First World Gaming Problems

[Jiro]

Games are released here later than other places. Our internet isn't good enough for me to play online. I'm too busy attending tertiary education to play vidya.

[Laddy]

I like RPG's, but most RPG's aren't RPG enough.

[Slothy]

Games are released here later than other places. Our internet isn't good enough for me to play online. I'm too busy attending tertiary education to play vidya.

You forgot that your games are more expensive too. A lot more expensive. For no other reason than companies can get away with charging those prices.

[Jiro]

Games are released here later than other places. Our internet isn't good enough for me to play online. I'm too busy attending tertiary education to play vidya.

You forgot that your games are more expensive too. A lot more expensive. For no other reason than companies can get away with charging those prices.

Pretty much killing my passion for gaming. It's outrageous.

[Mirage]

How much do they cost?

[Jiro]

The prices have subsided back to $99 a pop. This was worse when the Aussie Dollar was beating the USD and we were paying $110 for a new game, so at least it's "improved." Still paying much more than we should, outrageous.

[Slothy]

Yep. And the worst part is that you pay the same for digital games since all prices are set by the publisher and who the hell would buy in store if they were cheaper?

[Mirage]

99 australian dollars is exactly as much as games in Norway cost, so I'm not entirely sure what the problem is . Unless you make a lot less money in Australia. Do you?

[Jiro]

I don't know what the cost of living is compared to Norway. How much does a snickers bar cost?

Either way I'd suggest we're both being screwed by the power duo UK-USA markets.

[Mirage]

Well, for starters, 25% of that is value added tax, which is usually a lot lower in the US, depending on state. A snickers bar, I dunno, they come in various sizes. Let's try a 0.5l coca cola bottle instead. 2.3-2.5 USD, roughly. However, you can't really use just a single commodity to compare prices. Many factors can influence prices of individual items.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah you guys are all being smurfed over, games cost about £35-40 or $50-60 in the UK and US respectively.

[Slothy]

Thing is, the prices for Australia were pretty much the same when the value of the US dollar was significantly higher than the Australian dollar. Higher prices made sense then since the Australian dollar wasn't worth much. Then the Australian dollar hit par or better with the US dollar so prices should have been able to go down. But they didn't because people had been paying them for years and publishers saw a great opportunity to gouge a whole country.

[Madame Adequate]

In videogames, currency changes take FOREVER to filter through even if they're not deliberately trying to gouge people.

[Quindiana Jones]

99 australian dollars is exactly as much as games in Norway cost, so I'm not entirely sure what the problem is . Unless you make a lot less money in Australia. Do you?

Poor example. Norway has an astonishingly high standard of living, at an astonishingly high cost. Fortunately, you're paid, on average, astonishingly high wages compared to other countries.

[Mirage]

Yeah you guys are all being smurfed over, games cost about £35-40 or $50-60 in the UK and US respectively.

You say that as if you don't think I know what games cost in other countries ;o