Gaming is too expensive... in Australia.

[Fenixius]

How much does a game cost where you are? Is it $60US? I'm in Australia, so according to xe.com (on Feb 10 at 0006, 2008), that's $67AUD. I'd love to pay $67AUD for a game on its release date. That would be fantastic. But no, I have to pay somewhere between $90AUD and $100AUD ($80-$90USD) for a PC game on its release, and for a console game, because for some reason the guys who payed $400-700AUD for a console are richer than the PC gamer who spent $1500AUD+, I get to pay $100-$120AUD ($90-$107USD). Games are not made in Australia, they're shipped here from the US or Japan. Which means that the strengthening Australian Dollar should be making them cost less... but no, apparently, they cost more than ever. Shipping and licensing in Australia doesn't actually cost $30USD+/copy of the game, does it?

Furthermore, I'm sick and tired of this microtransaction rubbish, demanding that we pay more money for a game we already payed for. Microsoft, honour the wishes of the developers using your platform, and let them release stuff for free. The Heroic Map Pack for Halo 3, valued at 800MSP (MicroSoft Points), costed me $16AUD... is that how it's supposed to be, me paying $110 for Halo, paying $89 for a Gold Subscription, then having to shell out $16 every time some new content for a game is released? I heard that Mass Effect's 90-minute content will cost me a further 400MSP, or $8. Apparently, since I own a 360, I'm made of money.

Now, I'm sure I'm going to get a response like "well, don't pay retail, fool", but that's not the point. I shouldn't have to spend hours getting various game retailers to face off against one another, trying to find the lowest price, 'cause it's the same damn price everywhere. I also shouldn't have to wait over 6 months for the price to begin to creep down... and they still charge me heaps of money for 2-year old titles. I saw Dead or Alive 4, a launch title, for $30... on sale from $50. That's $44USD (non-sale price) for a game that's TWO YEARS OLD, down, what, $15USD from the launch price over there? I wasn't aware that extortion was as easy as selling products in a PAL-encoded nation. Thank the Gods for Steam, a servive which actually lets me pay $55AUD for The Orange Box, instead of $99AUD. Even then, though, since bandwidth and quota are so expensive here, it's almost as bad.

Does anyone else in Aus think we're being taken for a serious ride, here, or am I just poor?

Oh, and I don't even want to have to mention that we miss out on titles that are released elsewhere, not just due to our Office of Film and Literature Classification, which fails to have any rating higher than MA15+ (that's for another thread).

 

[Dubiousduke]

I didn't think it was that much over there... wow.

 

[end_boss]

But how much money does the average person make, per hour in Australia? Does that have anything to do with it? Because in North America, minimum wages are pretty low, so I'm wondering if Australia is equally so?

 

[Muzz]

Bringing up the currency exchange rate doesn't really tell you what's going on. A year ago our dollar was, what, 20c lower against the USD? Buying direct from the US then wouldn't have made much sense. Likewise, imagine what would happen to Australian retailers/printers and disk manufacturers if every time our dollar jumped everyone just shopped internationally (until it dropped again). When it does jump the cost of living here hasn't changed, merely how many USD the AUD buys. That is partly why we have import duties, taxes and so forth for individuals versus business; to slow down the impact of international commerce on the local economy.

 

[Dubiousduke]

When it does jump the cost of living here hasn't changed, merely how many USD the AUD buys.

This reminds me of what happened back in WWII. German forces, in order to feed their troops in other surrounding countries, captured mints and began to print out much more money than before. The affect was, the currency of said country lost its value, due to the flux of new bills. It would cost, what, $60 for an apple. Food stamps were what people turned to, since their value could not increase or decrease. While it ruined the economy, prices stayed the same, because every one (theoretically, of course) had more money.

 

[Mojozing]

Its not really anymore expensive in Australia than it is here in the UK. The RRP for a PS3 game is £49.99 which is just under $100(US).

 

[Saskwach]

My economics is non-existent but my guess was always that the price difference was because we Aussies are a smaller market, so to make the same kind of profit as is made in America the price is raised. Is this true or am I about as economically informed as gold standard proponents?
Still it's bloody annoying. 70$ for a game would be GREAT.

 

[H0ncho]

Well... There are several things that could lead to high prices. How's taxes in Australia? How's labour regulations? How are buildings priced? Are there many barriers to entry for smaller retailers?

That said - In Norway, where I live, they are more expensive. It is rated many times over the most expensive place to live. New games like Crysis and Call of Duty 4 can sometimes be priced 600 NOK, which is 100-120 american dollars. So whenever I hear *any* nationality bitching about prices it makes me wanna strangle them.

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

I paid 30,000 won for Crysis, that's about 31$ US. I shudder when I think about living in a country where games are more expensive than the DVD-rom that they are played on (sorry Norway).

 

[Saskwach]

Well... There are several things that could lead to high prices. How's taxes in Australia? How's labour regulations? How are buildings priced? Are there many barriers to entry for smaller retailers?

That said - In Norway, where I live, they are more expensive. It is rated many times over the most expensive place to live. New games like Crysis and Call of Duty 4 can sometimes be priced 600 NOK, which is 100-120 american dollars. So whenever I hear *any* nationality bitching about prices it makes me wanna strangle them.

Consider my Aussie whinging SHUT DOWN. This thread should die now or at least be hijacked by angry Norwegians.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Man, that really sucks. Hey, at least you guys got sweet hats and kangaroos (totally awesome).

 

[Saskwach]

Don't forget the dropbears.

 

[Same River New Water]

Gotta watch out for those drop bears.

My economics is non-existent but my guess was always that the price difference was because we Aussies are a smaller market, so to make the same kind of profit as is made in America the price is raised. Is this true or am I about as economically informed as gold standard proponents?

I'm no economics student either, but I don't think market size could make this big a difference. Sure economies of scale, distribution and so on make for discounts where there's greater population concentration, but as far as the main costs of production it should be nearly irrelevant, since all the copies are made in the same factory (more or less) and then shipped out in numbers proportionate to the population of each country. It's like how newspapers don't cost more in small towns than they do in big cities.

Yeah, it can be tough all over. My sympathy to the Norwegian!

But on an individual level, if not on a whole-economy level, importing from the US is the sensible thing for Australians to do right now. Hell, we virtually signed away our culture in that extensive free trade agreement a few years back, so we shouldn't be having this problem in theory. That's what globalisation and free trade are all about: being able to get things from elsewhere if they're cheaper there. But the reality of it is that people only approve of that when businesses do it, e.g. selling t-shirts for $15 instead of $30 because they were made in China for $1 each instead of in [insert your country] for $5 each. When consumers start buying products overseas, suddenly it's a betrayal of the national economy. Bah humbug.

And to top it all off my kangaroo has the flu!

 

[Nerdfury]

But how much money does the average person make, per hour in Australia? Does that have anything to do with it? Because in North America, minimum wages are pretty low, so I'm wondering if Australia is equally so?

The cost is higher as well because of this. I don't know what the actual average Australia wage is, since wages and salaries are different. I'm in an entry-level ISP position answering inbound calls etc, and earning a average salary of about $55,000 AUD ($49,338 USD) per annum.

I think my point is to the OP: You're poor.

 

[Divinegon]

A game in Portugal goes from the average 72 to 82 dollars. Of course we don't implement the dollar, we implement the euro. But for some reason people here forget that 60 euros is not the freaking same as 60 dollar. It is in fact, much more expensive. And then they want people here not to commit piracy. Hah.

Oh and before I forget, we're rated really low as one of the european countries in the "amount of money you get paid for work" scale.

 

[doughnut]

Before the PS3 (and 360, for that matter) came out the price of PS2 games was slowly starting to get down to a reasonable $80-90AU standard price, instead of $90-100AU.

Unfortunately with most PS3 titles being $120AU, I find myself just not caring to even look at the titles when walking through a shop. It's not a matter of how much I earn, it's more a matter of principle. They should simply not be that price here. No value has been added, they've simply moved a box from one continent to another.

 

[CyberAkuma]

The prices are equal to the prices in Scandinavia in general.

Most Current-Gen games cost 600 SEK, which is the equal to 92 dollars.
Some PS3 or launch-date games cost 650 SEK which is close to 100 dollars.

The problem is that us Scnadinavians are tired of having to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get what is left of the games of hardware that has been released everywhere else - for rediculous prices.

Some consoles in Scandinavia were never released or came in such miniscule stocks that in retrospective had extremely inflated prices. The Neo Geo and the Sega CD (Sega Mega CD in Europe) was virtually never released in Scandinavia.

It seems like the general equation is that Japan gets everything first, the US gets everything after that we get the little scraps that are left for rediculous prices. (Playstation 3 anyone?)

 

[Muzz]

Gotta watch out for those drop bears.
But on an individual level, if not on a whole-economy level, importing from the US is the sensible thing for Australians to do right now. Hell, we virtually signed away our culture in that extensive free trade agreement a few years back, so we shouldn't be having this problem in theory. That's what globalisation and free trade are all about: being able to get things from elsewhere if they're cheaper there.

When this happens customs usually becomes more vigilant in the application of import duties and so forth. I don't know where games fit into the goods laws exactly but people might want to be careful of getting stung bringing in too many games at a time.
And anyway, globalisation is only really about the free movement of capital and free trade has ...ehh...never really existed anywhere (except maybe between some very small places that happen to be very close together). Nobody else really wants anything to do with it, despite what they say, in particular no one big (a lot of small nations would probably think it would be great).
Games do generally cost a lot though and it does look like a bit of a gouge particularly when compared to other media like movies. The industry is constantly crowing about how massive it is these days and how much cash there is in it, but ask them why a game costs 3 or 4 times more than a DVD of a film that cost 3 or four times more to make and they give the usual whinge about being affected by piracy and things (yeah, movies have less problems with copying than games, sure). Console prices are even stranger as usually they're high to help cover the losses on making the units in the first place (although I've seen people deny this is the case although I can't really see it since for a long time a 360 cost a lot less than a PC of the same componentry, even if they'd overheat and die a lot). PC games are a bit harder to explain, but when I'm feeling cynical I wonder if they're not a great deal cheaper because publishers and others have decided it could hurt their huge console investment if PC games were too competetively priced.

 

[Lightbulb]

Its not really anymore expensive in Australia than it is here in the UK. The RRP for a PS3 game is £49.99 which is just under $100(US).

I get my PC games (RRPG £35) at £18 from play.com and other sites.

Anyone playing full price is frankly NUTS.