I thought WE got screwed! (Europe and Games)

[SoulBlazer]

Some of you may remember I recently listed my copy of Trace Memory for sale here in the B&S area. I enjoyed the game a lot but I don't see any replay value for it.

Anyway, I was surprised when Daltone sent me a PM asking to buy it for my listed price of $30, which includes shipping by AirMail. $30 is how much I paid for the game, BTW.

Now, the game had come out in Europe FIRST (after Japan) so I sent a reply back saying I was happy to sell it but would'nt it be cheaper in England?

His reply to me (BTW, I hope he does'nt mind me sharing this):

I know, it's totally nuts! $30 worked out at £17. Most 2nd hand ebay ones go for about £25 or more after postage. To buy it new costs around £30 ($52) and I'm yet to see any second hand DS games in stores. Even if I did, I'd bet that the chances of one being under £20 were amazingly slim to say the least.

Ok, so it's not a great saving, but for novelty value alone it was worth it!

I was looking on some American game websites the other day (gamestop.com?) and seeing that a new copy of Ultimate Spiderman on the DS costs $30. Not only does it not come out here for another two days, but when it eventually does it'll be considerably more expensive!

The most crazy pricing award goes to the N64 games. When new, did big titles cost $49.99 in the US? They were £49.99 here, which works out at a mere $87.49 (at whatever the exchange rate is today.)

Hardware is equally more expensive. To get a Sony PSP Value Pack off Amazon.co.uk costs £178.99, which works out at $313.27. Off Amazon.com it's $249.99 (which is £142) At least, on the whole, hardware is generally more equal in pricing. It's just the games where we really seem to get buggered.

Anyways, the moral of the story is that if you live in Europe you get screwed with release dates and all sorts of other fun stuff and have to pay through the nose for it.

Sorry, rant over

Christ! I know Europe gets it worse then we in North America do, but is everything THAT bad?

[BrokenFlight]

I've said it before but generally you can swap the $ for a £ and have the right price.

[sharp]

In Europe games are more expensive, but I think there are quite some reasons for that. First distribution and translation cost a lot more in Europe then in the USA (a lot of different nations and languages), also the taxes are much higher in Europe (as we have a much more facilities for poor people then the USA). Prices are mostly in Euros the same or a 5 or 10 higher then in the USA in US$.

With the DS and also all other Game Boy systems, we always so even big chainstores selling USA-versions. A lot of stores sell the USA-versions as the get out earlier here in The Netherlands and games almost never got translated in Dutch.

So yes pricing is bad, especially for people who understand English. On the other hand I don't acre that much about it, I'm used to it and mainly boy games in discount, also I prefer the European DS-boxes. Also I like to have no Sony of America which bans great games to be released in the USA.

It's too easy to just compare prices this way. A internetshop also can sell cheaper as the don't need to rent a store, but most people still buy in stores. Oh and at least we got Castlevania DS earlier then the USA.
[/i]

[jajaja]

Normal price for a new GBA game here is from $65 to $80.
PS2/XBOX/GC games are usualy $80 - $90
PC games is from $55 to $80
When N64 was selling the games was from $100 - $140.

[Mayhem]

As Sharp said, the two main reasons for games being more expensive in Europe compared to the US are higher rates of sales tax (between 10-20%) and that the EU levies import duty on items brought in from "outside" to be sold within Europe.

There is also the longterm $ to European currency rate use. Normally companies take the long view (10-15 years) average on exchange rates when setting prices. At the moment I believe this is roughly $1.60 to each UK pound. Of course at the moment, the rate is more in our favour (at about $1.80 instead), making importing even more advantageous.

Couple that with not having any sales tax levied if you can get away with it, and all people here can essentially pay is the base US price (eg. $150 for a DS) plus the shipping cost to get it here.

[CosmicMonkey]

I do feel that Nintendo treats Europe pretty badly. Every year you get a 'Nintendo Xmas' with Japan and America getting the big Xmas release and the UK getting it in February. And that's if the games actually get here in the first place, such as FF3(6) and MarioRPG. Not wanting to start a major Nintendo rant here, but even you Ninty lovers must admit, the UK gets treated pretty badly.

Thank god Sega woke up to the fact and gave the DC a PAL 60 option on most games. I must also thank Sega for making the MD and Saturn easily region modable too

One good thing about the UK: the chance of going to a Carboot sale on Sunday morning and coming across a minty copy of 32X DarXide or Primal Rage. Or even a Panzer Saga. For the silly price of £3, after you've blatantly haggled.

One more good thing about the UK: RGB Scart. Nuff said there I think.

[Xizer]

I do feel that Nintendo treats Europe pretty badly. Every year you get a 'Nintendo Xmas' with Japan and America getting the big Xmas release and the UK getting it in February. And that's if the games actually get here in the first place, such as FF3(6) and MarioRPG. Not wanting to start a major Nintendo rant here, but even you Ninty lovers must admit, the UK gets treated pretty badly.

Thank god Sega woke up to the fact and gave the DC a PAL 60 option on most games. I must also thank Sega for making the MD and Saturn easily region modable too :)

One good thing about the UK: the chance of going to a Carboot sale on Sunday morning and coming across a minty copy of 32X DarXide or Primal Rage. Or even a Panzer Saga. For the silly price of £3, after you've blatantly haggled.

One more good thing about the UK: RGB Scart. Nuff said there I think.

Nintendo treats the UK badly? Ha ha ha! Says you! You get the STARS CATALOG! The stars catalog is awesome, I'm jealous :(

[chaoticjelly]

Stars Catalogue.. where everything is sold out within 24 hours of it going live on there..

I've got stars, and I dont want to spend them on wallpapers, so thanks for nothing NOE!

[Xizer]

That's why you check in on the catalogue every few hours. That's what I would do, just like I check in on Digital Press every few hours.

[Sam]

Europe for games > New Zealand for games

lol