 on PC instead of Xbox 360, but that's another story.

Being American, I feel like I owe you guys some kind of explanation. I'm no expert, but isolated places in this country, like Alaska and Hawaii, tend to have more expensive goods in general due to the fact that everything needs to be shipped there. The high prices may be due to shipping costs, fees to a localization staff, and import taxes. I guess you could find an American based website and buy from them. Or maybe Yahtzee is correct and the games industry just hates Australia.

If it's any consolation for my seemingly discounted games, I too have horror stories about actually buying the games. Heaven forbid I try to buy from a store like EB Games, where the employees, okay okay, one employee is a Yahtzee "that guy" to the point that he freaks out other "that guys", and they look at you funny when you ask about the original Condemned. Then when you buy a game they want you to subscribe to some magazine and also buy the "official" strategy guide. And I'm sure you've come across the pre-teen gamer that swears WAY too much, we got 'em here too.

Reading through these posts, I didn't see anything about being carded. I have never bought a game outside the US so I don't know if this happens elsewhere, or at least as often, so indulge me. Whenever I buy a "Mature" rated game (Mass Effect for instance) from any place other than the Internet, the cashier will ask me, a 20 year old with full beard, for a picture ID to verify that I am at least 17. Then the cashier will read the content from the back of the case; "Are you aware that this game contains 'violence' and 'use of alcohol'?" Seriously, I'm curious, no one brought this up.

 

[stompy]

Reading through these posts, I didn't see anything about being carded. I have never bought a game outside the US so I don't know if this happens elsewhere, or at least as often, so indulge me. Whenever I buy a "Mature" rated game (Mass Effect for instance) from any place other than the Internet, the cashier will ask me, a 20 year old with full beard, for a picture ID to verify that I am at least 17. Then the cashier will read the content from the back of the case; "Are you aware that this game contains 'violence' and 'use of alcohol'?" Seriously, I'm curious, no one brought this up.

Funny enough, being underage, I usually get my mother to buy my games for me, so I don't face the ID thing. But, when I went to GAME a while back, the guy didn't card me, even when I came with my mum before (my mum went shopping while I got the game). I as able to trade in, and ended up getting COD4. Without ID. But I seem to be of average adult height, and people say I look ~18. Maybe he thought I was old enough, but still a mama's boy...

Oh, and for Aussie games being $USD100, it's because, as you said, they have to make a profit in an area with less consumers, so they jack up the prices. I wanna try and import games, 'cos I have the feeling it's gonna get to ridiculous prices soon (next gen, if it's an average of $AUD120 per game, I'm definitely importing).

- A procrastinator

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Yeah....

i just brought Dirge of cerberus of NZD$50 brand new nver played before
finished it in 8 hours

that equates to 40$US

i brought this 2 days ago

so could anyone who has recently seen the US price please tell me if this is good or not

 

[stompy]

Yeah....

i just brought Dirge of cerberus of NZD$50 brand new nver played before
finished it in 8 hours

that equates to 40$US

i brought this 2 days ago

so could anyone who has recently seen the US price please tell me if this is good or not

Sorry man. I just checked amazon.com. It's $USD20. Ouch...

- A procrastinator

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

DAMMM NEWZEALAND GAMES MARKETS SUCK

took me 16 years to realise

at least WOW is only gonna cost me $16 NZ to buy

(US$12)

 

[wtftrauma]

Ironically shipping should cost less for most video games in Australia then United States. From memory EA games listed as Asia-Pacific Edition are stamped in Singapore for Asian market.

Although I don't buy games from Australian stores often my experiences arn't bad apart from price. I basically walk in, give them money and walk out. I do my research first as the kids in the stores wouldn't have a clue.

I also buy from computer swap meets, often a bit cheaper.

For PC: I mainly buy games from online distrubitors such as Steam or from JB Hifi who have alright prices.

For PS3: Buy from psn network a bit or from www.play-asia.com. Much cheaper then buying in Australia and all PS3 games are region free.

For Xbox 360: www.play-asia.com for games that arn't region locked to NTSC.

There used to be quite a few independant video game stores in my area but EB games rolled in years ago and wiped them out. Once i'd see Video Games Heaven, Games Rush, etc. Now it's basically EB Games, a few GAME and thats about it.

JB Hifi now sells games and generally have a range close to EB games. They are always cheaper as well.

EzyDVD company now has a videogames online store www.ezygames.com.au haven't tried them yet. To be honest i don't see the point in buying from Australia, asian online stores are sometimes more then half the price of local releases and the shipping is usually less then 7 days.

 

[Novajam]

I live in Australia and here we get the pointy end of the stick. Despite our AU dollar being nearly equivalent to a US dollar we have to pay about $100-110 for a new release ($40-50 dollars more than in America) so that ticks me off a little.

On the subject of game stores, most seem to have nice staff that don't pester you when you just want to look around and are friendly when you actually go up to buy something. There was however one time when I bought a PC Game (At EB Games), and the woman behind the desk forgot to put the disc in the box. I came back, told a different sales clerk and they got the disc for me. When I pointed out the woman that served me the frist time, they told me that she was the manager of the store!

Aswell as that, EB Games always seems to be full of 8 year olds, pestering their mum to but them a copy of Horsez or some other junk, throwing tantrums, screaming. I feel like stompng their head against the counter.

I only used the Ebay to buy games twice. One time the item was perfect, second time half the box was in Japanese. Then again Ebay has always had this problem.

And finally rentals are plain crap. The the prices are stupid and change with each moon, the staff have no idea what to do, and the discs are always scratched.

 

[x434343]

I've used 4 ways.

1. Normal buying from local Best Buy.
2. Web-Order.
3. Import from another country. (Guilty of it 2 times, for Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. IN JAPANESE. SEXAY>)
4. STEAM.

My favorite is STEAM, because it's fast, effective, and, for the games I buy from it (Only CounterStrike: Source and Garry's Mod) cheap.