I travelled to Australia in 2000 for the Olympics and everything was cheap for me as it was 2 AUD to 1 USD. I think the game companies really haven't changed their perspective since then.

One thing people fail to realize as they compare US to other areas is the tax. The AUS prices always include 10% GST as well as other taxes. Europe is the same way. The US prices that everyone refer to fial to include the sales tax as they vary by state. I think they are 4%-10%.

Still Aussies are getting screwed. Canadians and Europeans too.

The consoles are made in China, whose governent has maninpiulated their currency. So the console makers aren't lossing in the US and are gaining everywhere else.

I imagine they charge you a premium due to Australia being a very small market requiring dedicated shipments compared to the rest of the world.

Besides, you are only paying around £20 more for a console than the english pay and about £5 more for games.

Dont' compare anything at the moment to the weak US Dollar.

You do pay a little more then the UK mind you, about £10 more for the DS3, by the looks of it.

meh, gaming in Australia has always been expensive. So if I want cheap games, then I get cheap games, and how do I get cheap games you may ask? well that's easy, I have patience, I wait till they drop in price and go platinum.
Now for games that are highly rated but simply don't sell well, I just go to ebay and buy it cheap there, brand new of course, I hate pre-owned games.

 QFT!!!

Like Jake says if you are patient it doesn't have to cost too much. Also as someone else mentioned the ps3 is region free so you can always order a game from overseas.  I don't see it as a big deal and it is obviously a consequence of Australia being such a small market that we are often forced to pay a premium. Keep in mind that the current situation is also a bit misleading as the Australian dollar is at a historical high against the US dollar.

From my experience gaming has always been expensive in Australia and I don't see why you (starcraft) continually target Sony when everyone is in on it. Noone is forcing you to buy their products so if you don't like a company's priceing then don't buy their products. 

In the past I have been conservative and have waited for prices to come down but have invested heavily this generation. That's not to say that people should do what I did but simply that choices are available and that bitching and moaning will not achieve anything. Just relax and enjoy your gaming and don't worry too much about pricing :)

The same for Europe X_X.

Importing is wonderful, in NZ there are no import duties maybe its the same in australia too so we have that advantage over europe only premiun when buying on ebay is transport costs, of course it sux for people who dont know how to or have never heard that you can and are forced to buy local, especially since wages are considerably lower then in the US and europe aswell as the entertainment being priced much higher

Yeh, that's all and good for the PS3... but I can't import my Wii games.... and I just don't feel like paying 99.95 for a bloody game. Which is why SMG is the only game I own for my Wii. Least eBay helps sometimes. PS3 games are cheaper for me as I just import them, how sad. I rather stick needles in my eyes than pay 119.95 AUD for a game lol.

And you believe that the prices the English have to pay are fair?

I'm very familiar with the concepts of market scale and import taxes, but I'm confident you'll find Sony makes a hell of a lot more money off a PS3 sale in Australia then they do in the USA. 

There are 2 ways to deal with that, either buy a freeloader for the wii, or import a US wii in the first place but then you have to import all your games but the extra trouble saves u a load. Also you can import from uk, as they sometimes have good deals you wont find in australia. The extra benefit in general of importing is you normaly get your games before everyone else since US usualy has the first english releases in the world.