I often use the example of Activision doubling the price of Call of Duty 4 on Steam to illustrate how dire the “price of games” situation has become in Australia, but Andrew Ramadge of News.com.au has uncovered a better one:
… Gamers who visit the Steam and Electronic Arts websites are charged up to five times more to download popular titles like Medal Of Honour: Airborne — which Australians can buy and download for $99.95, while users in the US pay just $21.15 ($US19.95).
But you guys already know how crazy the situation is. Thank [insert deity here]for importing, right?
Yes, we can import, but that doesn’t mean everyone else should have to cough up the cash. And why should we be forced to look overseas in the first place? That just doesn’t make sense to me.
It’s unlikely prices will come down anytime soon – the publishers would vomit at the lost profits – so buying games will continue to be an online affair for us (minus Steam, of course).
The article also notes how the ACCC is powerless to do anything and, unsurprisingly, that none of the publishers were willing to talk about the problem.
Aussies paying five times more for software [News.com.au]
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