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Forums - Sales - Why are prices of consoles and games the same in USA as in Europe?

Acevil on 14 February 2011
Edgeoflife said:

You think that's bad, when the Canadian dollar is higher then that of the USA we still have to pay more for everything it's really annoying


That is because our dollar is rarely that much higher, our prices are now being matched with USA dollars as 1 to 1 with the exception of companies like NIS, who don't get with the times.

In fact when I paid for the 3DS, I paid 2 dollars less than USA price, because our dollar was .98 or .99 to 1 USD.



 

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Alby_da_Wolf on 14 February 2011
Viper1 said:

Europe has far more logistic and linguistic difficulties than the US so those extra expenses are padded into the consumer costs.

Not in general, France and Germany, for example, may have the linguistic extra cost, like any not English speaking country for most games, but they have excellent transports. Eire has no linguistic barrier and more than decent transports, not to mention that it attracted a lot of IT corporations thanks to the good infrastructures it offered them, not to mention the investments on education. German VAT is quite lower than EU average too. And USA is not all rosy, there are a lot of places that require long distance transports to reach low population density local markets, this should raise the cost to reach the American province more than to do the same with most European ones. So it's quite safe to say that at least in Germany, France and Eire games are overpriced with a 1:1 $/€ parity.



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fordy on 14 February 2011

I think in the case of Nintendo, costs are kept to the particular region that they originate from. This is why they're so big on region locking for the games.

For Europe, there are extra costs associated with porting the game to several different languages.



Lafiel on 14 February 2011
Alby_da_Wolf said:
Viper1 said:

Europe has far more logistic and linguistic difficulties than the US so those extra expenses are padded into the consumer costs.

Not in general, France and Germany, for example, may have the linguistic extra cost, like any not English speaking country for most games, but they have excellent transports. Eire has no linguistic barrier and more than decent transports, not to mention that it attracted a lot of IT corporations thanks to the good infrastructures it offered them, not to mention the investments on education. German VAT is quite lower than EU average too. And USA is not all rosy, there are a lot of places that require long distance transports to reach low population density local markets, this should raise the cost to reach the American province more than to do the same with most European ones. So it's quite safe to say that at least in Germany, France and Eire games are overpriced with a 1:1 $/€ parity.

Well, here in Germany the retailers afaik have a lot more expenses (than in the US) for their workers and pay more taxes, which is why shops need to get more money from the products they sell.

So retailer margins might very well be another reason why it's 1:1 $/€.



siphillis on 14 February 2011
Lafiel said:
Alby_da_Wolf said:
Viper1 said:

Europe has far more logistic and linguistic difficulties than the US so those extra expenses are padded into the consumer costs.

Not in general, France and Germany, for example, may have the linguistic extra cost, like any not English speaking country for most games, but they have excellent transports. Eire has no linguistic barrier and more than decent transports, not to mention that it attracted a lot of IT corporations thanks to the good infrastructures it offered them, not to mention the investments on education. German VAT is quite lower than EU average too. And USA is not all rosy, there are a lot of places that require long distance transports to reach low population density local markets, this should raise the cost to reach the American province more than to do the same with most European ones. So it's quite safe to say that at least in Germany, France and Eire games are overpriced with a 1:1 $/€ parity.

Well, here in Germany the retailers afaik have a lot more expenses (than in the US) for their workers and pay more taxes, which is why shops need to get more money from the products they sell.

So retailer margins might very well be another reason why it's 1:1 $/€.

you always have the option to import the games from the uk which equals 44€ for most games including shipping which is about 20€ (about 30% off) cheaper then in most stores. same applies to consoles. 




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geddesmond2 on 14 February 2011

I don't know were you've been buying your games from but for the past 2 years games have been selling for 45 euros here in Ireland. Theres no added tax and it was a hugh decrease in the price from the 70 euros mark they originally sold at. Hell some games like Vanquish and Alpha Protocol launched with a 35 euro price tag and Vanguish came with a free Aliens vs Predator game too.



phinch1 on 14 February 2011

Ps3 in the UK is £255, which in us dollars is $408.680   Uk also have 20% tax , honestly it takes the piss



Barozi on 14 February 2011
geddesmond2 said:

I don't know were you've been buying your games from but for the past 2 years games have been selling for 45 euros here in Ireland. Theres no added tax and it was a hugh decrease in the price from the 70 euros mark they originally sold at. Hell some games like Vanquish and Alpha Protocol launched with a 35 euro price tag and Vanguish came with a free Aliens vs Predator game too.

Probably UK imports.



GreyianStorm on 14 February 2011
Barozi said:
geddesmond2 said:

I don't know were you've been buying your games from but for the past 2 years games have been selling for 45 euros here in Ireland. Theres no added tax and it was a hugh decrease in the price from the 70 euros mark they originally sold at. Hell some games like Vanquish and Alpha Protocol launched with a 35 euro price tag and Vanguish came with a free Aliens vs Predator game too.

Probably UK imports.


All new releases are €44.99 now in HMV in Ireland. I think they were brought down here back when the euro and the pound were almost equal (there was a big drive for equal pricing), and it just hasn't changed.



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Aielyn on 14 February 2011
Dinges said:

10 years ago when the Euro was introduced, the dollar had more value compared to the euro. But since 2002 the euro is more expensive than the dollar. The price for €1 is quite stable for some time now hanging at $1,35 (sure it has it's been lower and higher). Can someone tell me why most consoles (xbox 360 is an exception) and games cost the "same" in dollars as they cost in euro's? The price in pounds and yen are different, but not with the euro. Why is there such an exception?

Some examples: Playstation 3  costs (160 GB) €299 in EU - $299 in USA, Wii €199 vs $199, 3DS €249 vs $249.

Oh whinge, whinge, whinge - you're paying maybe 15-20% more than the US, after factoring in tax of about 20% or so.

Compare with Australia. Our GST is 10%, yet we're paying AU$499 over here for 160GB PS3. And just to be clear, AU$499 = US$500.40 = €371.

For Wii, we pay AU$299 = US$299.84 = €222.30. For 3DS, it'll be AU$349 = US$350 = €259.50... and Australia was *celebrating* that the system was cheaper than expected (the Wii launched at AU$399).

But you want to hear the worst part? Let's look at games (I'll use Wii games, for the roundness of the numbers). Call of Duty: Black Ops Wii, in US was US$50, in EU was €60, right? In Australia, it was AU$100 = US$100.30 = €74.35.

In all seriousness, EU has nothing to complain about.