I feel bad for gamer's in Australia

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IIDrltaSNAKEII

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I don't know much about Australia other then every deadly thing on the planet is there. The pricing on games are disgusting! There's no justification for the pricing of the games. Gamers in Aus are being forced to import games and that's a huge risk(don't know much about importing). Last of us cost $98 bucks and and a Xbox one controller cost $99. There's just no justification. I don't even want to know how much gum cost's in that country.

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bigjeffrey

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#2  Edited By bigjeffrey
No Caption Provided

Import a Xbox ONE from the US

Import Some Games

Import Some Controllers

SAVE MONEY

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deactivated-630b11c195a3b

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No Caption Provided

Import a Xbox ONE from the US

Import Some Games

Import Some Controllers

SAVE MONEY

I import mostly from Europe but close enough. Though importing consoles would be hell-off expensive bearing in mind shipping costs.

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moonwalksa

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#4  Edited By moonwalksa

From what I little understand about the Australian games market, their government really fucking hates videogames or something, or at least they used to. I don't know any details, but it seems like that's what a lot of complaints I've heard from Aus gamers eventually lead to.

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probablytuna

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More and more people are resorting to importing from overseas because of Australia's inflated prices, although some local stores have been making some games cheaper over the past few years (JB HiFi) so that console games are roughly $79 AUD and PC games $69. I pray that the prices for PS4/Xbone games do not increase but I'm sure they'll find an excuse to gouge more money.

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BeachThunder

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Only one gamer?

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ch3burashka

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#7  Edited By ch3burashka

GAMER'S WHAT? WHAT ARE THEY POSSESSING THAT YOU ARE REFERRING TO?!!!

And that flag has like 20 stars to many (11 to be precise).

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TruthTellah

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#8  Edited By TruthTellah

@iidrltasnakeii: Here's an article that goes into some of the theories behind what keeps Australian game prices up: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/11/why-do-videogames-cost-so-much/

Ultimately, the "easy" answer is that it's a mess, with a mix of corporate and government interests making it easy for one area to ease and another to tighten. It maintains the status quo and the prices stay high.

The prices probably should be a bit higher than some other places in the world, but they shouldn't be as high as they are now.

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heavyplay

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#9  Edited By heavyplay

It's because the market supports that price. Probably because of the higher average wage over here or something. Also because idiots will pre-order a game for $90, when you can just walk into JB (US equivalent is probably Best Buy) on day one and pick it up for $70 or something. Or if you're willing to wait, order it from play-asia or the UK or something for even less.

Yeah it sucks, but it's been that way for as long as I can remember (and I've been gaming since the Colecovision) and I don't see it changing. The cost of living here is generally higher than average. As a reference, a medium coffee will typically cost $4 at a cafe, a 600ml coke is around $3.50. Don't even get me started on house prices.

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Cleron

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#10  Edited By Cleron

It's about the best it has been in ages due to GMG, Oz Game Shop & Steam. I have more choice today then I can ever remember having, although it's not "healthy" in the long run for game retailers in Oz. Still It's easy enough to pick up cheaper titles, but if you walk into just about any IRL store other then JB HiFi you are going to be deeply disappointed with the prices. Gamestop/EB Games is actually one of the worst places you can go.

Current prices for next gen from GS/EB is $599 for XOne & $549 for PS4, witch over all is pretty dam good for Australia. We have a 10% GST tax so your $499 XOne jumps up to $550 from that alone & when you factor in Shipping & Staff the $50 of fat is still fair. The PS4 ? not as good given that there's a $109 gap between the US & AU prices (after factoring in the $40 of GST).

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SchrodngrsFalco

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Their costs are higher, but what's their economy like? What's their minimum wage? Cost of living? These are all things you have to consider when looking at price comparisons.

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mrfizzy

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To be totally honest our prices have been getting significantly better over the last few years, I would love for them to be cheaper but they aren't as bad as they used to be. Yes the cost of living here is high compared to the US but our minimum wage is also $16 an hour and we don't tip. If you are going to bitch about the price anything in this country it is the price of real estate.

Also no, our government does not somehow "hate games". For a long time we didn't have an R18+ rating for them but that was changed last year and in reality not having that meant that violent games were more often just classified at a lower rating rather than being banned.

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IIDrltaSNAKEII

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Vinny_Says

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#14  Edited By Vinny_Says

yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

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ShadowConqueror

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Gamer's what?

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lasergreen

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@vinny_says: I think its $15.96 an hour, that's what it says on the 'Fair Work Australia' (government) website anyway.

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Darji

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#18  Edited By Darji

It is the same in Germany actually. We normally pay 60 Euro for a console game. If it goes totally wrong it can be even 70 Euro which is 85-95 Australian Dollar.

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mrfizzy

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yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$16 an hour assuming you aren't under 21. Generally if you work on Sunday (eg. in retail) or on a public holiday you get paid more for the hours worked on that day. For example last week I worked Monday which was the Queen's Birthday public holiday, I worked 4 hours, got paid for 8.

Keep in mind there is more or less zero tipping here except for maybe hospitality and even then it isn't that common.

Also I'm not sure how it works in the US but here you get paid more if you are a casual worker, that is you don't have set hours each week, you may get tons of hours or you may get none and you have no contract so lots of flexability. I'm 23 and work in retail as a casual while I'm at university and I get $22 and hour as my normal rate and about $32 and hour when I work Sundays. Casual suits me as it is easy to change my hours each semester as my timetable changes and my boss can give me extra hours if we are busy etc.

To give some perspective, an average t-shirt here costs probably $20, that is for like a brand name but not designer or anything. A large McDonalds meal costs about $8-10. Cars are way more expensive here than in the US and petrol here costs a ton but not as much as Europe.

Ask me any other examples you want.

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deactivated-630b11c195a3b

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yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$15.96 per hour. In Australia we believe in the importance of paying wages which people can actually almost live on.

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Vinny_Says

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@mrfizzy said:

@vinny_says said:

yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$16 an hour assuming you aren't under 21. Generally if you work on Sunday (eg. in retail) or on a public holiday you get paid more for the hours worked on that day. For example last week I worked Monday which was the Queen's Birthday public holiday, I worked 4 hours, got paid for 8.

Keep in mind there is more or less zero tipping here except for maybe hospitality and even then it isn't that common.

Also I'm not sure how it works in the US but here you get paid more if you are a casual worker, that is you don't have set hours each week, you may get tons of hours or you may get none and you have no contract so lots of flexability. I'm 23 and work in retail as a casual while I'm at university and I get $22 and hour as my normal rate and about $32 and hour when I work Sundays. Casual suits me as it is easy to change my hours each semester as my timetable changes and my boss can give me extra hours if we are busy etc.

To give some perspective, an average t-shirt here costs probably $20, that is for like a brand name but not designer or anything. A large McDonalds meal costs about $8-10. Cars are way more expensive here than in the US and petrol here costs a ton but not as much as Europe.

Ask me any other examples you want.

Since you make $22 an hour as a retail clerk (how many years of working there?), something that absolutely nobody in the US or Canada would ever even come close to, do you feel the complaints are justified when it comes to games costing ~$100 in your country? (I went to the aussie apple store and it looked like everything was +30 to +100 dollars more expensive than N.A. so kind of similar markups right?)

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inkerman

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Since you make $22 an hour as a retail clerk (how many years of working there?), something that absolutely nobody in the US or Canada would ever even come close to, do you feel the complaints are justified when it comes to games costing ~$100 in your country? (I went to the aussie apple store and it looked like everything was +30 to +100 dollars more expensive than N.A. so kind of similar markups right?)

I do, because it's not just games that are more expensive, everything is, so $100 for a game is still a massive expenditure for someone like a student with a part time job, particularly because rent in Australia is also insane.

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ThePickle

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I feel like looking at prices alone is only getting a small part of the story. Last of Us costs 98 Australian dollars, but what is an Australian dollar. It needs to be weighed against the cost of living. New games are 59.99 in the US, but gas is like $4 a gallon.

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Cleron

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#24  Edited By Cleron

I'd argue that it's closer to 14 dollars (Hours worked vs weekly salary). I know the law tries to make out that it's 16, but casuals are disposable gap fillers. It's the salary man who you will find in any normal permanent position where there's not a 24h roster to fill, and when there is a 24h roster it's kids who make up the bulk of the work force, because they cost the least & are easy as hell to replace.

As for games I'd argue that $70 to $75 is fair, but more then that no & as it stands I don't even pay that at the moment so It's a non issue. Even the new console prices are pretty much the best I've ever seen at a launch.

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eskimo

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#25  Edited By eskimo

Part of the problem is that the Australian dollar recently went up by a significant value, so the cost of importing games decreased a lot, but the retailers kept charging the same price even though they had increased their profits. Probably a smart move on their part, as the AUD is starting to tank after a few strong years.

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mrfizzy

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@mrfizzy said:

@vinny_says said:

yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$16 an hour assuming you aren't under 21. Generally if you work on Sunday (eg. in retail) or on a public holiday you get paid more for the hours worked on that day. For example last week I worked Monday which was the Queen's Birthday public holiday, I worked 4 hours, got paid for 8.

Keep in mind there is more or less zero tipping here except for maybe hospitality and even then it isn't that common.

Also I'm not sure how it works in the US but here you get paid more if you are a casual worker, that is you don't have set hours each week, you may get tons of hours or you may get none and you have no contract so lots of flexability. I'm 23 and work in retail as a casual while I'm at university and I get $22 and hour as my normal rate and about $32 and hour when I work Sundays. Casual suits me as it is easy to change my hours each semester as my timetable changes and my boss can give me extra hours if we are busy etc.

To give some perspective, an average t-shirt here costs probably $20, that is for like a brand name but not designer or anything. A large McDonalds meal costs about $8-10. Cars are way more expensive here than in the US and petrol here costs a ton but not as much as Europe.

Ask me any other examples you want.

Since you make $22 an hour as a retail clerk (how many years of working there?), something that absolutely nobody in the US or Canada would ever even come close to, do you feel the complaints are justified when it comes to games costing ~$100 in your country? (I went to the aussie apple store and it looked like everything was +30 to +100 dollars more expensive than N.A. so kind of similar markups right?)

I've worked there for less than a year, it was my starting wage but it won't be going up at all, wouldn't matter how long I was there for.

The way I see it is games (and everything else) costs as much as it does more or less because we are willing to pay for it. For some things that makes sense but when you are getting the exact same product as someone in the US with no actual reason for it to cost as much more as it does that annoys me. For example, an Adobe program (cannot remember which one) costs $1000 more in Australia than it does in the US. I don't care how much more we are getting paid, that is just insane. And while I may be getting paid more than a US me is, I am also paying more for rent, groceries, electricity, water etc etc.

As I said before, the thing that really makes me mad is how over inflated house prices are here, not so bad in rural areas but in the cities it is to the point where someone my age will never be able to own a house in a major Australian city unless they are in the top say 10-20% income bracket. To give you a point of reference, to buy a 3 bedroom family home in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, say 30-40 minutes from the city by public transport, would cost a minimum of $800,000 and to be honest I think that would be a good deal. Thankfully I am dating someone who is going to be doctor one day so trendy apartment in Melbourne CBD here I come!

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newmoneytrash

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It's not THAT bad. Getting new releases for $60 would be rad, but I only ever pay $70 to $80 for new releases and that's super fine. Everything is more expensive here. Big Macs are $4.95. That's just life, son.

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mrfizzy

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#28  Edited By mrfizzy

One other things is that we have federal taxes here rather than state based ones. Eg, 10% GST on more or less everything. As far as I understand it that is very different to how it works in the US.

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ch3burashka

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@hidys said:

@vinny_says said:

yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$15.96 per hour. In Australia we believe in the importance of paying wages which people can actually almost live on.

A dude I know said that draft beer is like 10 bucks there, so I think living wage is still relative. 16 bucks an hour here in WA would be nice if everything cost the same still (PS I think WA has like the highest state min. wage, so I can't really complain).

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deactivated-630b11c195a3b

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@hidys said:

@vinny_says said:

yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$15.96 per hour. In Australia we believe in the importance of paying wages which people can actually almost live on.

A dude I know said that draft beer is like 10 bucks there, so I think living wage is still relative. 16 bucks an hour here in WA would be nice if everything cost the same still (PS I think WA has like the highest state min. wage, so I can't really complain).

I'm pretty sure there is only a federal minimum wage in Australia. Stuff being expensive in WA is no surprise though since that is the state where all the miners live who are all cashed up.

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mrfizzy

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@hidys said:

@ch3burashka said:

@hidys said:

@vinny_says said:

yo Aussies, what's the minimum wage in you country? (Or state or however that works?)

$15.96 per hour. In Australia we believe in the importance of paying wages which people can actually almost live on.

A dude I know said that draft beer is like 10 bucks there, so I think living wage is still relative. 16 bucks an hour here in WA would be nice if everything cost the same still (PS I think WA has like the highest state min. wage, so I can't really complain).

I'm pretty sure there is only a federal minimum wage in Australia. Stuff being expensive in WA is no surprise though since that is the state where all the miners live who are all cashed up.

Oh god, WA prices. I used to work in the advertising department for a large hardware big box store (any Aussies reading this know the one i mean) and was in charge of advertising for WA but I was working out of the head office in Melbourne. The number of products we just flatout could not sell in that state due to state trading laws, and the prices of the ones we could sell was maddening.

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danm_999

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#32  Edited By danm_999

@iidrltasnakeii said:

Gamers in Aus are being forced to import games and that's a huge risk(don't know much about importing).

Not really TBH. Just use a reputable site like Dungeon Crawl.

Really no risk involved.

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reisz

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#33  Edited By reisz

Yeah JB HIFI are doing great things for game prices in Australia, but i'll be honest, as subjective as this measurement is, buying games in Australia at $99 felt the same as buying games in California at $59.

You should still feel bad for Australian enthusiasts though, PC parts in Australia are WILDLY EXPENSIVE.

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#34  Edited By Rick_Fingers

Keep in mind when considering cost of living that we also get Medicare.

My personal experience is also that us Aussies tend to get into higher paid jobs easier and earlier, whether uni educated or not.

My wife and I are mid-to-late twenties, not uni educated, but are bringing in about 175k together. It's a pretty good wage and is allowing us to save while renting, but we certainly aren't rich (should mention we are in Sydney, where a small crapshack near the city goes for 1.2 mil easy)

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#35  Edited By Vamino

@hidys said:

Though importing consoles would be hell-off expensive bearing in mind shipping costs.

Actually.. I ordered a PS4 on Amazon and the 2-5 day international shipping only came to like US$27.. I don't know if they made a mistake or what, but I sure was stunned.

Edit:

Gamers in Aus are being forced to import games and that's a huge risk(don't know much about importing).

There is no risk. At all. There's nothing wrong or illegal or anything about it. The few grey areas were importing banned games like Mortal Kombat (before it was re-rated). Even then, the chances of your package being opened on the chance that it's a banned game are incredibly small. I did it for MK, no issues.

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deactivated-630b11c195a3b

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@vamino said:

@hidys said:

Though importing consoles would be hell-off expensive bearing in mind shipping costs.

Actually.. I ordered a PS4 on Amazon and the 2-5 day international shipping only came to like US$27.. I don't know if they made a mistake or what, but I sure was stunned.

Edit:

@iidrltasnakeii said:

Gamers in Aus are being forced to import games and that's a huge risk(don't know much about importing).

There is no risk. At all. There's nothing wrong or illegal or anything about it. The few grey areas were importing banned games like Mortal Kombat (before it was re-rated). Even then, the chances of your package being opened on the chance that it's a banned game are incredibly small. I did it for MK, no issues.

Huh well then I guess I'll order a ps4 from amazon... I guess I'm terribly misinformed.

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oldenglishc

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#37  Edited By oldenglishc

You'd think the fact that every animal on the continent is equipped with some sort of deadly toxin is a bigger deal than game prices.

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#38  Edited By AndrewB

I tend to buy games for my friend/other in Australia just to allow him to counteract the monetary buttf***ing he receives.

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Humanity

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NYC has a pretty high minimum wage compared to the rest of the country and last I checked it was $7.50

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23r23d23er23r234f2f2

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I got a few of my games from England and a few South-East Asian countries.Only downside is I can't trade them in to Australian shops for credit.

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Nezza

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I was travelling around Australia earlier this year and I popped into a EB Games (I think that's the chain) in Brisbane.

Holy shit I have never seen game prices so high. They had a wall full of used games that were also in a New Years sale. Every single one of those was at least 25% higher then I would pay at home. Just to reiterate, that is a used catalogue title, with an additional discount that costing 25% more then I would pay in Britain for a new release AAA game. Oh, and that against RRP in Britain so the reality is that it was even higher as Amazon & Play rarely charge full RRP as they tend to clock in a couple of quid cheaper.

A salesman came and asked me if I was looking to buy. I told him I'd been looking for one particular 3DS title, but now I'd seen the price.... At which point he jumped in mistaking this pause for being impressed and said to me that he couldn't believe how cheap they were selling these titles for and didn't blame me for wanting to pick up a couple at these amazing prices. The sad thing is that he genuinely believed them to be bargains. When I told him how much I would pay at home he flat out accused me of bullshitting. In the end we used the web browser on the stores demonstration Wii U (see it's good for something - I kid, I kid) to look at at Amazon.co.uk and Play.com and compare the prices. I've never seen someone go from so bullish about their product to so sheepish that quickly before.

My own experience tells me that every single thing you can touch costs more in Australia then nearly every other place I'm been on Earth - and I'm fortunate enough to have been to a lot of places. It is an amazing country with a great quality of life but just so pricy for everyday living - at least for a visitor. I won't presume to speak on how residents feel about their cost of living expenses. For a luxury item like a game they really do appear to be stung considerably compared to most. The same could be said of Blu-Ray's as well as I recall them averaging around £35 each when I was walking around the shops. All I could suggest is that a user try and take advantage of the AUD's strength and import if they can.

Oh and just so they don't feel left out, New Zealanders seemed to be being screwed as well on games price. Not quite to the same extent.... but pretty close! Cheapest games I came across were in Hong Kong. Only looked at Vita titles when I was there but they were around 40% cheaper then the UK prices were.

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IIDrltaSNAKEII

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@nezza: Aus is definitely a great country. I made this topic because i have a friend from Aus. Didn't know about New Zealand though thats sad because theirs not a big community of gamers there.