Kantor said:
I would have thought they were flown in in this day and age. Or at least that there were factories in Europe. Seems I'm mistaken. Games are definitely printed in Europe, though. |
Air freight is still far more expensive and risky than shipping, and so is only used when goods are required to be shipped speadily - perhaps during times of suppressed supply, or with perishable goods (such as flowers from Kenya). If demand is fairly predictable, and the goods will last, shipping is often used to maintain a constant supply.
As manufacturing in Europe - CDs are pressed in Europe because the process isn't very resource intensive (well, nothing compared to manufacturing a console), as such, the benefits of printing them in Europe and making use of no trade barriers is greater than the cost of the more expensive resources. Console manufacturing is much more resource intensive, and so the import duties are lower than the amount saved from producing them in, say, China.
