Ok I am bringing this up because as an Australian (whose dollar is currently 99.03 per 1 US dollar and is estimated to be 1.10 by June of 2011, I ask why the hell are we paying $100 per new game, sometimes $109.96.

I have come on here and some people are complaining American game pricing may go up to I think they were saying $60-70. Please an Australian would kill for that.

To put it like this

Xbox360 Slim 250 - $398-449 (ranges from store to store)

PS3 320gb - $599 PS3 160gb - $499

Wii was $399 about 18 months ago now is $299

The way I see it is that if the pricing continues as is then the Sales for gaming consoles/ Games would sky rocket if the parity is recognised. But as most Australians recognise we are paying WAAAYYYY over the mark...

So the point of this thread is one please stop asking for lower prices unless yours is worse ours secondly wtf can i do but somehow create a petition and the game stores wont go with it because they would be making bucket loads.

Thoughts about my moaning?

PS. I am getting a Kinect for 176 which is actually 199 retail for aus WOOP WOOP

Here in Canada a Wii game goes for 49.99$-59.99$ and a PS3/360 title goes for 59.99-79.99$ depending on the title. Our dollar has been hovering around parady with the US dollar for a few months.Game prices actually dropped for us since we hit parady with the US dollar.

But Canada is one of the biggest markets for video games. I think we were third after Japan and USA. Prices have a lot to do with demand. In Australia gaming is probubly not as big as it is here and the cost of importing and selling a product in Australia is probubly much more expensive.

Though I gotta say it shouldn't be in the hundreds thats way to expensive!

Canada is not the the 3rd biggest market, not even close.

EDIT our prices were that high before our currency became stronger so I suppose if people still buy the games then why would they drop the price?

ah yeah it does not cost that much to ship from america to australia for one item and if you were talking about bulk items and the price and consider a shi% load of things are made to our northern border in china, surely we will get cheaper.

And even if it gets back to the US explain why only some things (games are one industry) that are not following the parity. Its utter crud. And we have been tooing and froing for a while and considering we didnt hit the R word officially or technically our dollar will only get stronger.

I know we were third years ago. Thats why Nintendo Of Canada was born because Nintendo Of America couldn't handle covering both Mexico and Canada. I don't know what the figures are today, I don't even know where I could find out Canada's numbers. But considering our population size I could definatly see us not ranking top three anymore.

In Canada Wii games launched at 59.99$ and 360 games were 69.99$ while in the US games were about 10$ cheaper. However a year and a half ago our dollar rose above America's for the first time in decades and when it stayed above a few months game prices dropped. They have remained down ever since even though our dollar dropped again but it has rebounded multiple times over the last few years.

Anybody know if anything but supply demand and localization that might be the cause for such high prices in Australia?

Nah it seems simply a issue that is mainly in gaming.

Sony Australia ( i am pretty sure there is a sony nz as well so canada cant be that big haha) stated that the reason why prices are still bloody high is because of retail competition and the RRP's. Here's the kicker, for the PS3 and all things ps3 related the freaking Sony stores are the most expensive, following the RRP.

I think other Retail stores though are trying to bring the prices down. I know my store is.

Well here is the reason (btw i am australian):

Australia despite being a MASSIVE electronic consumer (japans best friend) doesn't have that many consoles here in AUS with 800-900k PS3, 1 million xbox's (its bit over) and around 2 million Wii's. the PS2 only sold near 3 million here. 

So for a devoloper to sell games here its a risk, but then just Stock less fool, but there are so many stores there is a lot of copies you need to have them in all the stores to reach all the customers adding to the risk due to amount of games you need ontop of risk.

the AUD used to be very weak around 50-60 US cents so naturally the price difference due to currency exchange plus the extra they add on to counter the risk. See Stores will have the add on so if a game sells well they would be able to cover the costs of games that failed and still make a profit. 

But Now that the AUD is strong they are importing games for less but the retailers have kept the price up to make greater profit despite it should be dropping to around 80-90 AUD RRP, despite the smaller market. 

Nearly all other electronics have gone down. all Big screen tvs are now half price because of the Dollar but because we have like 100 million tvs for like a 20 million population manufactures like SONY, PANASONIC have less risk selling here.

So to make them lower the price more consoles need to be sold but it should be lower anyways so f them and import i say. 

Yea i have been wondering the same thing. it think it would be better to import but then the retailers would make less money so the prices would still stay the same. though i am going to Europe next year with school so i would probably buy a game or 2 as in England that are about 70 AUD at the moment. It is good as the ps3 dose not have region coded games.

I'm pretty  sure Britain is a bigger market for video games. I read once they buy the most games per person. I have no sources for that though.

when was it 50-60 cents. when i was in year 8 in 2001 i did a speech about aus becoming republic long story short the amount was around 80c.

And you are talking about consoles sold when we are around 40 percent higher price then most other countries. there is a reason why we arent selling a high volume, add to that population and you have your reason.

And they should be dropping to 70-80 max. The shipping costs do not cost that much as shown by tvs especially Sonys getting ripped to shreads. Also why you can finally get 50" 3d tvs here for 2300. Samsung brand as well.

And before the R word, Aussie dollar was climbing just as quickly hence Nintendo dropping the wii by 25 percent.