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Steam | No new threads until the next sale starts.
Posts
Yes, the price of the games on steam is higher here because games here cost more.
I'm saying that's fucking dumb, considering there aren't any extra costs distributing it here digitally compared to through retail that I know of. It's not even done by steam, just something done by publishers as far as I know.
Maybe the GST is considered into it, but that doesn't even come near the mark up we get.
edit: also, regarding your link about value, the fact that there are australians complaining means that we don't think that games are worth the value they are over here, and the only way to go against that is to bother with the hassle that is importing.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Man, I want to make a Mass Effect council joke out of that, but I just can't think of anything. I mean, it's right there! Citadel, followed by Council..... dammit...
Incidentally, what DOES a new game cost in Australia at retail, compared to what it costs on Australian Steam?
With regards to "They don't have to ship the disc", they DO have to pay upkeep on data centres and deliver all of that content on a regular basis. I don't know much about owning and running data centres, or renting space from other companies around the world, but it may well be that delivering that content in a foreign country costs more for Valve than delivering it in America does.
But that's besides the point - putting aside the fact that the publishers set the price, meaning you can't blame Valve (Not to say that you are), if they lowered it specifically for Steam because there are no shipping costs then retail outlets all over Australia would be in uproar because they DO have to pay shipping costs.
The result being that the retail outlets stop stocking that publisher's title, and the publisher possibly faces anti-competitive investigation.
Edit: Not to mention that in a very practical sense, it doesn't matter, since you can easily get someone to gift it to you from another country. Why not complain about things that you can't get from other countries as easily, such as cars? I'm sure cars cost more in Australia than they do in America.
No idea for PC games as I get those exclusively from Steam, but for console games it's generally $80+ with big titles like CoD being anywhere from $90 to $120. DS games generally go for about $50-60 or if it's Square/Pokemon they go for $70.