Any of you who frequent the forum will already know about this but for the rest of you I recommend sitting down… I would actually be interested to hear if anyone browses the Internet standing up, but if you are sit down now.
Mi Digital who are the local Xbox 360 distributors have announced to the retailers that the price of the Xbox 360 is going through the roof in January and dragging all the Microsoft first party titles with it.
As of January 2009 the new prices of the Xbox 360 as confirmed by Kalahari.net and Take2 (since MiDigital didn’t deem us worthy of a press release) are as follows
Arcade increased by R700 to R2 499
60 GB increased by R1 100 to R3 799
Elite increased by R1 500 to R4999
If that wasn’t bad enough they have also announced the new RRP for their AAA games will be R999, a thousand Rand a game.. that is insane.
But before we go completely off the high side lets compare it to our overseas compatriots in Rands.
| South Africa | Australia | USA | UK | |
| Arcade | R2 499 | R1 975 | R2 046 | R1 872 |
| 60 GB | R3 799 | R2 635 | R3 074 | R2 506 |
| Elite | R4 999 | R3 626 | R4 102 | R3 155 |
So we need to still add the tax onto the American prices, add 4% tax to the Ozzie prices and remove an extra 3% tax of the UK price
Which leaves us being royally screwed, The Arcade’s new price is idiotically high but at least it nearly competes with the rest of the world, however the 60GB and Elite prices are completely over the top and indefensible.
These are the current exchange rates and there are no indications that the Rand is about to plummet, oil prices have fallen through the floor which makes transporting the goods cheaper and the prices I am comparing to already include the retailers mark up overseas so it’s not like that can be added on either.
The forums are obviously very upset with this news and who could blame them, there is a lot of talk about piracy which isn’t a solution. Stealing because someone is charging to much is not a valid defense.
However there is also a lot of talk about moving back to PC gaming which is now looking like the cheaper way to go. I became a console game because of the ease of use and simplicity around it and that I was bored of continously updating my PC. However at this price I can get myself a tip top graphics card and a couple of games and still have some money left over to pick up a case of beers.
It must be noted that this is only MiDigital profiteering and the rest of the distributors have not made any announcements as of yet.
The informal news is that EA Games is still trying to keep the price of AAA games under R599 while Megarom and SK are doing their best to keep the prices under R699.
As much as it pains me to recommend using stores that are not local I would like to point out that DVD Crave and Play-Asia both reliably ship to SA and unless MiDigital retract these price increases I would highly recommend buying all your Microsoft titles from one of those two stores.
You see it’s not like the international price is going up, just our local one.
Last Updated: December 6, 2008
Roland Browning
December 6, 2008 at 06:47
Double OUCH!
Banana hammock
December 6, 2008 at 08:16
Are we sure this isn’t some mis-information to boost holiday sales?
Doesn’t seem possible that the prices can go that much higher for no reason at all.
Fox1
December 6, 2008 at 08:20
But… but… but I paid R4700 for an Elite
Think about it for a minute. The rand has lost 30-40% of it’s value so it makes sense to increase the price by that margin.
Oh and PC prices have also increased locally by atleast 20%. I wanted to upgraded my old Athlon64 🙁
Sketch
December 6, 2008 at 08:48
What about the Wii and PS3? Will their prices increase as well?
Macethy
December 6, 2008 at 09:08
I paid R2000 for my 60GB pro a month ago at an Incredible Connection opening special
This does seem like a rather large increase, but I can live with it as long as petrol just stays down.
Scotty777
December 6, 2008 at 09:12
well hey, looks like a lot of kids are going to using there xbox to do music and dvd’s lol… and what sort of person would buy a piece of software at R1000 that will last a month? I mean, most people buy a windows disk at that price, but windows can be used for up to 3-4 years… I’m sorry, this is just madness… how can you 1stly just lower the price and then bump it back up? that sounds like a mean kid dangling a steak in front of a dog…
eyesuc
December 6, 2008 at 10:28
if Core can do it, so can MiD…
expect an announcement from SK soon
xyber
December 6, 2008 at 10:29
Its allready bad enough that console games cost double that of PC, now they wanna make it 3 times that?
Think its time I park my PC next to the TV with a few 360 controllers attached 😀
Seriously, who’s can justify console gaming when these games hit R1000 a pop, thats almost 3 PC games depending on what titles you look for.
koldFU5iON
December 6, 2008 at 10:47
I must say I’ve also been taken back by these prices as far as I understand it MS did a very “kind” service with keeping their console lower for the Christmas season everyone knew that prices would have to go up at some point but MS saw it and took advantage of the then lower price and managed to secure a lower price for their console for the silly season, so what’s the verdict? get in now while it’s still affordable.
on a side note the Financial recession is worst in the UK where we get all our games from so once they sort themselves out then we’ll start to see something… I’m sure…. I hope *gulp*
MaxiViper
December 6, 2008 at 15:52
A THOUSAND RAND A GAME, if that happens people are probably going to go on strike!!
MaxiViper
December 6, 2008 at 15:52
AND SO WILL I
bokka1
December 6, 2008 at 18:34
This is insane. I won’t pay R1000 a game and I personally give permission to anybody to give me a PK if I do. R600 is pushing it already.
Valante
December 6, 2008 at 19:25
Wow that’s insane!
An Elite is more expensive than a PS3!
The PS3 wont be affected and R1000 a game is just horrible. PS3 exclusive’s are R900 and on Blu-ray!
I find it sad that a Country who has a low avarage salary get the Highest prices while the UK gets the lowest prices with High Salaries.
Shocking
Fudzy
December 6, 2008 at 21:13
Ah bugger. Well back to PC gaming for me then.
Ace
December 7, 2008 at 00:24
If ps3 games start costing R1000 i think i’ll sell my console.
but really what better way to promote piracy than to charge that much for a game. you xbox guys are lucky you can play copied games…
Macethy
December 7, 2008 at 08:20
Well I’m sorted with the console but the games. . .Wow a thousand bucks for a game?Not a F@cken chance!Think I’ll start buying 2nd hand games or import from overseas if that happens 🙄
Scotty777
December 7, 2008 at 09:45
ha ha ha, I’m already ahead of you there. I can only afford 2nd hand games or old titles
onelargeprawn
December 7, 2008 at 11:03
At R1000 a game, I’m definitely resorting to importing (bet you thought I was going to say piracy). Places like eBay and CDWOW will be seeing more of me.
eyesuc
December 7, 2008 at 11:59
wait, who brings the xbox into the country? MS or MiD? i thought it was MiD 😯
our prices used to be inline with US and UK, now it is more inline with the Core prices… bastards…
Top
December 7, 2008 at 15:52
Using copies is going to happen, even if people try to pretend it is the same as stealing a physical object. Many people would rather do this than import or they’re oblivious to how easy it is to import on your own. I take the attitude I always have – if local companies want my business they’re going to have to offer me something worthwhile at an acceptable price. If not they can crash and burn. I’ll be importing. Others will be modifying their consoles.
RivaZA
December 7, 2008 at 16:19
Hang on, I remember the price of MID games being 499 – 599 last year. Then the was an increase to 699-750 because of the rand falling. Where does this 1000 price come from?
Nick
December 7, 2008 at 19:09
This is actually just downright unacceptable. Also, if it is only MI Digital this is upping the prices then we will be sitting in a scenario where they are taking advantage just because they can and because they know that they had the cheapest console, so why not bump the price up higher, not cool.
This is absolutely ridiculous and you can be sure that if prices go up this much that piracy and importing will go through the roof, leaving the local retailers (especially the smaller guys) screwed.
Just disgusting.
BHW
December 7, 2008 at 20:53
These figures are pretty much in line with the exchange rate fluctuations and in dollar terms we would be paying the same price as before the sh!t hit the financial fan. Now if SK has do adopt the same strategy the PS3 should be increasing to approx R7500-00 for the 80 Gb model. Cant imagine anyone forking out that kind of cash for a console
Scotty777
December 7, 2008 at 21:54
hmmmm….lazy, these numbers seems a bit to high IMO… maybe you looking for some extra hits during the weekend? maybe you trying to make it seem as though you not bias towards the xbox…
maybe I’m wrong, but it just seems that way
LazySAGamer
December 7, 2008 at 22:18
These prices have been confirmed by a representative from Take2 and Kalahari.
Take2 – http://www.take2.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20122
PS3ZA – http://www.ps3za.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=16428
Johnn0
December 8, 2008 at 00:27
Obviously the weaker rand must be taken into account but a huge jump like this is ridiculous!It is not nearly in-line with the drop in the rand as distributors do not pay retail price per console or per game from the US or UK, they get bulk distributor pricing!
Strange that about a week after a fuss (articles like this: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Gaming/6208.html ) is made about the X360 locally being about 13% cheaper than the rest of the world suddenly there is a price increase… Me thinks someone saw an opportunity to make some extra cash by exploiting South Africans again.
RRP’s for some PS3 games are already R999 (MotorStorm 2, R2 and LBP) strange that when a company has a monopoly on supply that the “cost” to bring the goods into the country suddenly double.
Johnn0
December 8, 2008 at 00:36
@Lazy: my first post is missing?
As an individual, I can import GoW2 ($59.95) from Tronix with FedEx shipping ($16.00) for cheaper than the local distributor? BS! This should not be possible! It works out to R781.50 using the current exchange rates!
LazySAGamer
December 8, 2008 at 01:07
Yeah when you put links in they often end up in my spam folder that I check around 5 times a day…
It has been freed 😉
Atomic
December 8, 2008 at 08:50
Prices should have increased by no more than 28% between August and now thanks to the devaluation of the Rand, that said, and transport costs should be decreasing thanks to the oil price, therefore limiting the increase to between 20 and 25%, not 40% Seriously 2.0! – this is not justified, but once again, if a company has sole import rights, they can do whatever they want.
Milesh Bhana ZA
December 8, 2008 at 09:14
The Wii has increased, R4000 RRP.
Scotty777
December 8, 2008 at 09:41
gamers, lets go on strike 😀
Johnn0
December 8, 2008 at 11:22
lol, Thanks.
Wolfy
December 8, 2008 at 11:57
damn i hate our economy
Wolfy
December 8, 2008 at 11:59
you know what if they want to motivate piracy so be it, its times like these where you need 2 consoles one for originals and for xbox live . And the second for for you pirated games.. i hate pirates but this is making me consider it strongly. They wanna but rape us bring it on
Wolfy
December 8, 2008 at 12:08
its always funny that we get the sort side of the stick really, so they lowered prices like by R800 and then boost it back the way it was when they just released it hahahaha omg those damn console mod shops are gonna have a field day now
yetsta
December 9, 2008 at 07:51
😕 3500 != 4000
Flint
December 11, 2008 at 16:23
“It must be noted that this is only MiDigital profiteering and the rest of the distributors have not made any announcements as of yet.”
That would be because they already applied their increases months ago when the Rand started to tank. It’s a wonder the Xbox prices could be kept as low as they have been for as long as they have-forward thinking on Mi’s part.
Before accusing Mi and MS of profiteering take a sideways glance at a certain margin obsessed company that sells the supposedly ‘mass market’ Wii at over R3k
LazySAGamer
December 11, 2008 at 21:56
Yes you are right, I did say the same thing about Core when the Wii was increased though and I didn’t want to raise it again in this story as it takes away from what I feel Mi are now doing
Africantime
January 2, 2009 at 12:20
i am maybe too late for this party, BUT first off you cant compare Uk, USA or any other country’s prices with South Africa, the price of a console or games must be calculated accordinlgy with each economy and average earing, it cannot be the same price here as in the UK!! But even thats a lie, because in the Uk Play.com sells their new Prince of Persia for 18 pounds free delivery, thats comes to about 250 rands???? Here any website or retailer sells it at 700 rand???? To all you people who support communism and socialism, and monoplies and stand in they way of free market a big FU!!!!!!!!1
Africantime
January 2, 2009 at 13:02
i have still a lot more to say, lets carry on with the comparsion prices, as said above you cannot compare, but i also forget in my rage of fury to forget other facts, in SA we dont have official Xbox live yet, so should this already take down the price of games here as we do not have full functionality of the game, i mean the main reason why people in the USA buy the expensive game once released is to play on live, if they didnt have live, they wouldnt accept the price of just released games. the only reason why some of us saffa’s can play live is when we lie about where we live, and even then we can only basically play with Frikkie from Brakpan, as international live for us is a lagfest, so the moral of the story is lie, steal, cheat and copy!! Because i am not going to pay a thousand bucks to play games, i already dont accept the prices of games now, and i am not going to met funny(and i dont mean funny ha ha ha) dudes from Gumtree to swap or buy second hands games as they might try and rape you!! i wait till the hype around a games dies down and the retailers lower the price as i dont have live yet(and it looks like i will never have it) so no need for me to get the game as soon as possible!!
Africantime
January 2, 2009 at 13:33
At 2008.12.11 16:23, Flint said:
“It must be noted that this is only MiDigital profiteering and the rest of the distributors have not made any announcements as of yet.â€
That would be because they already applied their increases months ago when the Rand started to tank. It’s a wonder the Xbox prices could be kept as low as they have been for as long as they have-forward thinking on Mi’s part.
Before accusing Mi and MS of profiteering take a sideways glance at a certain margin obsessed company that sells the supposedly ‘mass market’ Wii at over R3k
Flint, are you joining the communist party any time soon, you would be a great addition to the cause, “It’s a wonder the Xbox prices could be kept as low as they have been for as long as they have-forward thinking on Mi’s part”
kept as low??WTF?? forward thinking??
Andrew Brown
November 15, 2009 at 15:49
Xbox 360 Price Increase – Madness Absolute Madness
This is my first time to your site, as I do not support ANY game console, but I was blown away at the prices of two new games available or coming to Xbox360, Forza and Assassins Creed II, R999.00 and R699.00 respectively. And this was at BT Games. So I started trolling the web locally, hence here I am.
Now I know why, again I re-enforce my statement, that I will never own or allow my kids to own any game console (until they are out of my house, beyond 18 and earning their own income). Now don’t get me wrong, I am not here bashing any of the consoles, they have come a long way and do look like fun, my personal choice is the WII. But the prices being charged for software, compared to the exact P.C. version is outrageous and shocking, and this is what will keep me away.
You made a statement about, and I quote “Stealing because someone is charging too much is not a valid defense” unquote, REALLY, so why are corporations under the guise of legal business, selling and profit making, while openly and blatantly charging ridiculous prices for their goods, are allowed to steal from us. Just because there is a price tag attached, does not justify ANY business to charge outrageous prices. When are we going to vote with our cash and freeze or close down these companies. So I say piracy is an answer until it really hurts their bottom line and they change or go out of business. I see too many South Africans, who must “have” it no matter what. Man where are our values.
For R4999.00 one can buy an entry level computer which will play games as well as that console, and can do a hell of a lot more than a console. Plus to code for a console is straight forward compared to a P.C. as the hardware is static from the day the device is launched year in and year out, so the coders code for one platform, while there are hundreds of configurations and hardware mixed and matched for P.C., yet P.C. games still hold onto R299.00, R350.00 and R375.00, still expensive but a lot better than the cost of any console game.
We should boycott all software, then when the distributors and the retailers are not making sales, and they have to lay off staff, they will join us in rectifying the situation. We could bring in from overseas, which I do but our customs and excise have caught on and are slapping on big taxes. So we are in a catch 22, let’s fix it.
Regards