So the world economy is crashing down around us and our local currency is tanking miserably, Â things are pretty much doom and gloom at the moment. However there is a silver lining to all of this.
Yes game prices are going through the roof but actually getting into gaming has now become cheaper in South Africa than anywhere else in the world.
With the most recent price cuts the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade has now dropped to R1799 and if you keep an eye out you may see some stores offering it for R1599 with a free game or two.Â
So how do we actually compare to our worldwide gaming friends?
Country | Local Price | USD Equivalent |
 USA |  $199 |  $199 |
 South Africa |  R1799 |  $163.84 |
 Australia |  AUD$349 |  $216 |
 UK |  GBP 119 |  $188.63 |
India | Â Rs19990 | Â $399.96 |
Oddly we are now the cheapest place in the world and what is even stranger is that rip off Britain is now second, Australia’s sinking currency has now propelled them into third while you really have to feel for our Indian friends who are now paying nearly three times the price for the Arcade as we are.
*Yes there are many other countries that I haven’t listed and  who are possibly cheaper, please let me know who I missed out and I will happily update it.
[Apologies to whoever first sent me this tip, I lost your details]Last Updated: October 27, 2008
mr guy
October 27, 2008 at 13:46
its £100 in the UK, not £119
StevenMcD
October 27, 2008 at 13:54
yet we still don’t have xbox live…….
LazySAGamer
October 27, 2008 at 14:04
I took the price from Amazon.co.uk if you have a link from a reputable site I would be happy to change it
janrik
October 27, 2008 at 14:08
Coz our Bandwith is 3x more expensive than the rest…
ewie
October 27, 2008 at 14:56
Also remember both us and the UK have vat included n our
prices of 14% and 16 % so in fact it is more like $150 in south Africa if you compare directly to the $199 US price.
If you buy online you don’t pay tax in USA
Fox1
October 27, 2008 at 15:12
💡 I think the economy crisis has worked well in the 360’s favor. Many people may want to buy a console this holiday and may look for the cheapest console. So the price cut could actually make that decision of buying a console during these tough times much easier 😉
Macethy
October 27, 2008 at 15:13
I was thinking last nite that the DO Broadband solutions from Telkom have 20gb local usage every month.can you imagine if Live came to SA? 😀
Macethy
October 27, 2008 at 15:15
Yeah but soon buying two games for the console is going to cost you more than buying the console itself 🙄
Bboy
October 27, 2008 at 16:21
Umm… this is fuzzy logic. The rand depreciating doesn’t make the xbox cheaper for us. It makes it cheaper for people who don’t own rands.
“getting into gaming has now become cheaper in South Africa than anywhere else in the world.” provided you not buying with rands.
Who knows, maybe an incredible flood of indians buying xboxes from SA will turn our economy around ;p
Fox1
October 27, 2008 at 18:08
One year old games for the 360 sell for R199 😛
Ace
October 27, 2008 at 19:03
How about doing a ps3 one?
LazySAGamer
October 27, 2008 at 21:46
The PS3 is well priced when measuring against PAL territories but is quite a bit cheaper in the US than here.
The 40Gb model is around R3200 in America while it retails for R4800 here, which is the same price as the UK and Australia.
Ollie
November 2, 2009 at 13:56
I’m looking for the cheapest xbox in South Africa, and where is it available.
LazySAGamer
November 2, 2009 at 14:45
Not sure who exactly is the cheapest now but look at http://www.kalahari.net, http://www.btgames.co.za, http://www.zaps.co.za
Justin
April 14, 2010 at 14:19
Where is a good place to buy an Xbox360 nowadays? Surely it must be quite cheap by now…?