Xbox Game Studios (AoE IV) pricing justification

Mischkov · Jun 21, 2021

Age of Empires IV launches 28th October. The pre-order prices have been published.

I've been surprised by the prices as many other customers as you can see on the official game forum, and not any official answer ~ one week later :

https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/regional-pricing-issues/133788

Therefore my 2 questions :

Why do Xbox Game Studios not follow the Valve suggested prices ?

(Valve has a great experience in dematerialized game reselling, to provide publishers the best price to maximize the benefit for each country/region taking into account specific taxes, exchange rate, etc...)

How can Xbox Game Studios justify a ~+33% higher price in Switzerland (from base price in US$) for 100% dematerialized game software anymore ?

(no more retail distribution cost, still not any local support phone or address 20 years later, hopeless possibilities for consumer rights to defend their rights,...)

Regional pricing (with countries restriction) is normally used to provide a wider game access for countries with less purchasing power. More people in these countries can afford the game = more copies sold = everybody is happy and publisher makes more benefits in 99% of the cases.

But when it's used to inflate obviously the price, that's really look like a weird short-term strategy, you know usually people don't like to be a cash cow in the long run...

:)

Mischkov

Please, with all due respect, read again my initial message and your current answer.

By the way, according to your answer, I'm convinced the person actually "not realizing the issue " is you.

Mischkov

There is not any "issues" with US inhabitants and regional pricing of AoEIV afaik. If you feel concerned by the regional pricing of AoEIV in the US, feel free to share your thoughts.

If not, I don't understand what US sales taxes have to do with games copies sold abroad. If any US tax applies on games digitally distributed abroad, feel free to share your information about that, I'll be interested.

ngocphi

I don't think you realize the issue

The ms store price is the msrp for your region that's a.set.price

Whenever a store however offers a discount which has been known to.happen that's cut.with the publisher ms game studios that has.always been known.tk happen but.that's case by case basis amazon and steam has.been known to do so I can personally get games.10 dollars less sometimes on preorders of disk copies it's sometimes comes down to timing with Amazon and yes some companies have pre-order promotions

Really if you are seeing a better price on steam that's something you havr to ask steam themselves

Maybe they cut back their own cut which is significant 30% to reduce the price and no thats not something you can ask steam support that's sales executive level which they will never comment on

Mischkov

Here some additional information as reminder :

Standard Edition
60 US$ ~= 54.95 CHF before taxes
54.95 + (54.95 x 7.7 / 100) ~= 59.20 CHF after taxes
74 - 59.20 = 14.80 CHF price difference after taxes
14.80 / 59.20 * 100 = +25% price variation rate after taxes

Deluxe Edition
79.99 US$ ~= 73.25 CHF before taxes
73.25 + (73.25 x 7.7 / 100) ~= 78.90 CHF after taxes
99 - 78.90 = 20.10 CHF price difference after taxes
20.10 / 78.90 * 100 = +25.47% price variation rate after taxes

Tezzerrific

don't forget tax in the US is not included in the advertised price.

Xbox Game Studios (AoE IV) pricing justification