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    Games on Demand

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    An Xbox 360 and Games for Windows Live feature that lets you purchase and download full Xbox, Xbox 360, and PC games through the Live Marketplace.

    Beautiful Australia

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    DizzyMedal

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    Edited By DizzyMedal

    I arrived slightly late to the 360 party and by the time I stopped murdering zombies in a mall long enough to hear about Beautiful Katamari, it was impossible to find on shelves in my town. With really bad luck on ebay, importing was looking like my only option, and not a very attractive one. Then came Games on Demand, showing up on our Xbox dashboards like a shady uncle. The answer to our prayers, right? Sadly no.  
     
    By sheer luck I found a preowned copy for $29 at JBHiFi today and bought it. But as I was coming home I couldn't remember why I hadn't just downloaded it. As soon as I looked it up on live, I remembered. $70. For a two and a half year old game. Now that is annoying enough, but then you have to think 'Well I bet they don't charge that for the US' and no, no they do not.
      
    A few weeks ago I had reminded myself why I don't play too many games by flicking steam pages from US to AU settings and looking at the prices. I just did that for the entire games on demand AU library and I'm sure you can all guess it was horrifying. 
     
    Still, if any of my fellow Aussies can stomach the reminder, I made a pretty GB list to show the differences, 
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    DizzyMedal

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    #1  Edited By DizzyMedal

    I arrived slightly late to the 360 party and by the time I stopped murdering zombies in a mall long enough to hear about Beautiful Katamari, it was impossible to find on shelves in my town. With really bad luck on ebay, importing was looking like my only option, and not a very attractive one. Then came Games on Demand, showing up on our Xbox dashboards like a shady uncle. The answer to our prayers, right? Sadly no.  
     
    By sheer luck I found a preowned copy for $29 at JBHiFi today and bought it. But as I was coming home I couldn't remember why I hadn't just downloaded it. As soon as I looked it up on live, I remembered. $70. For a two and a half year old game. Now that is annoying enough, but then you have to think 'Well I bet they don't charge that for the US' and no, no they do not.
      
    A few weeks ago I had reminded myself why I don't play too many games by flicking steam pages from US to AU settings and looking at the prices. I just did that for the entire games on demand AU library and I'm sure you can all guess it was horrifying. 
     
    Still, if any of my fellow Aussies can stomach the reminder, I made a pretty GB list to show the differences, 
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    oldschool

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    #2  Edited By oldschool

    Retail copies are generally much cheaper than the downloads and there is still used copies to pick from as well.  Exactly what is the point of buying a digital copy?  You don't own it.  Suffice to say, I will never be using the service - off to the shops for me.

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    DizzyMedal

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    #3  Edited By DizzyMedal
    @oldschool:
    Yeah, I'm not to big on digital either. But it is the easiest way to properly compare the difference between prices in different regions because then it is the exact same place, offering the exact same product, just with a wildly varying number after it. Europe gets it pretty bad too. Sadly the 'fairest' option here (where I don't feel like we're just being treated as lesser beings compared to bigger countries) is buying preowned which I feel kind of bad about because the developers see none of that money. 
     
    What's worse is I live in a small town of only 80,000 people and I know that even with the price difference, getting some of those games here at retail can be even more expensive. Having them shipped in from a capital city store is usually cheaper. 
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    #4  Edited By oldschool
    @DizzyMedal said:
    " @oldschool: Yeah, I'm not to big on digital either. But it is the easiest way to properly compare the difference between prices in different regions because then it is the exact same place, offering the exact same product, just with a wildly varying number after it. Europe gets it pretty bad too. Sadly the 'fairest' option here (where I don't feel like we're just being treated as lesser beings compared to bigger countries) is buying preowned which I feel kind of bad about because the developers see none of that money.  What's worse is I live in a small town of only 80,000 people and I know that even with the price difference, getting some of those games here at retail can be even more expensive. Having them shipped in from a capital city store is usually cheaper.  "
    Haha, you live in a small town of 80,000 - I live in a small town of 80, in a state only 6 times bigger in total population  (^_^) 
     
    I do a lot of my shopping through playasia, but with the 360, that is limited to games without region coding.  It is a lot cheaper than local for newer games.  Otherwise, I am on the road and I drop in to KMart, Target, Dick Smith, EB Games and Harvey Norman and find plenty of clearance games on a regular basis.  That is how my collection grew past 900 games. 
     
    As for used games, the developer got their money the first time they sold it, so I have no sympathy and in most cases, I was never going to buy it new anyway, as I only got it because it was cheap, so there is no money to lose.

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