Green Man Gaming Takes a Stand Against Price Gouging Pages PREV 1 2 | |
Clearly juggling the VAT laws in Europe would be up to Steam, adjusting the price to U$ based on that. That's a VALID reason for a different regional pricing for Europe. Australia and New Zealand though have no excuse beyond "we can get away with it". I have seen banks charge small transaction fees for subtle changes or complications investors request. I am certain steam could introduce such things. Nothing massive, nothing that would possibly outweigh their goodwill, but -something- to show their consumers at least they don't think the practice is economically ethical. | |
Isn't the reason games prices are so high because they have such a high minimum wage? | |
Nope. I think the reasoning was originally tied up in shipping but is now just a response to market expectations. Like how DVD's retailed at the same price as VHS despite being much cheaper to produce. | |
As I understand things Australia (the entire continent) and it's isolation are still a problem even with digital distribution. Despite what people might think the internet is not some magical blanket that covers everything and only n eeds to be tapped into, as those with limited access can attest. Anyone who has ever had trouble getting a signal for a portable device, or had to go hunting for an accessible Wi-Fi connection should know this. Australia, New Zealand, etc.. also pride themselves on being extremely rural, despite having some huge, modern cities, anyone who has ever had someone from this region go off on US bashing for this reason, talking about how "oh gee, I forget Horseback riding isn't a common skill in the US anymore", how great they are with nature preservation, and like how 7 out of 10 of the world's most poisonous animals (or whatever the number was) live there and still crawl around in great numbers. The point here being that going to a seperate continent, that has it's large community centers but it overall sparsely populated compared to other portions of the world with people packed everywhere, and blanketing the entire thing with internet access when even nations like the US have trouble getting connection to the rural areas, represents a problem. There is also the issue of money being made off of this on a whole, needing to maintain that infrastructure, in light of how many people in each region are going to have to use it. While areas like Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, etc... might be able to more than support their usage of internet, other parts of the country might very well not have enough users to really justify the infrastructure, demands for it anyway have doubtlessly lead to strain and high prices for the areas that can justify it as they effectively pick up the tab for regions that can't justify their own internet access from the perspective of "for profit" companies (and remember, it is all being run for profit). Australia also tends to be a borderline police state when it comes to internet access, alongside nations like France and China they seem to be big proponents of the whole "National Firewall" concept in limiting information from other countries both due to offensive content, and in the spirit of "cultural preservation". It seems like we periodically hear things about Australian net and electronic censorship which are spine chilling to the civilized world, and spark internal protests from more tech-savvy Australians. At the extreme end we've had groups like Anonymous attack the Australian goverment with online harassment in retaliation. In an overall sense this does not make Australia that attractive for those wanting to provide internet service, especially when the burden of enforcement and censorship can apparently fall to the ISPs themselves, even when they don't object on principle, the bottom line is that enforcement of this kind of thing is going to take time, effort, and manpower, not to mention the constant risk of fines when they fail. The point here being that when you hear Aussies and Kiwis go off about their own goverments you can kind of see where a lot of these problems come from. Not to mention that a lot of the aspects that are lionized as being great about these countries come with their own down side, and the spread of technology and communications infrastructures is one of them. When you slam US problems, and talk about your own lack of urban blight as a national issue (despite there being regions where it is a problem), it's easy to forget that those problems are the cost of being able to do things like virtually blanket the entire nation under pretty cheap internet access at relatively high speeds. Not to mention the whole issue of freedom of expression on the internet, even as limited as it's becming, still being incredibly high leads to a lot of horribly offensive garbage coming along with it. Australia protects it's citizens from the trash, but that comes at the expense of freedom and of course the costs inherant in having people activelt regulate it. Just some thoughts. Also, the bit about Horseback riding (before someone mentions it) comes from a Kiwi I played WoW with who claimed she was an extra in "Lord Of The Rings" during a lot of the mass battles and riding sequences, who said this was actually a common skill in New Zealand and Australia, and was backed up by other guild mates from the same region, compared to the US where it's at best regional. | |
I disagree entirely. Corporations past a certain size are simply friends at that point. Once they are rich enough they are just automatic friends with politicians. And what kind of friend are you if you will not buy a buddy a $20 million boat for a Tuesday? A terrible one that is what kind. | |
It sucks for Greenman to have to slash prices so dramatically just to please everyone. The Publishers should be pleasing their customers, not Greenman. | |
Well yeah I was probably getting shafted with my internet costs and restrictions. We are talking 7 or 8 years ago and living west of the great dividing Range. My provider being Telstra the only provider in the area at the time. | |
Not a free market though. Unlike with, for example, chairs, where anybody can make one that is indistinguishable from the other, games are each unique. (Go ahead, make your Madden/CoD jokes now) Since they're unique, nobody else can make the same game for less. Sure, another company could make a different game they thought was better and sell it more cheaply (See: The whole Torchlight 2/Diablo III thing) but you'll still have to go to the other guys if you want the original version. If you want to play Borderlands 2 you HAVE to buy it from 2K. Nobody else can make it. | |
So, something I don't understand: Obviously being a business they're in it to make money, that's a given, that's not a bad thing. If they are so concerned about the prices their clients are paying why not treat the problem and not the symptom? It's harder, but why not tell the gouging publishers no? Take a stand against it rather than handing out coupons. Tell 2K or whoever happens to try to unfairly gouge, no. That's going to step on Vendor toes for sure, but they are NOT going to pull services from the provider. They'd be killing their own profit by yanking their games off of GMG in spite. Then again, I'm probably just being too cynical about it. | |
Those are not advantages that weigh up against the loss. Price comparison doesn't really impact the consumer, because they still have to pay the same exorbitant rates, no matter how easy they are to compare. There is no real room for quality, because all theoretical innovation supplied by start-up companies is crippled by the oligopoly's stranglehold on the market. | |
Good on 'em. GoG does this as well, though it's their standard operating procedure instead of a voucher. Still, this is good and hopefully more do this type of thing in the future. | |
Actually, it primarily had to do with the strength of the American dollar vs the Australian dollar. There was a time where the Aussie dollar was worth about 55 American pennies. Times have changed, and the US dollar is now worth about 95 Aussie cents, but prices did not. The reasoning appears to be "because Australians will pay it" and mirrors the physical stores. The same thing happens, though to a significantly lesser extent, to our Canuck friends to the North. Or South. I can never find Canadia on a map.
I don't think Steam wants to, since they actively discourage region jumping far more than even the gaming publishers do.
There is ALWAYS a choice. ANZ gamers could choose not to go through this. Not through piracy, but by simply refusing to play the games until the prices come down. This requires self control, something that seems to be in short supply among gamers, but it can be done. The reason the concept of the boycott has lost all meaning over the last decade or so is that people claim they are boycotting and buy the stuff anyway and hope nobody notices. Piracy isn't going to work, either. Piracy sends the message to the publisher that you want the game and therefore would buy it if you had to, further enforcing the demand for the game. It doesn't matter if this interpretation is true; the message is still sent. Instead of pretending to be victims of circumstance with "no choice," people should take it upon themselves to make the hard choice for long term benefit. | |
I guess you missed the whole reusable part of that coupon. Reusable for the next 10 years.
They could, but then they'd lose money. If you hadn't noticed, outside of Steam sales (and even then its still overpriced sometimes) the prices on Steam are higher than their competitors. Why? Because they choose to purposely gouge their customers because they know people will pay it and continue to praise them as gods gift to gamin. Green Man Gamin has definitely caught my eye lately as a place to buy my games. I used to basically shop exclusively on Amazon, but both have fairly competitive prices now that its quite helpful to look between the two. Plus both have a ton of good will goin for them what with Amazons absolutely amazin return policy (I have yet to find a reason they wont refund me money, even if its my own stupidity) and this for Green Man Gaming. | |
I'm not even going to address the rest of this but my flag is not the Italian flag. It is the Irish flag if you don't know the flag to country then hover over it with your mouse. | |
Oh, look at that. I zoom in my screen to 200% and the colour goes from red to orange. Well, my bad. Sadly I can't think of any famous Irish oligarchs to compare to Berlusconi, but I think I made my point pretty clear. | |
Not without raising awareness it can't | |
I'm amused how devs and pubs keep the prices high, sometimes raising them while decreasing the content given in both the games & the boxes. Hell prices are STILL high even when you buy digital, I get that's to keep competitive and so physical stores wont get angry but these other countries are getting shafted. I mean Mass Effect 2: SE for PC was 60 bucks and came with a lot of neat things, ME3: SE was 80 and came with less, not even a bloody manual. Hell PC games used to come in big embossed boxes with a manual and sometimes other goodies, with the regular edition usually. | |
I do know that but I'm not sure what makes a game ANZ. | |
Awareness has been raised. This awareness raising coupled with inaction turns it into whining. | |
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First off, Steam can't make everything priced using the US as an example. For Europe, VAT laws would mean that Steam could be making a loss on some sales.
Secondly to tell major publishers what to charge for their games otherwise they'll start charging them more is the quickest way to turn Steam into a desolate wasteland with little to no AAA games.
Just because Steam make a lot of money doesn't mean they're not reliant on business and goodwill from their suppliers.