IGN : "Global prices : Being ripped off ?"

Hello,

I very much agree to this article - and FINALLY someone has noticed this BEEEEEEP !!!!

Here's the article : http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/117/1172441p1.html

It's *exactly* as I have always suspected U.S. prices are cheap, meanwhile other countries pay the price for keepen the U.S. prices cheap …

I call this "cross-subsidize".

It's the same with business software as well, by the way.
Especially Adobe is known to be deeply notorious for that.



Alrik

Interesting. New games go for almost exactly $110 in Sweden, before paying for the DLC's. I don't know if buying the games online is an option but Fallout NV might have convinced me that buying games in stores is no longer meaningful. I dunno what I pay for games I download, I haven't tried Steam as often as I should even if I believe in the idea, especially for the indiegames.

Maybe you should take the problem up with your local publishers and why your games cost more. They shouldn't and its not the fault of the US. This has been going on since I first started gaming on the first Atari system. Digital game prices still baffle me overseas also. Blame your economy or some law or regulation.

Then again I wouldn't pay $100 for a video game and the US publishers know there would be consequences if they did.

Has very little to do with local publishers, local developpers, local taxation policies.
Has to do with the US market predominant position.

Investigated the case through the Euro that offered an excellent framework to do so.

ChienAboyeur said:

Has very little to do with local publishers, local developpers, local taxation policies.
Has to do with the US market predominant position.

Investigated the case through the Euro that offered an excellent framework to do so.

Click to expand...

You have to consider some of theses country's mark up there prices by 100%. Especially Australia. Also the US is the home market for the majority of video games. Just like how oil is dirt cheap in the middle East and marked up so much in other country's.

Bitching about it wont change the fact is as you said the US market is the most important.

JemyM said:

Interesting. New games go for almost exactly $110 in Sweden, before paying for the DLC's. I don't know if buying the games online is an option but Fallout NV might have convinced me that buying games in stores is no longer meaningful. I dunno what I pay for games I download, I haven't tried Steam as often as I should even if I believe in the idea, especially for the indiegames.

Click to expand...

Sweden is actually a horrible example when it comes to game/movie/book prices. This is in part due to the high local taxes, but also because things are expensive in Sweden in general.
This is why a lot of swedes order things from the UK. It is often cheaper to order things from the UK than to buy them here. While there might be countries that offers games/movies/books at a lower prices in general, you can often find stores offering free shipping from the UK to Sweden.

Also the US is the home market for the majority of video games. Just like how oil is dirt cheap in the middle East and marked up so much in other country's.

Click to expand...

That argument sadly does not hold up. While it is true that the US is the home market of many video games, we have other countries that produces a large quantity of games, countries like Japan & Russia are going strong. Heck, Sweden is the home market for Paradox (Europa universalis, Hearts of iron and so on), and yet, games from paradox are cheaper in the US than in Sweden.

Couchpotato said:

You have to consider some of theses country's mark up there prices by 100%. Especially Australia. Also the US is the home market for the majority of video games. Just like how oil is dirt cheap in the middle East and marked up so much in other country's.

Bitching about it wont change the fact is as you said the US market is the most important.

Click to expand...

Bitching? Where?

I made an observation. Nothing more.

It has to do the most with US market predominant position.

Which is exactly why I have my location set to US, on GOG.

ChienAboyeur said:

It has to do the most with US market predominant position.

Click to expand...

Then why does Adobe sell us here Photoshop and other products for highly inflted prices which are even over the assumed costs of translations ? - And why are they AT THE SAME TIME forbidding users here to use U.S. versions of their software ?

At least this was so when the article in the (rather technical oriented) computing magazine called "c't" appeared here several years ago.

And I don't believe in Adobe changing their minds so quickly over time.

Another thread on the matter : http://groups.google.com/group/adobepricing/browse_thread/thread/87eac1cd90fde543

ChienAboyeur said:

Has very little to do with local publishers, local developpers, local taxation policies.
Has to do with the US market predominant position.

Investigated the case through the Euro that offered an excellent framework to do so.

Click to expand...

Actually it is local distributors. It has been huge news in Australia, especially recently with the US dollar going down the creek. Most brick and mortar stores sell games near cost price. The market (in profit) is primarily in second hand games these days.

The Witcher 2 was a classic example, with GoG slighting local distributors, who ordered a markup of The Witcher 2 on Steam/GoG and other digital services for region pricing. The claim is to match retail sale price, but the distributors don't have figures to back up a typically 75%+ increase.

The sooner pc gaming goes pure digital, the better.

Suppliers use different prices to optimize their earnings. They define markets or market segments, and each market gets its own product & service & price bundle(s).

The main reason why prices are higher in certain regions:
The customers are willing to pay more! Or if you prefer it that way, the sweet spot on the supply-demand graph is higher.

Again, suppliers are asking for high prices because they can and believe it's optimal for them. They have statistics from the last 150 years, and based on these they are sure they can get away with a certain pricing structure.

Using a single price worldwide would also be unfair!
Let's say something costs 100$. That's the price for a steak in Japan but a month's wage in poor countries. So why should somebody in Tansania pay a gigantic relative price for something which is cheap in the industry nations? And which price would be the anchor? Why the lower US price and not the higher EU price, the even worse Swiss or Norwegian price or even the insane Australian price?

Adobe is a special case. They are a quality leader. Their strategy is high prices, controlled supply and as little cheap product as possible. Overstock is not sold through the bargain bin, it's stuffed into the shredder.
There are alternatives though - but many interested people still make a decision for expensive Adobe products. So their offer can't be that bad.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Then why does Adobe sell us here Photoshop and other products for highly inflted prices which are even over the assumed costs of translations ? - And why are they AT THE SAME TIME forbidding users here to use U.S. versions of their software ?

Click to expand...

This example does not look different from the others.

The Euro's given a perfect context to visualize the issue.

For many items, the following can be observed:
if the price is $X, then the sales price in Euroland is at least X€. No matter the manufacturing location, distributing network, taxation, currency changes.

To tell it all, when the Euro is quite high vs the USD (have not checked for something like four years though), organizing a trip to the US to buy a collection of items is totally possible. All it took was to find a small group of customers interested in saving money by getting their items bought in the US. The costs of the journey is covered by the difference of prices in Euros and USD, allowing people to save money while they 'pay' someone to go and fetch their items for them in the US.

Gorath said:

Using a single price worldwide would also be unfair!
Let's say something costs 100$. That's the price for a steak in Japan but a month's wage in poor countries. So why should somebody in Tansania pay a gigantic relative price for something which is cheap in the industry nations? And which price would be the anchor? Why the lower US price and not the higher EU price, the even worse Swiss or Norwegian price or even the insane Australian price?

Click to expand...

Second time this false point is advanced so the same: here, in the present case, it is not about lowering prices for people who are poor on global scale, it is about lower prices for people (US Americans) who among the wealthiest in the world on a global scale.

Actually, I suspect that people in Tanzania pay more than the US customer.