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Elder Scrolls Price Point
mbrodie
Member RarePosts: 1,504
TLNGRBGGMOA (Too lazy not gonna read but gonna give my opinion anyway)
**********First things -
RETAIL (BEING BOUGHT IN A STORE / SHOP AND BEING A PHYSICAL ENTITY EG. BOXED COPY OF THE GAME) GAMES ARE SUBJECT TO HORRIBLE PRICING DUE TO IMPORTING AND SALES TAXES.
DIGITAL CONTENT IS NOT SUBJECT TO TAX IN AUSTRALIA WHEN PURCHASING FROM OVERSEAS.
Please read above before commenting if you are not going to read anything else in the post to avoid wasting time.
now that i have that out of the way.*******
so whats the deal with pricing on this game.. it's seriously whacked the price differences
here is a copy of the email i sent to TESO about it
"So, i headed over to your store to pre-purchase a copy of TESO for PC, Imperial Edition Digital Download and saw the price tag was $120, i hesitated because i was sure i had heard on reviews that imperial edition was $80 so i did my homework and sure enough Imperial Edition $79.99 on amazon.com and any other game site selling it also asked a couple of my friends from the states and they verified the game is infact for them $80, needless to say this has instantly left a sour taste in my mouth.. not because $120 is a lot of money to me, but because in over 10 years of online gaming and basically purchasing every MMO to hit the market that time i have NEVER had to pay $40 more to buy a digital version of the game.
Needless to say over the years depending on the difference between the US / AU dollar i have either had to pay a couple of dollars more or in some cases it worked out a little bit cheaper, but never have i ever had a difference price point for the exact same game, that i'll be playing in the exact same region as NA players, but with a disadvantage.
So not only do i have to play on NA based servers, rendering my latency anywhere between 160ms - 300ms depending on where your servers are located, but you want me to also pay $40 more to buy the game and what i can only assume is going to be a higher subscription price for less quality of service then NA players are getting nativley.
In short, this is ridiculous there is no taxes affecting online sales between the US and Australia, there is absolutely no reason for your increase of $40 outside of greed and it's enough on principal to make me not want to purchase the game which i was on the fence about in the first place.
You need to fix this, there is no reasons Australians shouldn't have access to the standard edition at $60 and imperial edition at $80 give or take a few dollars for the difference between AUS and USD."
screenshots - AU Prices : http://puu.sh/78AbF.jpg
- NA Prices : http://i.imgur.com/o1TsjfV.jpg
what is everyone elses thoughts on this subject, seeing as australian online purchases arent subject to any sales / import taxes and every other game i've purchased over the past 10+ years MMO wise has been prices at the NA price obviously subject to USD / AUD, do you think it's right for companies to price digitally delivered titles at a somewhat marginally higher price point for different countries?
Comments
That's the exact same thing all EU countries have to deal with, our standard is 54.99€, which is 4€ shy of US imperial @ 79.99$ = 58.xx€ (79.99€ for euros which in turn is 110$).
This behaviour has been commonplace since the dawn of MMORPGs and the US people always mock us for whining about the prices, if the tables were turned, there'd be hell to pay and boards would flood out of rage!
I could understand if a company raised the price a few bucks because they had to translate a game into a certain language but that is clearly not the case here (yeah, even that would be somewhat unfair but I could understand it since it actually cost money to translate a game).
So I agree, seems pretty unfair to me unless the raise is because some local tax.
hmm means you have to pay 107.8 USD for the same game
this explains a fair bit tho...
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/11/why-do-videogames-cost-so-much/
so for now youre jsut stuck importing games from the US
Guess they just used similar market prices for other games in that areas.
yeah but we're talking about a digital product here nothing physical, there is no import or sales taxes on a digital item only if it's physical does that come into play, there really is no excuse as i said the first time in over 10 years i've experienced this with an MMORPG.. all others have been NA priced
Hmm there is no tax on digital items . Are you sure ? I live in Italy and I pay IVA/VAT on digital items. Even on MMO subs I pay tax.
yeah you guys get hammered with VAT but we're not subject to that here
you're thinking about BAS and it's not 30% it's more like 19% and it's a general income tax sort of thing, just like employees have to pay an income tax the company has todo a BAS which is a business activity statement and basically however much the company has earned in the quarter, they have to pay a tax on.. it's between 19 - 25% i forget how much it is exactly but thats not subjected to international companies or again, online sales, unless the business is located in australia for tax purposes
You can get the game allot cheaper, just use google.
I got mine for 34.99 , that would be 49 $ ~.
But all in all you are correct, some of the pricing points are really ham.
Yeah, this happens if you are ordering an English-language version of a US game in the UK (because of the VAT). It really sucks.
/rant
I do not agree all the time with the VAT being put on so many things here in the EU and on top of it here in France they have the stupid "French cultural exception" tax where if a cultural product is not French it gets taxed more to subsidize French cultural stuff. Just freaking great! They are always finding new ways to punish the consumer.
/rantoff
To the OP, nope it is not fair at all. I agree with you completely. Since we are living in an increasingly global world, there is need to globalize these sorts of things. Good luck.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Overly dramatic if you ask me. Pricing is fine... if a few dollars changes your opinion on buying a video game I would suggest to that individual having this type of DILEMA, to reassess some lifestyle choices. 20 to 40 dollars difference is really not a big deal. If we were talking hundreds majority might take this a little more serious. Just saying.
i guess my real problem is, that we are living in an increasingly more global world as you put it, and for the past however many years.. for australia at least pricing has been synced with US pricing with the exemption of the strength of the dollar.. which i can understand, if AUD is trading at .88 to the USD 1.00 sure charge me an extra $6.00 or whatever it is ontop of the $80, but to flat out just set a higher price point due to location, is not the normal thing and it shouldnt be accepted to become the normal thing, just like i find VAT is unfair for EU, it should not be applicable.. but thats based off your government, this isnt a government based pricing scheme, this is a flat out greedy cash grab and on principal i'd rather not purchase the game and wait till it's on steam for $20, then purchase it for $120 when i should have to pay $90 at max.
i dont know if it's a new idea that developers that have just moved into the MMO market after producing single player games have come up with because the price point on a retail single player game is somewhat more expensive here then it is in the US, so they figure, well i mean if we charge more for a single player retail game over there.. why not do it on a digital item, they're used too it. but we arent used too it and it's unacceptable in my books.
pretty sure, that if you had to pay $120 instead of $80, you wouldnt be impressed it has nothing todo with my lifestyle choices, it's more of a principle. Already in australia do we pay giant mark ups.. for example, let's say a video card over there costs you $350, here it's going to be at least $480... now thats fine, importing tax, sales taxes etc... but on a digital non tangible item that doesnt come into play, and it's been the norm for the past 10+ years of gaming that i could pay what the US pays and deal with having a worse experience due to latency and thats fine, i've come to account for having a 160+ms and it's not that big of an issue, but where does it stop. it's not overly dramatic at all... overly dramatic would have been a lot of swearing and uncomposed arguments and attention seeking, this is purely a matter of opinion that i dont think geographic location should play baring in how much i pay for an intangible digital item, when it has never previously been the case.
Edit - not to mention, what if i need to buy 3 copies, for me, my girlfriend and my son for instance if he wanted an account... so that $40 just turned into $120... is it more acceptable now for me to be annoyed having to pay extra... instead of paying $240 i now have to pay $360
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you're from the USA thats the point
you pay $80 for imperial
in australia it automatically sends you to an Australian prices shop to buy the game.. no choice just does it for you
i pay $120 for the exact same product
I hear you OP.
We get the same treatment in the EU. We always pay about 40% more because Dollar -> Euro is suddenly 1 -> 1 for some reason as soon as gaming is concerned. It should be 1->1.37.
So what do we do? We use google and change our IP adresses via proxys / VPNs and just buy our games in Dollar curreny. Actually my GF and i got ESO Imperial Edition for $64, that is about 46,50€. If we look at the official page the same digital version is 79,99€. That is damn close to a 50% price reduction due to using google.
I do understand that it is a principle thing for you. And it is for me as well! But since we can hardly change the facts, we will exploit the companys like they try to exploit us.
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
It's a video game - a voluntary entertainment service. There is no 'need to' or 'have to' anywhere in the equation.
However, as long as you and other keep making it a need/have scenario, the devs can charge whatever they want. If there are hurdles that bump the price up they have to charge... meh, no sense in fighting it because the audience will pay it.
The only way you're going to drive that price back down is by not buying it. Once they lose their digital sales in AU, they'll suddenly figure out a way to make the price more reasonable.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
This is the way to go.
@ OP, this won't change anytime soon. So I guess you trick them like Rattenmann shows.
The ridiculous euro to dollar 1:1 conversion already pisses me off. But the +50% price that you have to pay as Aussie is downright criminal. Personally, I would shout it all over the internet. But if you really want to play the game, just go for Rattenmann's solution. Fight greedyness with greedyness
sometimes that can backfire with cd-keys and such, they region lock keys to different regions and wont let you pay subs with credit cards outside of said regions... i dunno, i just think if for the last 10+ years, something has been a standard procedure across the board.. why is one company trying to change it now. it makes no sense and nor should it become the norm. but yes it's something i'll probably look into once i hear back from TESO
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
I don't get the problem?
Why not just buy the Imp Digital for $60 from GMG in the UK like 90% of the people in the US have done?
I mean shop it around there are some amazing deals out there and who says you have to buy it from the most expensive you can find?
bump
If at first you dont succeed, call it version 1.0
thats super ignorant.. did you bother to read the thread.. maybe look at the screenshots or follow up comments. just for you though
the teso online store, redirects you to a localized version of your shop, whatever country you are in it gives you the price points for that country
on yours it comes up $79.99 USD, on mine it comes up $119.99 AUD.. you wont see the australian dollar one because you are not localized in australia... look at the screenshots or something, i dont know