One of the major Australian talking points here at Kotaku, especially over the last year, has been the increase of online importing and its impact on games retail. After Gerry Harvey and other retailers railed against online shopping and its effect on the Australian economy, it seems the issue has been made a real priority by the Government, who have announced an Online Retail Forum to “discuss the opportunities and challenges that exist for Australian retailers in the digital economy.”
As a general rule there are three things that Australian video game publishers will not talk about: rumour, speculation and the price of games in the Australian marketplace.
But at the moment the pricing issue is at the top of the list – a topic publishers avoid like the plague. Even those that have the leeway to approach the debate, like Sony’s Michael Ephraim, refuse to be drawn on the specifics.