Why do Australians pay so much for games anyway?

I've been meaning to ask about this for a while now. It wasn't until I started viewing Yahtzee's reviews at Zero Punctuation on a regular basis that I started noticing how most games Down Under seem to cost an arm and a leg -- it seems like you can't purchase a title down there for less than $80.00, and usually it's $100.00 or more.

Is there any particular reason for this, or are Aussie game retailers just greedier than most?

Tariffs? Taxes? Cost to import? As I do not live in the land down under, I have no idea.

Well it's not just games, a lot of things cost almost double what they cost in the US. With larger items I get really annoyed because the stuff is made in China, and there is no-way it should cost twice as much as it does in the US. Unless they ship it to the US and then back to Australia, which is just stupid.

But basically, there's a couple reasons. Firstly because the companies would have paid for their costs using the weaker Aussie dollar say 6-12 months ago, but the strengthening of the dollar means that they have now effectively overpaid. So they take a long term pricing approach, keeping prices high, otherwise they won't cover their costs. This makes the market pretty immune to fluctuations in currency rates.
Secondly since Australia is a pretty small market, making support costs alot higher than they would be in a large market like the US, this combined with import costs on products shipped from the other side of the earth forces prices up.

Often it is cheaper to buy of Amazon or the like and pay the shipping fee.

Originally Posted by Rythmic

With larger items I get really annoyed because the stuff is made in China, and there is no-way it should cost twice as much as it does in the US. Unless they ship it to the US and then back to Australia, which is just stupid.

Like my laptop that I'm on now, built in china, shipped to america then shipped back to Australia?

All true, but seeing as we have been at 80% or higher of the USD for a while now, prices should come down. But they wont. Games come out at $100 or more, stay there for a while. After a year or so they might be $80. Medieval 2 is still $50. Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos is still $30-40 and that was out 6 years ago.

edit: we are paying 10% GST on top of it all anyway.

Play Asia...

Originally Posted by Rythmic

But basically, there's a couple reasons. Firstly because the companies would have paid for their costs using the weaker Aussie dollar say 6-12 months ago, but the strengthening of the dollar means that they have now effectively overpaid. So they take a long term pricing approach, keeping prices high, otherwise they won't cover their costs. This makes the market pretty immune to fluctuations in currency rates.

Yup, this is the reason.

I think that people just got used to paying $100 and now the Companies know they can get away with the prices.

Maybe also having one of the highest minimum wages in the world has to do with it - it gives more disposable income to those who are most likely to play video games.

Interesting. While I suspected that perhaps currency rates had something to do with it, I'd never really considered that Australia's simple geographic position could have such an effect (although it's obvious in hindsight). I suppose there are some drawbacks being located so far from both Europe and North America, after all.

Originally Posted by pevergreen

edit: we are paying 10% GST on top of it all anyway.

GST?

Originally Posted by Martok

GST?

Goods and Services Tax, basically a 10% value added tax on anything and everything.

Originally Posted by CA

I think that people just got used to paying $100 and now the Companies know they can get away with the prices.

I believe the correct term is price inelasticity.

Coming from the land of cheap crap (Britain), i was pleasantly shocked at the price of games over here. As a result, i find it is much cheaper to just buy online from the motherland.

But it shouldn't be that way. Shipping games in is meant to be more expensive, not less!

I bought Crysis from Britain. It cost $53. That's half as much as going to the shop. Sure, it's less convenient because you have to wait a few days, but it beats paying $100...

On the plus side, when i went to the shop the other day to buy Spore (i had the money and was impatient, wanted it now!) i did notice that Farcry 2 is only $90...

How kind of them, $10 off...greedy 's

Originally Posted by Rythmic

Goods and Services Tax, basically a 10% value added tax on anything and everything.

Federal yes? We have one too, ours was 7 now it's 5. I don't even notice it cause they merged the GST and the provincial one into a single levy of 13% on nearly everything.

Originally Posted by Rythmic

I believe the correct term is price inelasticity.

Hehe - damn your Commerce degree... (Correct me if I'm wrong...)

Originally Posted by lars573

Federal yes? We have one too, ours was 7 now it's 5. I don't even notice it cause they merged the GST and the provincial one into a single levy of 13% on nearly everything.

Yup it is Federal, but most of the money goes to State (ie Provincial) Governments. Anyway, that's probably enough about Australia's tax law...

Originally Posted by Mikeus Caesar

I bought Crysis from Britain. It cost $53. That's half as much as going to the shop. Sure, it's less convenient because you have to wait a few days, but it beats paying $100...

Makes you wonder why shipping it to Australia is supposedly responsible for the higher price when shipping it privately is 50$ cheaper.
Similar here actually, as I have laid out before, games for the PS3 for example usually cost 70EUR here, I order them from the UK for around 50 usually, on top of it I get guaranteed english voice files(german versions sometimes do and sometimes don't have these included but we also censor violence so publishers often decide to release only the cut version here). Basically I get like 3 or 4 positive things from ordering from the UK with the only downside being that I have to wait a bit (2 to 9 days) for the game to arrive.
Now all this talk about different taxes etc. is pretty funny and stuffs but somehow I don't really buy it, maybe for us it's the dubbing but then games have to be dubbed in english as well so that excuse would only be valid for movies.
Someone is doing something wrong and I don't see why anyone should support that with money.

If I were you Mikeus I would keep ordering from the UK until they make that illegal(someone actually proposed that here ).

Y'all complaint that you can buy games paying twice for it. We have to pay three times the cost + the 21% of IVA (Added Value Tax)(a version of Australian GST). And the main store of my little city stop selling legal games.

I believe the correct term is price inelasticity

But the product is not a needed one.