GRR Steam GRRRR

wisc on 09/03/2011 - 11:52

Steam US:

Mafia 2
Offer Ends Thursday at 4pm Pacific Time.
-75%$29.99
$7.50 USD

steam AU

Mafia 2
Offer Ends Thursday at 4pm Pacific Time.
-75%$79.99
$20.00 USD

Steam UK

Mafia 2
Offer Ends Thursday at 4pm Pacific Time.
-75%£19.99
£5.00

I mean come on WTF? I know its not steams fault as publishers set the price, but really… i mean COME ON! thats ridiculousness, the amount of $$ developers and steam have missed out because a game is stupidly cheaper in the US vs australia vs UK, i mean UK vs Australia population 62 Vs 22 Mill is a far cry from the US 307 mill, wouldn't mind so much but why do UK get the same price as the US and we're the suckers paying a stupid amount!!!

its digitally delivered globally as well…

steams games are typically good Half Life, CS etc has the same global price, but this is just wrong… these guys (developers) should be banned from trading if they don't come to the party… government really needs to steep in and say when the cost isn't really any extra to provide to australia prices must be globally similar … why should they be able to blatantly rip us off? and it is ripping us off big time.

I understand that some countries such as china/india need a hand up as its there months wage, but US, UK, AU…

/rant over

General Discussion

Comments

    • wisc on 09/03/2011 - 13:35

      yeah read both of those, but now that i have a steam one on ozbargains, every time a steam post copmes up i can link it here!

      just venting /ranting…
      my main point is with a digital distribution, shouldn't we be playing on a level playing field.

  • aboyfromhell on 09/03/2011 - 12:00
    +1

    vote with your money and don't buy games from publishers that extort AU. There is no reason that you cant buy games from overseas and import them in. PC and console gamers should not purchase from local retail or digital distribution services that allow price extortion.

  • Hintswen on 09/03/2011 - 13:04

    Hey, you're still getting a 75% discount no matter where you buy from.

    BTW there's a website somewhere where you can enter the name of a game and it shows you the price for each country so you can get the best price.

    Can't remember the name of the website though.

    • wisc on 09/03/2011 - 13:36

      cool, would be interested in knowing that site. (will search now).. someone needs to build a site that actually allows you to buy it from that site as well (easily), that would be kinda cool :D

      • Hintswen on 10/03/2011 - 17:03

        It's easy to buy from teh other sites. I believe you change your billing address to USA for SU pricing and you use a VPN for UK. I might be mistaken though

  • hfhf on 09/03/2011 - 13:47
    +3

    http://www.steamprices.com/

    You're probably looking for this

  • llama on 10/03/2011 - 20:59

    I am not a gamer, just a normal OzBargainer.

    I don't really understand the problem. If you don't like the prices on that site, why buy from them?

    Just buy elsewhere.

    • cwongtech on 12/03/2011 - 00:46

      Lol, "site".
      Steam is a platform for managing games (like itunes store), a very successful one actually.
      People are peeved off that the prices are a lot cheaper if you change the region, but buy from the same reseller (steam on behalf of game developers)

      • llama on 12/03/2011 - 08:32

        OK, thanks for explaining that cwongtech - that makes a bit more sense. So it's the game developers that set the pricing structure, huh?

        I've never paid for stuff like games, music, software etc - so I didn't realise that these anomolies existed. But I feel a lot better now… I wasn't taking AU$79.99 for free, it was only US$29.99 that I didn't pay :-P

      • llama on 12/03/2011 - 08:38

        That said… I still don't understand why not buy elsewhere. Surely Steam doesn't have a total monopoly on games distribution worldwide?

        • Ashlea on 12/03/2011 - 22:01
          +1

          They're beginning to, sadly.

    • wisc on 15/03/2011 - 11:55

      I am voting with my wallet, now only buying games that are the same price globally, (or at least in the US and UK) I can understand why countries like china and third world are much cheaper, but should be the same though the world for global distribution. I cant imagine that there costs would be so much more in Australia (don't believe they have an office or overheads for operating here, anyone know?)

      • llama on 15/03/2011 - 17:16

        Sounds to me like games distributers are pricing based on what the market will bear. In other words, they reckon there are enough players in AU that will accept paying $100 or more per release.

        The production cost might only be $10… but they know that an average Chinese person will only pay $15 before using a pirated copy, whilst in AU we might pay $80 before we consider it a "rip off".

        • hfhf on 15/03/2011 - 23:09
          +2

          So.. we need to pirate harder to get our fair reduction in price?

        • llama on 16/03/2011 - 18:44

          Gosh, stop pressuring man! People are doing their best!

          LOL :-D

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