Fellow Canadians, new game prices are being raised $5-$10.

Take that, four month old joke comment!

Yikes! Hope that doesn't happen in the states anytime soon.

The net result here is that by forcing this cost onto us, canadians will buy less games per year. Our pay isn't 10% higher than the US, and canadian developed games like Watch Dogs are still based on US pricing. I know the industry loves to cry poor, but you can't get blood from a stone, and all price hikes will do is reduce sales and increase the volume of used games being sold.

I'll go to Steam before i'll pay retailer prices now - because at least then I am being charged the ACTUAL exchange rate from my bank, not what some retailer or publisher thinks it is. A $10 increase on $60 USD is 16%. The actual difference between currencies is 8-9%. Even if I add extra for bank fees, that is still a gross exaggeration of the actual price difference. $5 would have been nearer to the mark.

What disgusts me the most, is that not one company even thought about lowering their prices up here when a canadian dollar was worth $1.10 USD in 2008-2009. Just proves that the game industry is as we all know, purely focused on profit and nothing else. I choose to be the same, and will feel no remorse over buying used games going forward. Publishers want to look out for their bottom line, well so do I.

That said, i've noticed Amazon.ca is frequently cutting the price down to $59.99 on many new games before and just after release.

I'd be more likely to buy the "paying for socialist programs" thing if it were in fact, a tax hike, and not a straight price hike before taxes are applied. We already pay more for our 'socialism', as our sales tax is 10-15% compared to much lower sales tax rates in the states.

Here in mexico we pay about 75 dollars for every new game ever since the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out, so... I just hope prices don't raise any further.

This is why you should just buy games using Steam gift cards.

The dollar might go down, but your Steam wallet will always be consistent.

@poser: My local EB Games doesn't accept Steam gift cards.

@corvak: What a goofball. Did you write all that just to try and convince yourself buying used games is okay?

@hunkulese: No, I have never heard a convincing argument against buying used.

Inflation might be low, but it's not nonexistent. I've been saying for awhile that we here in the states should expect to be paying higher rates again soon. One nice thing about indie games though is that they've de-standardized prices to the point that companies can charge what they need - up to 60 bucks. I think that what we've seen is that companies have been trying to get a "stealth" 70-80-100 bucks per copy with their deluxe editions and various other incentives, and those are the prices they really need to make their margins.

Bump for an update.

It looks like games may be going up another $5 soon. Some games are already $75 at EB. MGSV, The Elder Scrolls Online Unlimited, Doom, Dead Island 2. Not sure if this will be a common thing but I don't like the odds.

Including tax, in Ontario at least, it'll be $84.73 for one standard edition game. What are they thinking? If they're looking for people like me to buy fewer games per year then mission accomplished, I guess?

@omega: That's basically on level with what we were paying in the PS2 era here in NFLD, when the exchange rate was typically between $.67-$.73. Take inflation into account and game prices are still lower than what they once were.

@mosespippy: I get what you're saying I understand exchange rates and the loss of value of the Canadian dollar, but that doesn't make the strain on my wallet hurt less. I just cannot afford to spend that much on a game. There are a lot of people in the same boat who would have bought a game like MGS:V if it were $60, grumbled about it at $70 and now at $75 have hit their breaking point and said "I'll wait for a price drop." What's more important an extra $15 on the price of a game or the loss of a sale all together?

@omega: At $15 more revenue per sale that pays for a lost sale after just 5 copies sold. So if sales drop by less than 1/6th then it's a net positive.

Let's not even get into what insane mirror universe Sony get their PSN prices from because they are astrological in comparison to any other outlet.

@mosespippy: Your mild mannered take on this is making me less angry and more depressed. I guess I'll just have to deal with it no matter how unfair it seems.

I've been digital for awhile now. Not only digital but pretty much exclusively under 20 pounds per game budgeted(it works if you wait for Steam sales), i'm basically always 1-2 years behind you guys. Exceptions I made are Diablo 3(expansion-less) and Dark Souls 2.

@confusedowl: that's some bs. I already pay $80. I'll be paying 86 fucking dollars for a game if they go up to 74.99

Does this mean I should be pre-ordering all the Wii U games I want before the price goes up again? Or does that not affect the final payment?

This sucks so bad. If I didn't have Nintendo consoles then maybe I wouldn't be as angry, but I'm still not happy now that I'm probably going to wait a while before jumping in on a PS4.

If you are pre-ordering from an online retailer it might be a good idea, but if you pre-order from EB the price of your pre-order will still go up because they don't have price protection like Amazon (Pretty sure that's the same for any store).

Most of my apathy here comes from the fact that I was already buying fewer and fewer games as more and more games are following a formula set by games I've already played. The reason I don't have a PS4 or XO is because nothing on them has been interesting to me, except maybe D4. If you look at my top 10 of 1014 I only have 3 retail games on it, and I'm not particularly fond of any of them in the grand scheme of things.

Yeeeeaaah, I'm not gonna buy a standard version of a game for 80 bucks. Fuuuuuuuuuuck that.

australia is stuck between 90 and 120, though I havent seen a game for 120 in a while.

@mosespippy: Top 10 games of 1014: Chess, Jousting, Wrestling, Football, and 6 different variations on dice.

Take it up with the queen tee hee.

Yeah, prices are getting pretty rough. Glad I didn't get either of the new consoles because over $80 for a game is insane. Luckily, things seem to go on sale faster on PC.

It is kinda amusing that when our dollar was 10-15 cents higher than the US dollar, prices didn't reflect that (usually they matched US prices), yet now that it's 20 cents lower suddenly we have this 20-25% increase in prices.

Well... shit. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later.

Thanks, Alberta.

Yes...how funny

*eye twitch*

Dang. Guess even going all digital isn't going to help. Probably not a bad thing I cancelled a whole mess of pre-orders when i was told my job would be terminated at the end of the month!

@ben_h said:

I don't recall a time when the Canadian dollar was ever 10-15 cents higher than the US dollar. For just over a week in November of 2011, the Canadian dollar fluctuated from within a range of 6-9 cents over the US dollar, but that's it. Other than that, when the Canadian dollar was almost in equivalency with the US dollar for extended periods, it jumped around plus or minus a few cents. I'm not an economist, but a few cents of fluctuation beyond equivalency doesn't warrant much change in standard market price for goods, if any.

As for the recent increase in game prices, obviously as a gamer I am not a fan. However, the price in Canada isn't far off from what people are spending in the United States. Current standard in the US is $59.99 for console games, which translates to about $74.92CDN. Most games in Canada are $64.99-$69.99, which actually translates to Canadians paying less than what the Canadian dollar is worth on the global market. In fact, the most recent price on some newer titles of $74.99CDN actually brings Canadian game prices in line with what people are spending in the US.

When sales tax is brought into the equation, things change a bit, albeit slightly. Between the most taxed state in the US and the most taxed province in Canada, the Canadian will pay ~5% more on a game that costs $74.99CDN. If they were purchasing a $69.99CDN game, they would actually end up paying ~1.8% less. If you compare the median rate of taxation between the two countries (excluding Canadian territories, Alberta, non-taxed states, and Alaska), the Canadian will pay ~6.2% more on a game that costs $74.99CDN, and ~0.9% less on a game priced at $69.99CDN.

I'll say again that I'm not a fan of game prices going up, even more so if the $74.99CDN price point becomes the new standard, which seems likely. In Canada, though, we are definitely not paying 20-25% more than what people in the US are paying when considering what our currency is currently worth. Hopefully we'll see the Canadian dollar regain its value in the coming year so that prices drop, but as it stands, pricing trends are happening for a reason, and although I don't like it, it makes sense.

The problem with the math in Canada vs. US retail products debate is that it leaves so much out of the equation:

• Average Income levels vs. cost of living in each market (compare the minimum and average hourly wages in Canada and the US, and the costs of necessary goods and you see that both tend to be much higher in Canada)
• Economy of scale (the state of California has a larger population than our whole damn country; retailers in Canada are smaller and operate on far less volume)
• Retailer's costs (I definitely have no idea what a brick & mortar operation's costs are in Canada vs. the US though you can certainly argue they have to transport good further or with an additional middleman or level of bureaucracy/customs, and lease rates may also be higher)
• Prices in comparable markets (we are not on par with the US on either of the two point listed above) - compare with a place like Australia or Europe and we are doing not too badly

@whitegreyblack: @wallzii: (I don't want to derail this thread, but I'm moved to say that I've been having a bit of a bummer of a day, and seeing both of your calm, thorough reasoning about a topic that is usually nothing but irrational complaining and misplaced blame really cheers me up. Thank you.)

@joshwent: I find it that GB can be a nice place to be when I'm having a bad day.

I actually am a bit peeved with the prospect of a game price increase, but it does no good to get angry about it. I'm happier and healthier if I stay calm and continue to do what I do - play my backlog while I patiently wait for every game to hit $20 at EB, Best Buy or Amazon!

I suppose I'll just continue to do what I did the first time the prices went up: not buy any new full-price games. Thankfully on PC you can usually get away with paying $45 for new titles, and I think that's a lot more reasonable, so I'll either buy it there or wait for the prices to drop for console titles. If people are going to be willing to pay $85 to play the new titles right as they come out then so be it, but I'll continue to be content just to wait a few months and get it for half the price. Personally, I just can't justify spending a little shy of $100 on a single game, when by waiting a little bit I could get 4-5 for the same amount. Obviously the thing with waiting is you're not part of the main discussion regarding a specific title, and you always run the risk of someone throwing out spoilers without forewarning because they played the game a whole two months ago, but otherwise I don't find waiting to be that big of a deal.

FYI: Steam is set to canadian dollars now but since they dont have any offices in Canada they don't charge tax.

@re_player1: Target is normally pretty good about consistent prices in the USA, but I heard they bungled their Canadian launch pretty bad so I don't know the state of their company up there. If it's anything like the USA it may be the one big box retailer you can kind of feel good about going to, as they treat their employees well, pay them well, and tend to be a positive force in the community.

They're not doing too good.