Any Japanese members? I'm interested in seeing how expensive games are over there. Might be cheaper than USA

Actually we usually earn less money, the average income in my country is 120 dollars a month. So the gaming hobby is either ruled by piracy or only for "wealthy" people, where wealthy means people who earns around 1500+ dollars in a month.

The reason why the games are expensive in our countries is because we don't have direct sale channels, so everything we buy in the stores has passed for at least 1 or 2 intermediaries. I'll give an example with the Wii: The first intermediary buys the console in USA without paying taxes and brings it to Panama that its a free port (no taxes also), but they have to earn something, that usually puts the console from its initial 200, in around 240-250. Then other intermediary brings the console to my country, when it enters it has to pay 10% tax because its a foreign product, but that intermediary also takes around 10-15% of profit, that puts the price around 290 dollars. Finally the stores sells it to the final user has to charge internal taxes 16% and earn some profit, that puts the final price in 350 dollars.

For xbox 360, they have better distribution channels, as they don't have as many intermediaries and you can find the console cheaper taking into account the initial price.

What I do, its to bring my games directly through a PO Box in Miami, so I only have to pay taxes and shipping cost, so I usually can get my games for only 30% of the original cost. And sometimes a friend of mine bring them to me, so I get them even cheaper.

Where i live in Barbados games are very expensive,Xbox360 and Ps3 games new sell for about $209.00 dollars,and used is not very different,the xbox one is dead and still the games sell here for over $150.00.by the way the US dollar is tow to one here,some translated a new game for either system is about $105.us expensive but still the games sell alot.Come vist my island someday just bring your own supply of games.lol

England.

PS3 - £250, Games - £30-40

360 - £200, Games - £30-40

Wii - £150, Games - £30-40

PSP - £130, Games - £15-25

DS - £100-150 (Model), Games - £20-30

this is pretty much right,

My dad earns almost 4000 Pesos per month (around 1023 dollars) and since a 250GBs PS3 is 3399 Pesos, we would be left with 601 Pesos for the rest of the month (we are 5 in my family, my mom, dad, my two younger brothers and me) and that money wouldn't be enough to live for the rest of the month even if my family was only consisted by my dad xD... unless he lived as a homeless person :P

But that's what my dad earns... I think I've heard a few months ago that the average income is 2500 Pesos per month (around 639 Dollars)... and that's not even enough to buy a 120GBs PS3, lol. (I might be wrong about the average income, but I think that's what I've heard on TV a few months ago).

I wonder how much people earn in the US per month since I have no idea, lol.

I've had my PS3 since August 2009... and I only have MGS4 and GoW III, lol... I might be able to buy Final Fantasy XIII and Nier at the end of this month though... but after spending my money on those games, I probably won't have enough money to buy another game until the end of the year xD(if I get lucky).

I had a Job interview last week but they haven't called me so... they'll probably never call me xD that sucks because I want a job to get money for more games >_<.

By the way, I get my games at a much cheaper price from sellers who get the games into the country "Ilegally" (they probably pay a bribe in order to not pay any taxes)... I also got my PS3 from one of those sellers :P I paid 2080 Pesos for it (around 535 Dollars at the time)... If I hadn't gotten my games and my PS3 that way, I'd probably still be saving up to get one, lol. I saved money for over 2 years to get my PS3 xD.

Maybe, but I guess not anymore.

Look at some gaming prices from 2006 and see how much the exchange rate differs today:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10992

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/sonicthehedgehog/news.html?sid=6159301

console prices (RRP Amazon.jp):

360 Arcade: $214

360 Elite: $322

Wii: $216

PS3: $324

New Zealand (this is the price I would pay (in USD), which includes sales tax of 12.5% soon to go up to 15%)

PS3 - $391
360 Elite - $310
Wii - $256
PSWii360 games (New releases) - between $68 and $84 depending on game (games with accessories like Guitar Hero are more again)
DS games - up to $60

Interestingly we pay less in US dollar terms for the 360 Elite than Americans ($310 less tax = $275) but we pay more for everything else.