Grand Theft Auto IV: 120 Dollars in Australia |
Ó
We were able to encounter some interesting news on Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360, PS3). EB Games in Australia put a price tag on the game of about AU$ 120. In North America, the game only has a retail price of US$ 59.95. When converted, it's approximately AU$ 65. If you compare the prices, people are actually going pay twice as much for the game in Australia. As for the Collector's edition, it's AU$ 149.95.
The representatives of Rockstar in Australia were asked regarding this matter. They were only able to confirm that the price was, indeed, correct and that it would apply to both platforms.
Even if the game is one of the titles that's been much awaited this year, the price is seriously shocking. Fans of the game title would have to pay more than an arm and a leg just to be able to have a copy of it.
Via EB Games
Contact Us:
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
Add QJ.NET
User Favorites - December
User Favorites - December
Categories
Archives
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
Comments [refresh]
Is the price that outrageous in hopes of preventing kids from being able to afford it in Australia? Not sure why they're so scared of youth in Australia mimicking content in a GTA game. Australians don't even own guns! (save for farmers who are allowed a rifle and shotgun for varmints)
old...
all new release games in australia and new zealand are 100-120 dollars
i'm surprised that it's only 120 for the PS3 version aswell..they're usually 130 bucks for ps3 new releases
we got ripped off so bad
Kraft has the right of if. Besides the Price for GTA being set at 120 for a long time now. This has always been the case for new games here.
Look at any console game price and you will notice this kind of discrepancy. $100 is the bare minimum. Even then PC is the only platform that keeps prices at 100 or lower.
And they wonder why people pirate.
In Norway, normal PS3 games costs between 100-140 USD.
PS3 at launch costed 1200 USD.
Why didnt this make it to the news? More expensive here.
they have it for $79.95 NZD, ($64.90 USD)
compared to our stores for $120-130
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-en-15-gta+iv-70-1vgg.html
i may be wrong about this, never actually leaving the USA, but the price seems very high for the game, but technology in the area (australia, norway, and others) may be a large factor in price.
as far a Fallen saying "And they wonder why people pirate", i find it ironic that places that usually have a more lax policy about piracy (canada, australia) has higher prices, even though every country does it
The damn thing is on dvd for god sake! They should put it on a platnum disc for that price.
lol that's a lie, my preorder receipt for GTA4 says otherwise
i brought gta3 for 120 bucks, vice city for 120 bucks, san andreas for 120 bucks, and now gta4(collector's edition) 150 bucks
http://www.ebgames.co.nz/Xbox/product.cfm?ID+5033
it seems to be a factor even though we have basically all the same technology as the US.
We jsut get charged more because we're isolated islands that have to rely on bigger countries so they chage us an arm and a leg for things cause it's the only choice we have
they have it for $79.95 NZD, ($64.90 USD)
compared to our stores for $120-130
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-en-15-gta+iv-70-1vgg.html
oh i see, that's nearly with everything though that things are cheaper to import.
but it's not really the main point of the article..it just shows how badly we get ripped off in our country.
i know a few major shops charge 300% retail price just cause they can and we accept it. our money is getting worth more and more yet the prices for everything is always staying the same and if not the price is going up
over here in aus, it's always been around that price. but yeah, i'm just shocked that since the USD has gone to the *****s that we dont get some sort of discount XD
iirc the ps3 is region free, so it's be cheaper to import from america for almost 1/2 price. Also, about the technology down under we're not the desert backwater mainstream american media makes us out to be, we've got the same level of technological advancement as america but since because of the fact that the aussie gaming market is so small compared to it's population is so small to america and japan (having iirc 400mil and 100mil people respectivley) whereas aus only has a population of 20mil. Also since consoles and games are manufactured overseas we consumers get shunted the bill for transport.
But yeah, my main theory for us getting gipped: low demand, overseas transport and greedy retailers that dont wanna conform to the newfound strength of the aussie dollar.
I remember when games were under $50 AUD, things started climbing as they always have been. But recently things have been going up much too fast, things used to be cheaper than the US.
But the Australian dollar has increased alot but still games should only be about $80, like they were before EB came along cutting all the prices till the competition went under.
I say buy your games elsewhere and torch EB, power to the people down with monopolies.
There's not much we can do except not buy most games, people will still buy the likes of GTA4 but everything else will be pirated. For years they've claimed piracy pushes up prices, I say that's what they say as an excuse to stop us from torching their stores because we feel guilty because we all pirate. Copying information didn't used to be illegal although they're trying to tell us that it shouldn't be shared and for what, I doubt they'd increase sales by more than 10%. Decrease game prices though and you can be can bet that there's more profits to be gained at least in australia.
Half the prices and have 4 times the people buy the games makes sense to me. All it takes is one good game to come out and try a different price scheme.
Why the hell does every game cost the same? Aren't they all different.
Oh and Sony Australia takes it up the Arse. Bloody ripoff merchants.
peace out :)
That us Aussies get reamed on game prices is old news, as others have said $120 is pretty standard for PS3 and X360 games here.
If any other PS3 owning Aussies are looking for cheap imports (region-free games FTW) check out movietyme.com Prices hover around the £30 mark ($65.20 at current conversion) and shipping is free on all products. X360 owners don't completely miss out either, as they do have a selection of region-free games for it as well.
Here's some of the downright insulting savings vs Aussie retailers.
Eye of Judgement
$159.95 rrp vs £37.99 ($82.57) delivered.
Halo 3 Legendary Edition
$199.95 rrp vs £49.99 ($108.66) delivered.
I would have to find a different hobby... paying 2.5 times as much is horrible. Though when I think of it, if I want an import music CD I pay 3-5 times as much as a regular CD... and with shipping costs rising on a globals scale, I don't see a price redux on importing anything on the near future.
Is this the result of inflation or are they really just charging a rediculis amount?? Just wonderin
ps3 is region free import any game you want for half price , another reason 360 sux
they're jsut charging ridiculous amounts. prices should be dropping but they're not.
this is an expensive part of the world to live in where the government tries to rip us off..
here in new zealand the government just found 600 million dollars that got no one even knew was lost....damn this country!
that's just EB Games... i pre-ordered mine from another video game retailer called "Games", they have numerous stores all around Australia.... and GTAIV is not the only game to get priced that much... most (not all) 3rd party games are priced the same way, PS3 exclusive games are always lower going down to AUD99 to even as low as $79 (I got my Uncharted and Heavenly at that price no store discounts or anything)
the retail price is AUD99.95 which is the usual price of games in Australia, a straight up conversion from USD doesn't apply cause of several factors at work like import tax and such.
I actually pre-ordered mine already for a trade-in deal... trade 3 PS3, 360, or Wii games and you get GTAIV for AUD9.95 down from AUD99.95.... i don't trade-in my games, this will be a first and only because Resistance 2 will be coming out so I traded in my RFOM, Motorstorm 2 is coming out so i traded in my Motorstorm, and I threw in my Virtua Tennis 3 to complete it... and besides all those games I bought during the PS3 launch here which was already a year ago so I went for it.
kraft, maybe if your country would stop downloading every NEW game, they would stop charging so much. ill admit ive spent time on torrents (not ne more) but only because im not going to pay 100 dollars for an origional game thats 10 yrs old. i mean alot of people download in america, but not nearly as much as canada and australia. i think that effects the price a little. i dont even know why they sell it in your country if half of you are jus goin to download it n e way
Man, I would love to see where you are pulling these figures. Sounds a whole lot like they are coming strait out of your ass.
Australia downloading more than America?. Wow, Thats damn near impossible.
i highly doubt that pirating has anything to do with the prices considering the fact that someone who pirates a game was probably never gonna buy that game in the first place.
Almost a decade ago, there was a psychopath who went to eat at a restaurant in Australia, and sat down, ate some of his order. He ate on the outside area, then went inside with guns blazing, firing on random targets. After he left that area, he stole someone's vehicle and got on a freeway, shooting at police along the way, then got out and got on a nearby street. He fired on some more people, then stole another car and went to a gas station somewhere, where I think the killing spree ended. I'm pretty sure there were more random massacres like this one, and you can only guess how much they don't want kids (or mentally unstable people) to get their hands on tis game.
What's dangerous is not violent games, but the sickening American law that everyone is allowed to buy guns. THAT's what's insane, not the games. People like Jack Thompson should be flaming the gunlaws instead of games, because if there were better laws and policies about selling guns to people, you'd be having a lot less homicides and killing sprees in America.
----------
On topic:
AU $120 is not that whopping for us in Sweden, where everything modern in electronics comes with a heavy price tag. All the new games cost SEK 550 and up to around SEK 700 regardless of platform, which would be US$ 89 - US$ 113, or in Australian currency AU$ 95 - AU$ 122. I usually try to avoid new games unless they are something I really, really want, such as GTA IV. I've pre-ordered a copy of GTA IV for SEK 600 (104,46 AUD or 97,25 USD), and that's about the cheapest you could find in this country.
The 60 Gb PS3 cost SEK 6500 (US$ 1.053 or AU$ 1.131, counting by today's currency) when it was launched, and the 40 Gb version could be found today for as "low" as SEK 4000 (US$ 648,35, AU$ 696).
So, if you ever were to visit Sweden (which ISN'T south of Germany or east of France - that's called Switzerland), don't buy electronics or games.
Yeah, the prices in Sweden are quite high too, although you poor Norwegians have to pay insanely much, even with Swedish measures. Check out my post above, the reply to post no.1 (or specifically NarooN).
I know the Norwegian taxes are high, and the Swedish too, could this be the answer? Our normal tax is around 25% for anything we buy. So by buying a game for 100 bucks, we pay the goverment 25 of them. Nice. Not.
This is one of the exact reasons why Piracy is going so strong. The prices are too damn stupidly high. If they dropped the prices to $20 there will be no piracy as everyone could afford it and they would actually make more money so its the stupid people that put the prices up so high that are provoking piracy. Or they dont care about the users of thier games and are just money hungry.
I will get a pirated copy of this game as I wont pay that much for it. If I find it for under $40 I will buy it, till then its the copy I will own. Oh, and I guess I will own it before it gets to the shops too. :) Another Joy of piracy.
If you read this correctly I will buy it, but when its at the right price and not before.
i live in australia
i remember the port aurthur massacre
dont remember that one
i say youre full of it
and i think US may have a few more massacres under their belt than us
Piracy is common because prices are high - not the other way around.
Look at PS3 prices for example. There is no piracy at all for the PS3, and still we have to pay this much. Heck, if they would sell games for half the price, people would start buying like maniacs. After all, no matter how cheap you are, you will always appreciate a BOUGHT game with manuals, real discs and the correct covers. Not to mention all the trouble you'll have by downloading, cracking, modchipping, modding, patching, keyGen-ing and so on and soforth.
Lower the prices for Christ's sakes, and we will be more than happy to buy your games twice as much as today. I only download games to try them out, then buy it if I liked it, and if I didn't like it I just find it outrageous that they wanted us to pay so incredibly much for such a poor production.