Online Gaming prices in Australia

there might not be shipping and manufacturing costs as you put it but what about bandwidth and storage from their end? it all adds up

 

I agree the increase in price is very annoying, usual £10-15 more in the UK.

 

I have a lot of American friends on Xbox and even they can't understand why I don't go all digital! Until I tell them the prices of games here that is. Scary thing is that I e even seen cheaper games at EB than on the Microsoft store and I honestly never
thought I'd see anyone more expensive then EB!

Personally I would love to go all digital. To me it's how the Xbox one was designed to be, but it's simply a huge waste of money when on some games I can save up to $40 going to a shop. It's out of control and given the fact that it's been like this for
years, even on the 360, I don't see it changing any time soon!

 

EB Games NZ stores do have some good sales though sometimes. Especially boxing day and some other sales throughout the year. I actually got my Xbox 1 Day 1 Edition console from them cuz they were they only retailer you could pre-order it from who didn't
charge the full RRP instead of NZ$749.99 they were offering pre-orders at the time for $749.00. And they gave me free Xbox wrist bands Xbox necklaces and packed it in a free large carry bag yes I went to the midnight launch it was cool. It was 12:02 am on
our phones and watches but they said "em, it's not midnight yet we cant sell it". They were the ONLY retailer in NZ doing midnight launch for Xbox 1. I saw last year and the year before that, that they were selling XBL Gold 12 month gold membership for $88.
RRP is normally NZ$79.99 but retailers sometimes drop it down to $49. And you don't get much if you trade games with them and then they go sell it like 2/3 of the full retail price. We use to have another sole focused game store in NZ called Gamesman but I
think EB acquired it.

Usually I find JB Hi Fi are cheaper. It's DSE I would say who always tend to charge full RRP or near that. I pretty much don't go to the other retailers.

 

My local E.B has been empty for a while, with *** Smith and Target in the same mall selling games $40 cheaper it's no surprise. You only see parents with kids who probably aren't aware of the price difference. We can always buy import anyway, I think the
360 was the 1st Pal Console i'd owned in a while and that was due to the 1080p upscaling.

 

iBakez what bandwidth and storage are you referring to? I'm not really sure what extra they would be paying that they wouldn't be already with physical games. Can you elaborate more on what specifically Microsoft pay for when people get digital games.

 

@Sgt the games have to be stored on servers, and they have to be accessed, the servers are the storage, which has to be maintained, and supported, which isn't cheap, and they have to be downloadable so there needs to be bandwidth to allow for the access,
this will vary depending on a number of factors but will have peaks and troughs which has to be managed.

The main difference is a physical copy you produce it and send it to retailers and your costs stop, digital games the servers need to be continued well after purchase, and the bandwidth still has to be available well after purchase.

MS will only store and serve the games it published, most publishers will also have their own servers, and apply their own restrictions.

There will also be additional costs for security, etc etc etc.

Digital downloads still have costs they are not magic.

 

That sounds like a reasonable statement Daveyboy. But, what happens when Microsoft discontinues Xbox Live support for Xbox 360 and the digital games and DLC we got digitally? If we delete those, or log onto a friends console at another place who hasn't got
that content on their console, we probably won't be able to download/access online again, since Xbox Live is the only official online service for Xbox 360. Good thing about disc/physical is it's cheaper, you own it, and you can trade it. With digital it is
subject to user restrictions. We should only have to pay for the game. For most Xbox games, game developers don't charge to use their multiplayer servers. It's just like in stores. Stores can sell games below the RRP or at RRP and get no profit. We don't get
charged for the high customer service standards we get served for getting the game since staff do cost retailers in their own expenses.

 

... It's probably why like some have stated Australia and NZ have like only one or few gaming-focused retailers. EB Games is one of them. NZ did have Gamesman too, but EB Games acquired it. The rest like DSE and JB Hi Fi sale games in conjunction with computers
electronics movies music camera's etc.

 

The 360 will be supported at some level for a long time, and who knows what publishers are going to do to all the legacy to continue, but very few will care, in 10 years most people will be looking forward to another gen, and my 360 will be a distant memory,
it pretty much is now.

 

Good point enendaveyboy that makes more sense however I still think smileskybird has a point that games don't continue to charge us for use of their multiplayer servers plus I feel I pay for the use of Xbox's servers by paying for Xbox live every year.

Also if Microsoft didn't force me to install all my physical game copies to the hard drive to play them couldn't I just use the physical memory on the Xbox rather than having to use the servers? Or would servers still be required?

 

On PC multiple is majorly on dedicated servers, after a certain time they are no longer supported by the published and people have to buy their own. There are also peer to peer MP which doesn't have additional support, which is why COD does well, or they
are in a franchise like BF and the franchise will pay the costs.

Either way MP is also scalable, and offers choices to make it cheap to free.

The reason for installing the game is processing speed, it much quick to process information stored on a hard drive than it is to run a game off a disk, so if you want a lot of loading pauses during games, and no installation let the developers know and
they will tell you to shove it because people would prefer installation once and then a fairly smooth gaming experience.

Installation and servers are not replated, when you buy the disc it has the game on it (or excluding patches), if you want to speed up installation google it there are ways, although I haven't tested it and you'll still need to do the day one patch.

 

While I agree that there is costs involved in maintaining servers, I can not agree that it's more than a physical copy. The price of shipping alone would out way what it costs to maintain serves. Also why is there such a price difference. When I buy a game
on steam I pay US prices plus the difference according to exchange rates at the time. If Microsoft store is anything to go by, the Australian dollar must be sitting 20c US. It's crap! This is a pure price hike because they can. Nothing more!

 

IMO the price difference isn't down to costs, its down to MS wanting retailers to sell their products as has been mentioned, the last few posts were simply to answer some peoples questions regarding related information.

That combined with publishers wanting to maximize their profits, they could easily sell digital codes in retail outlets, or drop the price overall to tackle retail values, nothing like a bit of greedy and wanting your cake and eating it.