Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan S
I don't understand why a downloaded product is priced differently in different regions. I am tired of being screwed over by software companies who charge Europeans a fortune for downloadable software because they think we won't notice we are being ripped off.
If the game is being sold to US customers for $25, there is no chance I would consider paying more than €16.
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(I promised I'd avoid this arguement - but looking at this as an outsider who have lived in both regions and who feels its unfair that Markus is being lambasted on this point I feel I have to put in my tuppence worth)
Can I ask why you think you are being ripped off out of pure curiosity?
Companies charge what a market expects/can handle and what is considered an acceptable price level generally to people in an area.
You can't just apply an exchange rate onto all aspects of life and expect to purchase items for that amount in the country you live in that would be unrealistic and also impractical in many cases.
Taking for simplicities sake England and America as the examples in question (because these are the ones I've most experience with - having lived in both locations).
In England the average wage is approximately £26k/annum - software is generally around £50/sku for console games.
In America the average wage is around $36k/annum** - software is generally around $59/sku for console games.
Now the exchange rate between the currencies isn't far off 2/1 but you can see from the comparison of the prices against the income that actually for people in the localities the 'real cost' in terms of price against income isn't that vastly different (the average English person can afford 520 games a year against 610 in America - drastically better than the 2/1 you initially think of).
I believe that OOTP is in a similar situation - why should Markus charge less than would be generally acceptable to users for similar games software in Europe?, if you didn't know about the US price would you still be complaining about the price?
*
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=334
**
http://ask.yahoo.com/20040518.html
PS - I realise this argument simplifies things hugely for the situations involved, but I think it gets across the fact that exchange rates aren't what matters with purchasing items locally its the cost in comparison to local income which is the determining factor on pricing generally.
Hence in third-world countries many items will be a fraction of the price of the equivalent item in America - it isn't that Americans are being ripped off, its that the market charges what it knows people will pay - so long as it can make a profit.