Fallout: New Vegas: Some Good News?

14 years ago

October 21, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Fallout: New Vegas has had a bit of a troubled launch.

Worldwide, there have been reports of bugs in the game (why did it have to be bugs?!), but recently in Australia there have been some complaints, the most predominant being the dramatic rise of the Steam price from $49.95 to $89.95 to match the retail cost in-store.

The most recent issue, however, has been with regards to the pre-order DLC codes that came with the game. Fallout: New Vegas went onsale a day earlier than the US, which has resulted in problems with the codes not redeeming. However, we’ve just received an update from Bethesda stating that anyone in Australia or New Zealand with a pre-order code for DLC will be able to download the content any time after 10am AEDT. Good news at last!

More updates as we get them.

Comments

47 responses to “Fallout: New Vegas: Some Good News?”

READ THE COMMENTS

AmbroseIV

October 21, 2010 at 5:08 pm

“…the dramatic rise of the Steam price from $49.95 to $89.95…”

What. The. Hell. ?!.

I’m happy enough to buy games like Overlord, Monkey Island, various indies, etc. off Steam, but not new games because of this exact scenario.

Reply
1. brent3000
  
  October 21, 2010 at 8:58 pm
  
  Thats why i download games from companies like this… Then buy them when they ht steams bargen bin pricing of $19.99
  
  Reply
  1. Techa
    
    October 22, 2010 at 1:34 am
    
    That’s no excuse for piracy…
    
    Reply
    1. Jon
      
      October 22, 2010 at 9:46 am
      
      not sure how buying a 6-month old game from steam for 19.99 is piracy dude?
      
      Reply
      1. The Cracks
        
        October 22, 2010 at 12:01 pm
        
        Reading the post seems to indicate the they pirate the game, and then purchase it when it is cheap.
Sar Selack

October 21, 2010 at 5:17 pm

I’d buy this despite the bugs, I’d buy it knowing DLC would be delayed. I’d even buy it if I couldn’t even play it at all for a few days after I got it.

But the Steam pricing (not just a price hike, but we still get charged in US $), and the general price hikes we cop here was the last straw, and I didn’t buy it for that reason.

For years we were fed the BS that Australia is far away and it’s expensive to get things here. Or, the exchange rate is bad, and any other number of fallacies.

Over the last couple of years (more so recently due to a strong dollar), digital content has pretty much proved that the only reason Australia gets charged higher prices is because publishers are willing to screw us over.

/rant

* goes to spend money on a games publisher that less blatantly screws us over *

Reply
1. f4cti0n
  
  October 21, 2010 at 5:22 pm
  
  Hell to the yes.
  
  I only buy games off Steam when I can be bothered gifting it from my US account or when something good is on sale.
  
  Otherwise, since we’re paying as much for a retail copy, I’ll just grab a hardcopy.
  
  Such as Fallout New Vegas, which is on my work desk waiting for me to begin my hour long trip home 🙁
  
  Reply
2. Jo
  
  October 21, 2010 at 6:03 pm
  
  I have decided that I am no longer going to spend more than $50 on any game and probably will never buy one from a store again. Tired of being boned for my day 1 loyalty.
  
  Reply
  1. AdamD
    
    October 21, 2010 at 7:01 pm
    
    That’s pretty much my policy now. It means I don’t get games on release but I have such a large back log of games anyway I don’t really care
    
    Reply
    1. Pioneer
      
      October 21, 2010 at 8:03 pm
      
      Yep. I often wish I had progeny to pass on pearls of wisdom. One of them would be ‘Only buy a game in-store for full price if it’s a game you’ve been wanting for a while and it’s release day.’
      
      Between rock solid eBay stores (like Dungeon Crawl), deals on Steam (75% off deals) and importing from places with great exchange rates buying any game for full price, even on Steam, is for people with more money than brains.
      
      Reply
    2. Jimu_Hsien
      
      October 22, 2010 at 11:32 am
      
      I feel the same after FF13.
      
      Reply
DeeK

October 21, 2010 at 5:29 pm

Bethesda and Buggy Games. Geez, who woulda thought?! The game studio with the Worst QA Ever. But damn they know how to create an immersive game.

Reply
1. CloneTrooper
  
  October 21, 2010 at 8:40 pm
  
  Just proves the Gamebryo Engine needs to be taken out the back and have a few rounds put through it and buried in a shallow grave.
  
  Hope we see Fallout with the id Tech engine from now on…
  
  Reply
Ev

October 21, 2010 at 5:35 pm

They rose the price to match the retail price in store?
Why havent they done that for other games then?
Dead Rising 2 was only 40 bucks…

Reply
1. Bait
  
  October 21, 2010 at 5:42 pm
  
  Ev, Don’t jinx it. It’s very variable and depends on the greed of the publisher.
  
  Bethesda, EA, 2K are all on my “In Store” list.
  
  Reply
Endu

October 21, 2010 at 5:40 pm

$30 on eBay. Just sayin’.

Reply
Mr Waffle

October 21, 2010 at 5:55 pm

Mark, can I just say that I love you for highlighting this stuff. I’ve tried to spread news about the price rise etc far and wide but it feels like nobody cares.

I’ll just add that I was playing the game since US launch (via VPN activation of the game + offline mode in Steam), and it is absolutely enthralling, just like Fallout 3. If you loved that you’ll love this. My university studies are currently being completely ignored…

Reply
Fenixius

October 21, 2010 at 5:57 pm

Mark, can you quiz Bethesda/Zenimax on their aggressive and discriminatory pricing policy? It’s unfair to people who live in Australia they they’re being gouged due to greed and the lack of responsibility which publishers have at their disposal.

I’d love to see what they have to say, given that -privately importing- is cheaper than either retail or digital?

Reply
1. Mark Serrels
  
  October 21, 2010 at 6:15 pm
  
  It’s very difficult to get publishers to comment on this sort of thing. Very difficult. It’s less about greed and more about trying to give retailers a fair shake. Sucks for the consumer though.
  
  Reply
  1. RandomNoob
    
    October 21, 2010 at 8:55 pm
    
    I think the gun should be aimed at steam for the price hike shouldnt it? They have an rrp they’re given and how much they buy the master copy from and then make the call themselves for competitive pricing. Am I wrong?
    
    Id like to call on Kotaku Australia to hit Steam up for an answer to this. Even if it really is the publishers. Because its not like its saying 89 AU. Its saying 89 US. Isnt there some consumer watchdog to protect us from something like this?
    
    And to match in store is not an arguable point. In store comes with a box and a hard copy. Digital is Digital. Its two different things.
    
    Reply
    1. Mr Waffle
      
      October 22, 2010 at 12:59 am
      
      It’s been said time and time again that the Publisher sets the price, not Steam. Which is obvious when you see games from certain companies (eg 2K Games) are jacked-up in price while other publishers keep the US price.
      
      Reply
    2. Kabbie
      
      October 22, 2010 at 4:10 am
      
      I maybe wrong but I have always been lead to believe that the prices are set by the publishers and from the resulting income Valve take their cream from each sale before passing it on. I have also never really noticed an overpriced Valve game (over the $50 mark) and they generally come down in price pretty quickly compared to the major publishers.
      
      Reply
  2. Jackson Thurtle
    
    October 21, 2010 at 10:42 pm
    
    I appreciate the ideal of parity between retail and digital. But surely, shouldn’t retail be cheaper, too? $109.95 RRP is fine and all; I don’t consider it to be arbitrarily high, but it’s the -vast- difference between RRP-US and RRP-AU (ie: +100%) that has me annoyed.
    
    I understand shipping costs. I understand classification costs. I understand localisation costs. But that assuredly is not half of what I’m paying for. I refuse to believe that Australian retailers take a bigger cut than the American equivalent. It has to be middlemen taking their own slices, but why do they even exist?
    
    It’s so unfair, is what I’m getting at. I don’t even think it’s unreasonable when you strip away the context and extra information; $110 for hours and hours of enjoyment is fine. But when they can clearly make money on -half- the price, it’s unfair.
    
    Reply
    1. Mr Waffle
      
      October 22, 2010 at 1:02 am
      
      I’ve had friends who work at game stores tell me that they’re not the ones jacking up the prices of the games. Places like EB and Game, even though they’re a “ripoff”, are barely making a profit. Places like JB that have them cheaper are generally selling at a loss, in order to get you into the store.
      
      So the finger has to be pointed right at the local distributor, who used to give the “shipping costs” excuse, but now goes with “tied to European costs”, or “overheads of doing business in Australia”, or…
      
      Reply
2. Cerzel
  
  October 21, 2010 at 11:39 pm
  
  Bethesda, along with 2K (in regards to Bioshock 2) both gave answers for the price rise on their forums. I forget the exact wording, but it went soemthing like “The price has been adjusted to a standard price for Australians.”
  That is to say, we get ripped off, and so it’s fine for them to rip us off as well.
  They really don’t care so long as they can get as much money as possible.
  Steam isn’t innocent either, as they allow it and get a cut from the sales.
  
  What else needs to be mentioned is how Valve is breaking the AUSFTA by not letting Australians buy from the US store. It’s outlined in the e-commerce section that such discrimination is illegal, both in Australia and in the US.
  This has been mentioned on the Steam forums and in these comments several times but has gotten almost no mention on any gaming site.
  
  Reply
  1. Jon
    
    October 22, 2010 at 9:50 am
    
    That’s a really good point about the FTA. I wonder if there are any mechanisms to get this changed via the FTA?
    
    Reply
Kabbie

October 21, 2010 at 6:03 pm

In concerns to Steam pricing though Bethesda are not the first to do this. I preordered both Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age at 50 bucks each before EA jacked up the price an extra 20. I find 2K are the worst though, anyone still prepared to pay 60 bucks for a digital copy of Bioshock 2?

Reply
1. Korwin
  
  October 21, 2010 at 8:55 pm
  
  Oh you mean the PC game they just ditched official support for after less than a year, which also doesn’t receive the Minerva expansion just because they couldn’t be bothered?
  
  Reply
Wes

October 21, 2010 at 6:21 pm

CDWow has it for $47, new. When I saw this rise on Steam I vowed to not buy it until sanity prevailed. And I won’t.

Reply
Matt Gosper

October 21, 2010 at 6:36 pm

So is that 10am TOMORROW for the DLC to start working? I’ve been holding off on starting New Vegas because the DLC content is given to you right at the start.

Reply
Michael Barnes

October 21, 2010 at 7:15 pm

Ozgameshop. $39.99 for PC version, free shipping. Get in on it.

Reply
Shadow Ewan

October 21, 2010 at 7:55 pm

I picked it up today at JB and when I tried to DLC redeem code it said it had already been activated

but if this is the case, that bodes better
if not, angry visit back to the shop tomorrow

Reply
Justin Robson

October 21, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Ha, I was wondering why it said my code was already activated…

Reply
Dunnowhathuh

October 21, 2010 at 11:02 pm

Buggy and expensive means I’m not gonna bother with it for a while. I wasn’t planning to get it right off the bat anyway so it’s no big loss for me.

Reply
Googootz

October 21, 2010 at 11:07 pm

I think its interesting that both Fallout 3 and KOTOR both have 93 metacritic scores and both Fallout New Vegas and KOTOR 2 have scores of 85.

Reply
Matt Gosper

October 21, 2010 at 11:28 pm

My DLC code has just worked, as of… 10:57pm. I think maybe they meant 10PM our time, not AM.

Reply
Matt

October 22, 2010 at 1:38 am

It is publishers and australian retailers that set the price.

If the game goes on sale at $50 USD in steam for Australians, then Australian retailers will just boycott selling the game at retail in protest.

So it really has hardly anything to do with Valve.

But unfortunately digital distribution will always be cheaper than retail, it’s just noone high seems to be able to comprehend that fact. So just like every other failing retail market (CDs, movies, books) they try and use what muscle they have for now to hike the prices so they can still make a buck.

Reply
Blake

October 22, 2010 at 6:58 am

You can’t raise pricing like this just to shut up retail stores, then have a sook about consumers buying their games second hand.

It’s second hand retail stores that publishers claim are practically stealing from them. Yet for a retail store that deals directly with their distributor they will happily crank up the price on their digital distributions, despite the overheads being next to non existent.

Australia may be a comparatively small market, but as long as these pricing shenanigans continue second hand retailers will ALWAYS have a home here.

Reply
Big Nick

October 22, 2010 at 11:01 am

11 a.m. AEDT – still not accepting my (X360) code.

Reply
1. Switch296
  
  October 22, 2010 at 12:42 pm
  
  Code is still not working as of 12:41pm!
  
  What the hell Bethesda/Obsidian! Pull your finger out of there and do something!
  
  Reply
  1. Big Nick
    
    October 22, 2010 at 1:11 pm
    
    Ten past one in the afternoon. Still no joy.
    
    Reply
Lincoln Tanner

October 22, 2010 at 5:01 pm

same here 5.00pm AEDT

Reply
1. Big Nick
  
  October 22, 2010 at 10:05 pm
  
  I read on a forum that you may need to give it 24 hours between tries or it’s going to error anyway. As I’m not going to play it tonight, I’ll check back tomorrow afternoon.
  
  Reply
Trent

October 23, 2010 at 12:51 pm

Code for the Caravan Pack still not working.
Just spoke to Xbox support. They said the code was valid but they don’t have the content on their servers and I should contact the publishers. I have sent an email to Bethesda, obviously no response yet.

Reply
doopits

October 23, 2010 at 3:19 pm

Yeah, my 360 DLC isn’t working yet either, which sucks.

Reply
Cindax

October 23, 2010 at 5:58 pm

Well it’s 6pm on Saturday the 23rd and still the codes aren’t working, screwyou Bethesda!

Reply
Lincoln Tanner

October 24, 2010 at 8:25 pm

Just in case anyone is still here hoping for an update come to:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1125759-australian-pre-order-dlc/

Its most up to date with the shit where dealing with and trying to keep it on top of the Bethesda Forums! Not Happy Jan lol

Reply

17 Essential Sand Land Tips To Get You Started

What Does FF7 Rebirth’s Luck Stat Do? (And How To Make Cait Sith Broken)

Two Popular Fallout 76 Builds To Stop You From Dying In The Wasteland

Ahead of Dawntrail, Final Fantasy XIV Players Are Conflicted About Healers

Why Foghorn Leghorn Is Gassing Up Your Favorite Anime And Game Characters

Internet For Gaming: The Best NBN Plans To Help Fix Your Ping

The Best Gaming Deals In Australia Today

Where To Buy A Steam Deck In Australia And New Zealand

Big W’s Nintendo Switch Offer Is One Of The Cheapest In Australia Right Now

JB Hi-Fi Is Clearing Out Games For As Little As $2

Fallout: New Vegas: Some Good News?

Comments

47 responses to “Fallout: New Vegas: Some Good News?”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply