EA is raising prices on Gen 8 games in the UK

As if Origin, Dragon Age 2, the original ending of Mass Effect 3, and Dead Space 3's microtransations weren't controversial enough. The Official Playstation Magazine revealed that EA is raising the price of Gen 8 games in the UK to £54.99 (about $85). I'm not from the UK, but wow. Seriously, EA? Since when did you get ideas from Aniplex USA?

edited 16th Jul '13 11:51:38 PM by sanfranman91

This is nothing really new, mate. Every single tech company on the planet charges more for stuff in the United Kingdom than they do in almost any other country.

So much so that I always call this hellhole Treasure Island, since that is what those fuckers call it.

Then again, this is a different order of "fuck you, games buying public" than usual. Doesn't affect me as I don't see anything really interesting enough to justify being an early adopter of these next-gen consoles or the games for them, but it means that parents are going to get a shock when they pay nearly five hundred pounds for what is really at bottom nothing other than a fancy toy for their kids at christmas.

I think ya'll Brits still have it better than the Aussies. I seem to hear that games are even more expensive down there.

And Brazillians, don`t forget Brazillians.

Well, good thing I wasn't intending on getting any EA games, now or in the future.

Unfortunately, people are still going to buy the games at that price, signifying to EA that they can get away with it.

Was EA ever like how Extra Credits said they used to be? It's like they were talking about a completely different company in their EA video.

edited 17th Jul '13 4:49:28 AM by Mudkipz

Yup. $70ish for a new 3DS game and $100 for new console games (unless they decide to overcharge us even more, like they tried with Dragon Age a couple of years back at $110). Note that $100 here is currently $92 US

What usually fouls up Aussies who want to game is their country's censorship laws. It's so bad that I think the trope should be "Banned In Australia" instead of what we call it here. Doesn't matter what price the games are, (and yep, they are pretty expensive down there), if you are not allowed to buy them or they are butchered to non-recognizable status because your country's censorship laws are fucked.

Here's a helpful handy list from the Other Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_in_Australia

We get some games that NA doesn't get like Disaster Day Of Crisis, but we also don't get most games that EU misses. And then that's narrowed down by our censorship people.

But don't dare compare it to Chinese censorship: things here are edited for violence and stuff, occasionally sexual references - but China won't have a thing to do with anything that paints China in a negative light. If Australia gets blown up in a movie, we can get over that; if China is blown up in a movie, lifetime ban.

And hell, China doesn't like sex or violence either, unless it's homemade and thus bendable to China's regulations.

Um, no person who doesn't live here, it's the price. There are maybe half a dozen games that have been censored without release over here, and the ones that are released have minimal cuts. However, the games that are released over here, without fail, have a minimum 50% mark-up, and many games receive a much greater one. If something over there costs sixty dollars, it's not unlikely to cost a hundred to a hundred twenty over here, particularly if it's a AAA game.

Part of this is import costs, part of it is tax, and part of it is gaming companies trying to recoup losses from inflation. The prices that we're paying are the prices everyone should be paying given the cost that it takes to make games. While game costs have skyrocketed, the price of them in the US haven't changed, and we have to eat part of that loss. It's also part of the reason why games now have to sell a lot more copies in order to be successful.

Seriously, Jesus. The guidelines for censorship, while being a little stuffy, are not unreasonable. And not that many games have been banned/censored, if you had bothered to read the list - though the entries are really puffy, so it's easy to think there's a long and storied list once you've wasted 10 minutes scrolling.

Back onto the topic at hand: The British are pulling cash out of their Tea Budget just to buy new games, and Australians are paying through the ear for games because no-one cares about us. If someone with a calculator actually worked out the difference, they'd get shushed by the higher-ups becausefree money~.

Yeah, exactly.

There's some comparative mod for Steam (unless Steam does it itself) going around that'll compare world prices. And Steam prices after often thirty bucks cheaper than games in the stores. You could use that.

edited 17th Jul '13 9:14:34 AM by Nicknacks

Hey wait a second, wasn't EA supposed to improve with Jimmy Raviotiello (or whatever his name is) gone?

Saying a company will turn around with the eviction of one person is like saying a government wouldn't have collapsed if that one guy hadn't been made leader.

You have to flush out a good 50% of management to have any sort of influence.

Did EA tell you that?

edited 17th Jul '13 10:16:39 AM by Nicknacks

Not quite. Our prices used to be quite similar to those of the US, but then our dollar improved without the prices of imports lowering. So where it used to be that 1USD=2AUD and their $50 games were our $100 games, now we're pretty much even and the prices never adjusted. Because MONEY.