When comparing prices internationally you should first check if the prices are quotes with or without sales tax. Australien prices are quoted with 10 % GST. US prices are always quoted without sales taxes, so taxes will be added. The Wii is $249 plus tax in the US. The gap between US and Euro/Aussie prices is not that huge if you consider sales taxes.

Wiis are pretty reliable.

I would seriously suggest you jump on Ebay, and see if you can pick up a nice package - Wii + games < $400.

My friend sold his a while back - Wii, 2 controllers + 5 games (most crap + Zelda) for $300. Great deal!

...

I don't know if this link works, but this could be interesting. Seems to be a Jap console - modded - so it may play US, AUS & JAP games. Also comes with almost 40(!) games. Might be too good to be true...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AS-NEW-NINTENDO-Wii-CONSOLE-39-GAMES-EXTRAS_W0QQitemZ120156384866QQihZ002QQcategoryZ147872QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

...trade in the other games at EB, and end up with a Wii for free!

Wow, I can understand the price in Australia if minimum wage is $13/hr. Christ, it's only $8/hr in ontario.

I was just about to point this out when I saw your post.  I wish I could make it even bigger so we could cut back on some of the whining...

Also to take into consideration is import duties.  I don't know how much that may also inflate the price in some countries.

I love how I post explaining why, and all the following comments except rendo, completely ignore it and are still only talking taxes. I used to own a business, and now I study International Politics. I understand that my post was probably to long, so here is the short short version.

Some factors of price:
Import taxes
Fuel Costs
Labor Costs
Good & Service Taxes/ Sales taxes
Corporate Income Taxes
Employment Taxes

All these are much lower in the US than in Canada or Australia. Like I said before, we sacrifice decent schools, medical, social welfare and much more for cheap stuff.

I also have a suspicion that retailers outside the US get a better margin (ie the MSRPs in OZ and EU are more comfortably above the retail price), though I cannot prove that.

lol at thread title

There's a lot of inertia in pricing. They can't just slap on a new inventory sticker every time currency markets fluctuate. These prices were probably set back when CDN$ were still trading around 80 cents.

Hard to say when it will happen, but prices do eventually adjust to reflect these currency valuations. Steven787 is absolutely right to point out that there are a great number of factors involved.

 Anyway, the interesting question is: What made you decide to buy a Wii, starcraft?

This lack of understanding by gamers has been bothering me so much, that I actually calledone of my old professors who used to deal in wholesale to the  Pacific and Latin America.  I didn't ask him directly about videogames, but I did ask him in general about higher consumer prices in australia.  He basically repeated what I have in my two above posts, and add in somethings I didn't think of:  Not a direct quote from him...

Because the market is so small and wages so high this affects the pricing structure in several ways. 

There is no local packaging or production, because it would cost too much, but shipping/importing is still more costly than the US.

Low demand in a region for a high end or a high demand product means that the people who do want it have to pay a premium, because there is more risks.  (See: Wii sold out in US/JPN but sitting on shelves in Australia)

Higher Discretionary income for the 1st quartile, means all but the poorest 25% can afford to pay more.  The poorest 25% aren't buying the latest thing anyway.

I will stop there.  This also made me think about the delays seen in PAL regions, demand hadn't entered my mind before this call, so here it goes:  Lower demand, means that the market is way more competitive for software.  It's not worth releasing a game the has low potential, or there are too many other releases around it. 

You could argue that demand would be higher if the games were cheaper and came out faster, but this trend of low demand goes beyond vg's; it is the whole consumer electronics market and maybe even all discretionary products.

Stop complaining Aussies, you are beginning to sound like us Americans. :P