- Target:
- Steam and offending game publishers (Activision etc)
- Region:
- Australia
Price gouging is a ridiculous practice that for the last few years Australians (and others) have had to put up with for the last few years from Steam and other digital distributers. We realise that Steam may not set the prices (I love Steam it's great), but as they allow this to happen they are also at fault. Some stores we simply cannot buy games from, as they do not want us getting US prices.
The price of our games is sometimes triple that to other countries and many AAA releases are $40-$50 more compared to their US counterparts. A few examples being:
Batman Arkham City: US price is $49.99, Aus price is $99.99 (double the price, $50 more expensive!)
Modern Warfare 3: US price is $59.99, Aus price is $99.99
Modern Warfare 2: US price is $29.99, Aus price is $89.99 (triple the price for a two year old game)
LA Noire (which at first was on parity to the US): US price is $49.99, Aus price is $89.99
With retail games, for years we have had to put up with these stupidly high prices due to a plethora of excuses (taxes, shipping, production costs, store-front costs etc) but digitally distributed games do not have any of these costs and hence this is why they should be a lot cheaper than retail counterparts.
Not only are our games more expensive but we pay in US dollars (hence get hit with conversion fees as well), is this a tactic to make us believe that we aren't paying more and are purchasing from the US store?
These price gouging practices are leading many people to get their games through other means, whether it be via: import, VPN, dodgy CD key sites, a friend gifting it, sellers (thanks GMG) that aren't ripping us off (that will more than likely price gouge us in the future too) or by sailing the seas (which many would do just on principle, if you want to screw us over, we'll screw you over). We are being forced to use alternative measures, which none of us want to do.
As an example of how stupid price gouging is: I was going to buy Batman Arkham City for $50 as that was a very reasonable price to pay for a AAA new release game, that I wanted, however it was increased to $100 ($50 more, for the EXACT SAME PRODUCT). I will now not be buying it until it's less than $10. That is a lost sale (and not the only one), profit and a very nice review
Here are the links to the US and Aus Steam stores, see for yourself how bad it is
http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=us
http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=au
We are sick of being price gouged and many simply refuse to pay extra any more. Hopefully this petition will make game publishers aware of the people they are angering and the sales they are losing and eventually lead to parity with US game prices.
We, the undersigned, call on Steam, other digital distributors and game publishers to stop the price gouging of digitally distributed games in Australia (and other countries), by making them parity to the US.
It is ridiculous and insulting that you expect us to pay, in some cases, triple the amount that US citizens do.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Lower prices of digitally distributed games, stop the price gouging petition to Steam and offending game publishers (Activision etc) was written by Carl Sieger and is in the category Gaming at GoPetition.