SI/Sega Greed on Australians.

[DirtyJoe]

Check out Gamers Gate, they are very competitive in pricing. A lot more helpful than steam IMO.

[tom_numbers]

(All costs in AU$)

Aus min wage: $15.96/hour

US min wage: $6.99/hour

UK min wage: $9.39/hour.

Can you see why Australia is being charged more for games? If anything, the only thing to come out of the pricing is that the UK probably wins, presumably as a result of being the main market for FM.

[DreamsDefined]

Check out Gamers Gate, they are very competitive in pricing. A lot more helpful than steam IMO.

Normally I love GG too, but they're showing $90 (before reduction for pre-order) too.

Also proves it's SI/SEGA pricing.

[LuizH]

I can confirm the $90 price in NZ Steam.

So I can also confirm I won't be purchasing FM13.

Sortitoutsi.

[DreamsDefined]

(All costs in AU$)

Aus min wage: $15.96/hour

US min wage: $6.99/hour

UK min wage: $9.39/hour.

Can you see why Australia is being charged more for games? If anything, the only thing to come out of the pricing is that the UK probably wins, presumably as a result of being the main market for FM.

I can't see how that can be used as justification for higher prices?? SI didn't make the game in Australia, as far as I know they don't employ anyone here (maybe a couple at most), so how does minimum wage have anything to do with it?

There is (again, as far as I know), zero difference in selling a game via Steam or any other digitial platform, in Australia versus any other country. There's no packaging, labour, import, tax, shipping costs. USD and AUD are basically at parity and have been for a long time, so why?

I don't mind if SI can give valid reasons for it (and vague statements about the "strengths of the Australian economy" are pretty weak by any standard), but so far they haven't so we are left to speculate.

[tom_numbers]

You price a product to the market, regardless of how much it cost you. A $90 price in Australia is equivalent to just under 6 hours paid work, whereas 90$ in the US would be closer to 13 hours. This is what you want to balance - you need your pricing to fit around the value of money in that country.

6 hours on $6.99/hour gives you a price a little over $40, which I believe is what Steam US were charging wasn't it?

EDIT: FWIW, the Australian economy is strong in modern markets. They didn't rely so heavily on imports during the recession, and so avoided the worst of the problems suffered by the US and Europe - hence why the AU$ suddenly rocketed against the GBP and US$.

[matthiele]

Tom that is a silly comment. minimum wage has nothing to do with it. If you are going to quote minimum wage then at least give the full picture. Our cost of living is far greater than in the UK and the US and our taxation is higher as well.

Australians are getting ripped off because our retailers have pressured the government to keep the price for online transaction high so they can compete. At the moment this is a big issue here with many big stores constantly arguing for online purchases to be taxed higher so they can still compete.

[DreamsDefined]

You price a product to the market, regardless of how much it cost you. A $90 price in Australia is equivalent to just under 6 hours paid work, whereas 90$ in the US would be closer to 13 hours. This is what you want to balance - you need your pricing to fit around the value of money in that country.

6 hours on $6.99/hour gives you a price a little over $40, which I believe is what Steam US were charging wasn't it?

EDIT: FWIW, the Australian economy is strong in modern markets. They didn't rely so heavily on imports during the recession, and so avoided the worst of the problems suffered by the US and Europe - hence why the AU$ suddenly rocketed against the GBP and US$.

SI/SEGA = the new Robin Hood.

The minimum wage was around the $13 mark last year at FM12 release and yet we paid the same as the US. So a 125% price increase in a year can't be justified on that basis. $40USD was obviously deemed adequate last year. They are multiplying their profit by x factor at our expense.

Anyway, this is all just my opinion, and I, like others, have the option or purchasing from another source or not at all.

[tom_numbers]

Our cost of living is far greater than in the UK and the US.

Which is funded by a higher wage. So if you already pay more than the US for your groceries, your beer, your homes and your clothes, why should you not pay more for computer games? Like any business, SI and Sega want to turn a profit, or at least not make a loss, so why not adjust their prices to reflect how much the average Australian can afford?

Australia is a country that typically treats imports with suspicion, with online purchases no different. If the government resists throwing open the doors to cheap imports, it could go some way towards protecting the country from another global recession.

@DreamsDefined: SI has expanded over the past year. You can't blame them for regionally pricing their games in order to maximise income and reduce the risk of making a loss.

Personally, I reckon either this price will come tumbling down, or one of the high street stores in Australia will start stocking it cheaply in order to bring in customers as we head towards release.

[DreamsDefined]

Which is funded by a higher wage. So if you already pay more than the US for your groceries, your beer, your homes and your clothes, why should you not pay more for computer games? Like any business, SI and Sega want to turn a profit, or at least not make a loss, so why not adjust their prices to reflect how much the average Australian can afford?

Australia is a country that typically treats imports with suspicion, with online purchases no different. If the government resists throwing open the doors to cheap imports, it could go some way towards protecting the country from another global recession.

@DreamsDefined: SI has expanded over the past year. You can't blame them for regionally pricing their games in order to maximise income and reduce the risk of making a loss.

Personally, I reckon either this price will come tumbling down, or one of the high street stores in Australia will start stocking it cheaply in order to bring in customers as we head towards release.

Because I really think it's just price gouging... and if there'd been a shortage of walking pink handfish in Nepal that would have been used as justification.

Regional pricing is a thing of the past, it was refreshing to see them not go down that path last year, so the unannounced change in policy is what is frustrating. I mean a quick response saying "FM12 didn't perform as well as we'd liked in Aus", or "We didn't make enough profit from that region", would be fine. I may not agree with what they say, but at least it's a real reason. If they said something like that I'd probably still buy it to support SI like I have done for many years, but right now I probably won't (but yeah I hope it will come down in price too).

Anyway, this is turning into a bit of a rant haha.

[tom_numbers]

Without a doubt Dreams. Almost every company will do what they can to maximise profit, even if they do have to push their customers to the limit. Every company is Australia now is trying to quietly work against online shopping/imports because it will cost them business, but they can't be publicly seen trying to deny their customers a wider choice or a better deal.

Global pricing is a nice idea, but it's never quite going to work right. I would have been very surprised if Steam US, UK and Aus charged exactly the same price, but the current difference does seem a little extreme, especially relative to the tables posted by Luckz (#98). Thankfully, the community has already listed a couple of providers who willingly undercut Steam to sell the game at a cheaper price.

It's been a surprisingly well reasoned rant for GD

[Luckz]

I can confirm the $90 price in NZ Steam.

So I can also confirm I won't be purchasing FM13.

Sortitoutsi.

Does http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/314547-25-off-FM13-pre-order.?p=8076167&viewfull=1#post8076167 help?

Regional pricing is a thing of the past

I still remember very vividly when Steam *added* it, if anything it's a thing of the present.

I'd probably still buy it to support SI like I have done for many years, but right now I probably won't (but yeah I hope it will come down in price too).

SEGA set the prices. Or whoever distributes games for SEGA in AU, if that is not SEGA themselves.

Global pricing is a nice idea, but it's never quite going to work right.

Well, for videogames it would work okay enough to have a "global" version for one set price, and then add a customer's local tax at the end. In addition to that, there'd be specific-region cut-down low-price versions (f.ex. RU/CIS, TR, parts of Asia, South America). But publishers for one don't want that 'equal global price'. Publishers want to reach a big audience via using users' domestic currencies as opposed to charging everybody in USD, and publishers want to make extra money whenever they can.

And as I hinted upon, taxes play an important role - imagine a constellation where a US customer buys from Steam and does not need to pay any taxes (because US tax laws do really weird things like that depending on where you live and where the store you buy from has offices/warehouses, and powerful corporations like Amazon spend incredible efforts on making sure the majority of their users get to shop tax-free), then compare that to the typical European with a VAT of 17-25% buying on Steam. Of course they need to pay those 17-25% more for Steam & the publisher to get the same amount of money in the end. If I was a publisher, I'd maybe even want an extra 2-3% to protect myself against currency fluctuations.

Check out Gamers Gate, they are very competitive in pricing. A lot more helpful than steam IMO.

Nope.avi

[grimness]

Usually I pre-order hard copy from UK cos Steam is rip-off. However this year I paypaled money to friend in UK and he sent it to me as a gift after the game was out. Saved me some money. No way I'm paying the game in Euro.

Pre-order in combo with little bit of voucher hunting gets the price below 20 GBP, then it's all about postage price.

[siambluebird]

http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/th/en/pc/games/sports/football-manager-2013/

The problem has been solved already!

[Lower Leagues Rule]

I'd suggest contacting the Australian distributors if you're unhappy with the pricing. I'm afraid from what I've been told part of it is related to the strong Australian economic status - if there's a tumble in Australia I'm sure the game price would do so too (no, don't ruin the Aus economy to get cheaper FM!)

This is bollocks if anyone has told you that, they were still charging the same amount last year, and the year before. Just NZ didn't have their own steam store so connected straight to the US one.

Also how can Aussie distributors be to blame? The distrubitor is STEAM, same in US as Aussie. Sorry Neil, but someone is feeding a load of crap.

[elliott1873]

And the distributor (Steam) don't set the prices, the publisher does. If you read the thread you'd already see that Valve (Steam's parent company) charge Australians the same price as Americans for their games since they set their own prices.

If the Aussie's don't like the price then they can easily buy from elsewhere until the publishers clamp down on regional price differences.

[nick1408]

One of the other problems I see is that soccer is at best the third most popular football code (not sport) in the country. By charging like a wounded bull you are turning away those passing soccer fans that may purchase the product off the shelf. Really, it is only the die hards that will go hunting for the cheapest price. If the options for that passing fan is FM13 for $90 or Premiership Coach (AFL management game) for $20 or Rugby Union Manager for $20 I know where the passing interest will go. While the latter two games are not to the detail of FM they are from more popular sports in Australia.

If Sega didn't make enough on FM last year they definately won't this year.

[DreamsDefined]

One of the other problems I see is that soccer is at best the third most popular football code (not sport) in the country. By charging like a wounded bull you are turning away those passing soccer fans that may purchase the product off the shelf. Really, it is only the die hards that will go hunting for the cheapest price. If the options for that passing fan is FM13 for $90 or Premiership Coach (AFL management game) for $20 or Rugby Union Manager for $20 I know where the passing interest will go. While the latter two games are not to the detail of FM they are from more popular sports in Australia.

If Sega didn't make enough on FM last year they definately won't this year.

This is exactly it!! It seems like a massive lost opportunity. Football may be the third most popular code in the country, but it's also one of, if not the, fastest growing sport in the country.

But then again, we've only got 23 million people... maybe the effort isn't worth it for the sales they'd get?

[matthiele]

Tom really? treats imports with suspicion? rubbish comment.

Again your comments make no sense. You seem obsessed by our minimum wage while overlooking the facts. The US has the highest gross average wage beating Australia by around $10,000. Australia is above You lot by around $200. So please stop trying to make the case that we earn more therefore we can pay more. You are not fooling anyone.

Fact is our large retail chains want to be able to compete with steam etc so they force similar prices for all.

[gmcker]

Without a doubt Dreams. Almost every company will do what they can to maximise profit, even if they do have to push their customers to the limit. Every company is Australia now is trying to quietly work against online shopping/imports because it will cost them business, but they can't be publicly seen trying to deny their customers a wider choice or a better deal.

Tom, Australians are importing form overseas at an increased rate. The companies in Australia aren't quietly working against online shopping - they are vocally calling for GST to be added to online purchases from overseas. But our GST rate is only 10% which still means it is cheaper to buy online offshore.

[Gandy]

I remember with FM08- I got 70% off at EB Games through an advertisement in a pre-game for the Glory.

Ever since FM09/10, I've bought it through Green Man Gaming for less than what Steam offers.

[aat91]

wow you guys are getting ripped off.

steam/sega who ever is responsible for the pricing is not reasonable, having a good economy never excuses a 125% increase in prices.

[laBOMBA]

We earn higher wages, have a good economy and pay a lot more for goods in Australia compared to other first world countries. I am happy to be employed and in Australia as other countries are not as well off as we are. If it means paying $90 for a game instead of $40 to keep our economy going, so be it!

[Dantasnet]

Just bought the game from here http://us.download-store.sega.com/shop/football-manager-2013/home.html

I'm living in NZ and the game cost on steam $89.99 USD(american dollars).FM website is $39.99 USD = 49.99 NZD...

[davidbowie]

I'd suggest contacting the Australian distributors if you're unhappy with the pricing. I'm afraid from what I've been told part of it is related to the strong Australian economic status - if there's a tumble in Australia I'm sure the game price would do so too (no, don't ruin the Aus economy to get cheaper FM!)

First: Neil this isn't directed at you, because I doubt you have anything to do with this apart from delivering the managers spin and PR bs.

That's a load of garbage. You (ie SI who run the forum) and Sega are trying to fob this onto the Australian distributor when it's Sega who set the pricing on Steam. I'm not buying the game from an "Australian Distributor". I'm buying it from Steam which is a US company. Any 'Australian Distributor' should have no control over what Sega set their prices to.

The idea that we should get charged twice as much as the rest of the world because our 'economy is strong' is a load of ********. Did our 'economy' suddenly jump twice the value from last year to justify this price gouging?

A Steam game has identical costs to produce (in fact, we as consumers actually make it cheaper as we're the ones paying for our ISP's to host the steam servers) and should cost exactly the same across the world with minor differences due to currency.

This is pure price gouging.

For a company who have been so vehemently anti-piracy this just proves how many companies still don't understand why people pirate games. This is not going to help that. I don't pirate games personally, I just don't bother buying or playing them.

FM12 last year was a pre-order on day 1.

FM13 I might not even bother with, or if I do, it'll be in whatever way gets me the lowest possible price. Since this will end up being a middleman company who send me a steam code, Sega will end up with less money from me than they would have keeping the price the same as last year.

I find it hilarious in a 'shake your head' kind of way at hearing all the ******** excuses trotted out for why a digital game that costs exactly the same worldwide should cost twice as much.

A few years ago it was "Your dollar is weak, we need to charge more to make back out money."

Our dollar becomes strong, and it's suddenly "You guys have too much money, you can afford to pay more compared to the rest of the world".

Back when games were physical it was "It costs too much for shipping wah wah" despite shipping costs being negligible between Asia to Australia/Europe/USA.

If you came out and said "We're charging you twice as much because our distributor has forced Sega to jack the price on Steam so the distributor doesn't have to compete against Steam" and "We agreed because we just want to make more money, we don't care about you, just deal with it." I'd at least gain some respect.

Baffles me that companies can't grasp why their games are being pirated when they spew ******** like this at their paying customers.

[Adelaidean]

Actually, no. It has made everything cheaper as it is cheaper to import products. If our dollar was weak it would make things more expensive.

This is true, a higher Australian dollar means cheaper imports and makes our exports less competitive. Australian businesses complain all the time about being unable to export due to the high $A, but consumers in Australia benefit from the cheaper imports for most goods. Video games seem to be the exception, they're always way overpriced here regardless of the price of the dollar. It's not just FM though, video games in general seem to be this way.

In general, it is incorrect to say we should pay more for imported products because of our strong economy, it works the other way around.

For those suggesting that the price is regionally adjusted by either SI or the distributor based on purchasing power etc., I would add that this process (known as price discrimination) is generally considered an unethical business practice and, whilst it is not strictly illegal, I feel Australian customers deserve better treatment than that. I'm not apportioning blame as it seems unclear as to why the price is inflated, but I hope it can be resolved.

Anyway, the simple solution in the meantime is to buy it through Green Man Gaming as has been suggested already. It's not ideal, but hopefully this can get cleared up soon.

[DreamsDefined]

A few years ago it was "Your dollar is weak, we need to charge more to make back out money."

Our dollar becomes strong, and it's suddenly "You guys have too much money, you can afford to pay more compared to the rest of the world".

Back when games were physical it was "It costs too much for shipping wah wah" despite shipping costs being negligible between Asia to Australia/Europe/USA.

If you came out and said "We're charging you twice as much because our distributor has forced Sega to jack the price on Steam so the distributor doesn't have to compete against Steam" and "We agreed because we just want to make more money, we don't care about you, just deal with it." I'd at least gain some respect.

Agree with every word, well said. It all just doesn't make sense in any sort of logical way.

And as others have said, sure it's possible to buy from another source, but SI/SEGA are just taking money off themselves.

The price may come down eventually but it seems like a slap in the face really... hard to fathom!!

[laBOMBA]

Not only games, but IT in general is more expensive. All of you know about the IT pricing inquiry the House of Representatives Committee is currently undertaking?

A few elements why it is more expensive in Australia:

"The reasons we get given for higher prices in the AIIA report (and most of the other business submissions) cover familiar territory. It’s not reasonable to directly compare prices because overseas costs are often tax-exclusive while Australia’s are tax-inclusive. The cost of supporting goods under Australian consumer law makes life more expensive, as does having local support staff. In that area, property rental costs and wages are high. Partners selling the product also need to make a profit. Localisation can be an expensive business." (from: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/why-everyone-is-deluded-about-the-australian-it-pricing-inquiry/)

It's worth following:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=ic/itpricing/index.htm

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/07/what-happened-in-the-it-pricing-inquiry-today/

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/why-everyone-is-deluded-about-the-australian-it-pricing-inquiry/

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/08/beating-the-australia-tax-can-the-government-do-anything-to-stop-it/

[reddevil12587]

This thread has given me a great business idea:

I'm going to buy 1,000 hard copies of FM13 and then go on a back-packing trip to Australia. If I price the copies of FM13 at $65 AUD I'm sure it would be a good investment for me and it will cover the cost of my flights and accommodation. Dates of where I'll be will be available when the release date for the game is known.

On a serious note, I'm being quoted around £35-£40 for FM13 this year, I wasn't intending on purchasing the game this year as I didn't get FM12 for the sole reason of SI's poor handling over the closing of Football Manager Live 18 months ago. But being back on FM11 and from what I've seen in the FM13 announcement has got my intrigue up for the new game but without a doubt, I'm sure I can get it for less than £20 before Xmas this year.

[davidbowie]

"The reasons we get given for higher prices in the AIIA report (and most of the other business submissions) cover familiar territory. It’s not reasonable to directly compare prices because overseas costs are often tax-exclusive while Australia’s are tax-inclusive. The cost of supporting goods under Australian consumer law makes life more expensive, as does having local support staff. In that area, property rental costs and wages are high. Partners selling the product also need to make a profit. Localisation can be an expensive business." (from: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07...icing-inquiry/)

That applies to physical products for things like high-end shoes and other fashion, technology items and physical copies of games.

None of those items have any bearing on a digital copy of a game sold on Steam.

[Adelaidean]

Not only games, but IT in general is more expensive. All of you know about the IT pricing inquiry the House of Representatives Committee is currently undertaking?

A few elements why it is more expensive in Australia:

"The reasons we get given for higher prices in the AIIA report (and most of the other business submissions) cover familiar territory. It’s not reasonable to directly compare prices because overseas costs are often tax-exclusive while Australia’s are tax-inclusive. The cost of supporting goods under Australian consumer law makes life more expensive, as does having local support staff. In that area, property rental costs and wages are high. Partners selling the product also need to make a profit. Localisation can be an expensive business." (from: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/why-everyone-is-deluded-about-the-australian-it-pricing-inquiry/)

It's worth following:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=ic/itpricing/index.htm

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/07/what-happened-in-the-it-pricing-inquiry-today/

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/why-everyone-is-deluded-about-the-australian-it-pricing-inquiry/

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/08/beating-the-australia-tax-can-the-government-do-anything-to-stop-it/

Whilst this is true of both the video games and IT industries, I think the point of contention for a lot of people is the severity of the price increase for this iteration of FM. Taxes and other regional laws may have some impact, but not enough to justify a 125% price increase in one year, particularly when the only justification given so far is the strength of the Australian economy and the $A, which is both counter-intuitive and fallacious (see my above post and nick1408's post). In addition, many of the tax and staffing conditions apply to tangible goods - digital downloads shouldn't have that issue.

EDIT: That last part is probably unclear. What I mean is that intangible goods avoid some associated business costs, like the cost of holding stock, keeping inventory or hiring support staff, so things like digital downloads aren't really part of the localisation process in the same sense as tangible IT products and technologies.

[laBOMBA]

This thread has given me a great business idea:

I'm going to buy 1,000 hard copies of FM13 and then go on a back-packing trip to Australia. If I price the copies of FM13 at $65 AUD I'm sure it would be a good investment for me and it will cover the cost of my flights and accommodation. Dates of where I'll be will be available when the release date for the game is known.

You can stay at my place in Melbourne for a few days if you give me a free copy. When are you coming over?

[laBOMBA]

That applies to physical products for things like high-end shoes and other fashion, technology items and physical copies of games.

None of those items have any bearing on a digital copy of a game sold on Steam.

I disagree. Adobe products are included in this inquiry and they are downloadable.

[reddevil12587]

You can stay at my place in Melbourne for a few days if you give me a free copy. When are you coming over?

Haha, for your free copy, I'd need the master bedroom, a hooker and nightly massage for 2 nights

[laBOMBA]

Haha, for your free copy, I'd need the master bedroom, a hooker and nightly massage for 2 nights

I don't know how much you pay for those where you are, but over here they charge the equivalent of multiple copies of FM13, Australian prices of course.

[reddevil12587]

I don't know how much you pay for those where you are, but over here they charge the equivalent of multiple copies of FM13, Australian prices of course.

That's the problem with that strong economy of yours (giggle), I can get what I listed above in the UK for the same price as a packet of cigarettes and a four pack of beer!

[hugo_rune]

I don't personally have an issue paying $90 for the amount of hours - at least a few hundred - that I'm going to spend playing it. I understand there are cheaper ways to buy it but I know that while internet deals aren't necessarily too good to be true, they're often too good to be honouring every aspect of the contractual deals with their suppliers.

[bulldogtimbo]

If Steam are going to keep this price for FM 13 in Australia and NZ as it is,then simply people will not buy it from Steam and will instead look elsewhere or not buy it at all.I have pre-ordered it from SEGA for Aus $39.98 no problems whatsoever.Why would I want to pay more than double?

[Luckz]

I understand there are cheaper ways to buy it but I know that while internet deals aren't necessarily too good to be true, they're often too good to be honouring every aspect of the contractual deals with their suppliers.

All a third party download site will do is give you a Steam key for the game.

If Steam are going to keep this price for FM 13 in Australia and NZ as it is,then simply people will not buy it from Steam and will instead look elsewhere or not buy it at all.I have pre-ordered it from SEGA for Aus $39.98 no problems whatsoever.Why would I want to pay more than double?

Why did I spend $100 on the Kickstarter of the new Carmageddon game? Okay, not a good comparison, but

Some people are genuinely trying to get as much money as possible to the creators of whatever they adore so much, be it music or video games or ..

[bulldogtimbo]

All a third party download site will do is give you a Steam key for the game.

Why did I spend $100 on the Kickstarter of the new Carmageddon game? Okay, not a good comparison, but

Some people are genuinely trying to get as much money as possible to the creators of whatever they adore so much, be it music or video games or ..

That's all well and good,but why should I,living in Australia, pay $90 USD when if I lived in the US I could get the EXACT same game for $40 USD?That being the case why then would I not look for the cheapest possible price available to me?I'm sure none of the guys at SI or Steam are starving,but if these price differences aren't corrected then people have every right to look elsewhere to find the best deal.I also genuinely hope your generosity towards the creators is duly noted and rewarded but somehow I don't think that will be the case.

p.s. I wouldn't mind paying $10 or even $20 more for the game,as an Aussie I am used to this,but this price is simply Outrageous.

[Luckz]

Sorry, I was just trying to answer your question literally

People always have every right to look elsewhere to find the best deal. That's the beauty of free markets, globalisation, etc.

Just noticed, there's less than an hour left to use GMG25-1BW0K-K1A3G for $30 FM13.

[-T-]

As a Brit living in aus I'll either skip the game at this ridiculous price, or proxy to the uk. I've been hearing the same excuses for years. The AU$ is weak so it costs more. The AU$ is strong so we charge more. It makes no sense at all and it's clearly just ripping off hard working Australians. The average wage in the country is screwed by the mines, we're not all on 100K a year, but prices are set as if we are

[tom_numbers]

The people who are threatening that because of this outrageous price, they're going to shop where it is cheaper - shouldn't you be doing this anyway? Even if it was $50 on Steam, GMG are doing it for $30.

If Steam was the ONLY way of purchasing the game, then it would be a scandal. The fact that some retailers in an open market are charging more than some others doesn't seem like that big a deal.

[starvin marvin]

The people who are threatening that because of this outrageous price, they're going to shop where it is cheaper - shouldn't you be doing this anyway? Even if it was $50 on Steam, GMG are doing it for $30.

If Steam was the ONLY way of purchasing the game, then it would be a scandal. The fact that some retailers in an open market are charging more than some others doesn't seem like that big a deal.

The thing is SI/Sega have a say on what price the game gets priced on steam.

We occasionally hear gaming studios and publishers having a sook about piracy and for the most part i have agreed with them, not this year though.

Last year I think we only payed $40 or $50, that seemed a fair price and reasonable. Why are we now having to pay $90? How stupid do you think we are?

Why should we respect SI and Sega when they dont feel the need to respect us?

[pigfacemonkeyman]

It can't be helped.... it's because you live on an island.

[nick1408]

Whatever you are using to access those prices is wrong. It's $39.99 in the US Store. I guarantee that if the price was $89 for the USA there would be a much longer thread than this already considering that games don't ever cost more than $60 USD there and games that cost $60 USD are AAA titles like Black Ops 2.

The datacentres for steam in Australia are hosted by ISP's who control the internet. Inter-Australian web traffic is practically free, and the ISP's are already huge companies with massive data centres that can easily host the steam content.

First: Neil this isn't directed at you, because I doubt you have anything to do with this apart from delivering the managers spin and PR bs.

That's a load of garbage. You (ie SI who run the forum) and Sega are trying to fob this onto the Australian distributor when it's Sega who set the pricing on Steam. I'm not buying the game from an "Australian Distributor". I'm buying it from Steam which is a US company. Any 'Australian Distributor' should have no control over what Sega set their prices to.

The idea that we should get charged twice as much as the rest of the world because our 'economy is strong' is a load of ********. Did our 'economy' suddenly jump twice the value from last year to justify this price gouging?

A Steam game has identical costs to produce (in fact, we as consumers actually make it cheaper as we're the ones paying for our ISP's to host the steam servers) and should cost exactly the same across the world with minor differences due to currency.

This is pure price gouging.

For a company who have been so vehemently anti-piracy this just proves how many companies still don't understand why people pirate games. This is not going to help that. I don't pirate games personally, I just don't bother buying or playing them.

FM12 last year was a pre-order on day 1.

FM13 I might not even bother with, or if I do, it'll be in whatever way gets me the lowest possible price. Since this will end up being a middleman company who send me a steam code, Sega will end up with less money from me than they would have keeping the price the same as last year.

I find it hilarious in a 'shake your head' kind of way at hearing all the ******** excuses trotted out for why a digital game that costs exactly the same worldwide should cost twice as much.

A few years ago it was "Your dollar is weak, we need to charge more to make back out money."

Our dollar becomes strong, and it's suddenly "You guys have too much money, you can afford to pay more compared to the rest of the world".

Back when games were physical it was "It costs too much for shipping wah wah" despite shipping costs being negligible between Asia to Australia/Europe/USA.

If you came out and said "We're charging you twice as much because our distributor has forced Sega to jack the price on Steam so the distributor doesn't have to compete against Steam" and "We agreed because we just want to make more money, we don't care about you, just deal with it." I'd at least gain some respect.

Baffles me that companies can't grasp why their games are being pirated when they spew ******** like this at their paying customers.

Great post David. Really well worded.

[ltdamn]

Can it really be Five Star Games (the distributor's) decision to set the pricing for games on Steam? I'm sure they set the pricing for fully packaged product, but not electronic software download.

Can someone from SI please confirm as I would like to add a submission on this title into the Federal Government's Parliamentary inquiry into software pricing and I seek to understand whether to draw up my submission on SI, Sega, Steam or Five Star Games' pricing strategy.

Thanking you in advance.

[rebelutionist]

I'd suggest contacting the Australian distributors if you're unhappy with the pricing. I'm afraid from what I've been told part of it is related to the strong Australian economic status - if there's a tumble in Australia I'm sure the game price would do so too (no, don't ruin the Aus economy to get cheaper FM!)

Firstly, thanks for relaying that to us Neil.

Secondly, would you be so kind to relay the following response back to whoever gave you that message please? Ta.

Dear whoever came up with that crap,

My wage did not rise 125% from last year, how can you still justify the price hike? $90? You're dreaming mate! Please take that pathetic reason of an excuse and stick it!!

Based on your outrageous logic Mr Economics-Man-Sir-******, if I was fired (or even on the dole for that matter), could I expect to get FM for free then??

Signed,

Rebelutionist.

[rebelutionist]

Great post David. Really well worded.

Seconded. Nicely put davidbowie, well done mate.

[davidbowie]

Firstly, thanks for relaying that to us Neil.

Secondly, would you be so kind to relay the following response back to whoever gave you that message please? Ta.

Dear whoever came up with that crap,

My wage did not rise 125% from last year, how can you still justify the price hike? $90? You're dreaming mate! Please take that pathetic reason of an excuse and stick it!!

Based on your outrageous logic Mr Economics-Man-Sir-******, if I was fired (or even on the dole for that matter), could I expect to get FM for free then??

Signed,

Rebelutionist.

Nope, we've seen in the past they'll jack the price up for Australia so they can make their money back if our dollar falls.

Also thanks all.