Over the weekend I received an email, in the middle of all the hate mail, from Ewers asking us for our opinion on the local cost of games in relation to the recent improvement in the exchange rate.
My first thought was that we (South Africa and Oz actually)Â were once again being over charged with the grubby fingers pointing to the variable exchange rate, small market share and the over the top cost of shipping the items to our small market.
However the more I looked into it the more it felt that we were not really being taken for that much of a ride. Take a look at the below table and let me know what you feel.
I have converted all prices to US Dollars using Google’s curreny converter for simplicity… it may not be exactly accurate but we get the point.
Title | SA Cost | US Cost | UK Cost | Oz Cost |
 inFamous |  $88.91 |  $59.99 |  $63.63 | $86.33 |
 Prototype |  $72.65 |  $59.99 |  $63.63 | $86.33 |
 Halo Wars |  $51.92 |  $59.99 |  $60.45 | $78.48 |
 Silent Hill: Homecoming |  $88.91 |  $39.99 |  $60.45 | $94.18 |
 Tiger Woods 2009 |  $69.27 |  $45.99 |  $63.63 | $78.48 |
So once again America is the cheapest place to be a gamer but surprisingly South Africa takes a win on the Halo Wars column. Microsoft has always been very good with their local pricing so I can’t say I am overly surprised.
What does surprise me however is how absolutely shocking Australia’s results are, overpriced on 4 of the 5 titles and only losing out to inFamous by a mere $2.58.
Stay tuned for tomorrows hardware comparison where we will be comparing all the current generation SKU’s over all 3 manufacturers. Will Australia fair this badly again?
Last Updated: May 25, 2009
Rafiq
May 25, 2009 at 12:58
You’re forgetting that the USD prices exclude tax.
easy
May 25, 2009 at 13:10
we may not be doing too badly, but it still does not explain why pc games are half the price of console games.
i’m sure this topic has been brought up before, so please excuse me if its been done to death.
LazySAGamer
May 25, 2009 at 13:10
No… but I didn’t feel like going through 52 states worth of differing taxes and the tax isn’t enough to change the results…
LazySAGamer
May 25, 2009 at 13:23
Every console game sold includes a licensing fee that needs to be paid to the relevant hardware owner… The PC doesn’t have that cost…
That’s the major issue as far as I know
al360rulz
May 25, 2009 at 13:24
well i think when u take into the consideration the markup these resellers put on the titles i think we being ripped off as some titles are triple or quadruple the price that they should be selling the titles for
Atomic
May 25, 2009 at 13:28
I think the only reason for the low price is that Distributors imported too many, and now want to move stock. Launch price of Halo Wars was R700 in shops, same as MK V DCU, I paid R700 for the game at launch, 3 months later it’s selling for R350.
WitWolfyZA
May 25, 2009 at 13:35
Like RE5 R800 its a steep price but oh well…
j4nr1k
May 25, 2009 at 15:06
Silent Hill: Homecoming Was Released in Sept or Oct in the US, hence teh huge price diff.
The game is allready 6 months old in the US…
StarCraft 2 News
May 25, 2009 at 17:42
Interesting post.
I always thought we paid alot more, but now I see how much Oz is screwed over.
ano
May 26, 2009 at 01:36
Did you consider that the cost of items in general more expensive in Australia than U.S? What about the cost of living? What about average salary?
When comparing prices you have to take into account living standards and average cost of merchandises.
LazySAGamer
May 26, 2009 at 03:04
Cost of living in Oz is more expensive than in the States but the average salary is also less…
But I am not trying to completely compute prices I am simply putting down the prices 😉
Abev
May 26, 2009 at 08:49
The cost of living really is where we get screwed though.
$59 in america is half a days wage when you are getting minimum wage. R700 here is a couple days work here.
someone
May 26, 2009 at 10:15
One thing I don’t like about SA is even after a year of a games release its still charge at near full price.
where as in other countries a few months after release they almost half the price.
LazySAGamer
May 26, 2009 at 10:24
Let me just say that it isn’t true in Australia…
GTA IV is still full price and they have only recently dropped Battlefield Bad Company to be at a discounted price in line with Microsoft’s new Classic series.