Aussie government pushing forward with tech/game price inquiry

Quick pray to let it be then a striking thought that if this works we won't notice any price reduction any time soon, All talk no action,  yawning now and moving on to more interesting news ( if applicable)

Quick pray to let it be then a striking thought that if this works we won't notice any price reduction any time soon, all talk no action,  yawning now and moving on to more interesting news ( if applicable)

awesome?

I'm hoping for it. But I have no confidence in our politicians when it comes to issues like this.

@JamesMilligan_5 I know right! Especially when the Australian dollar is HIGHER than the US.

I SERIOUSLY hope this comes into place. Australia gets the short end of the stick on everything. I buy all of my new games from the UK. I can snatch some great games up for $70 at most including shipping. I am glad we at least have THAT option.

Meh. Stephen Conroy is just another "notch on the post" of Australians who said they'd do something about this... In my 30 years, not one has followed-through. Wake me up when someone actually DOES something...

i know in america u can buy new release games for like US$60 and the same game here is AU$110 WHY!!!!!!

I hope Australia starts to get $60 games :)

A majority of the games I buy are purchased though sites like ozgameshop where are can get a comparable product for $60 as oppossed to $100. I would love to buy locally, but would do so only if price competitive.

Yet we still pay a higher price for digital copies...no shop, shipping nada. What's the excuse there?...will be following this.

In terms of video games, if you shop around, you can get decent deals, I picked up Skyrim on the 360 from JB HiFi for $63 on launch day. I do import mainly though as I save up to 50% that way. There was a great article in Game Informer (AUS edition) that went into the prices of video games in Australia. One of the main reasons was massive rents that shops have to pay here in Australia. I think it was like $4000 a week for just a standard shop, that was at Westfield centres I think. Not 100% on the figures as it was a while ago but it was close to that amount.

It's not just Australians getting ripped off. They're just suffering more. Take online passes for PSN games as an example. PSN's online multi-player is supposed to be free. Why should I have to pay $10 just for buying second hand? Why can't I get free themes, avatars, and soundtracks for games if I buy new instead?

It's higher price because many games are either banned outright or given an adults rating, which cripples sales. So to make up for it, they raise prices on things that reach mass market. Good on ya.

Damn. Aussies get pretty jipped by these greedy ass tech companies. At least in the states (I live in Seattle, WA USA -formerly Atlanta) there's the used market. From pawnshops to thrift stores to flea markets. These used hardware and software markets are especially good for older video games and earlier PC tech. I feel that every country should have the used and cheap option. Especially for older, yet still very effecient, tech. Hell, you can build your own rig and install Windows XP or Linux on it for dirt cheap with all the older components laying around. It'll be an older 1GHz CPU with 1GB RAM and an old 128MB GPU...but it's still useful for MOST PC applications and plenty of older PC games. If the crooks in the Gates Mafia (M$) don't like it...screw'em! They should constantly jip people!

We had the same issue in Canada with regards to cellphone rates. We had the highest in the world. Politicians complained and they eventually decided to open up the market to more competition (it was very limited before). Unfortunately, I don't think that solution will work for Australia's video games. You can't just knock-off popular games and sell them at a lower price.

Tremblay343 : Canada was nowhere near as bad as Australia. We used to pay more than Americans for the same stuff, and still do, but the difference is nothing compared to the ridiculous prices in Australia.

The same thing was happening in Canada when our dollar was above the us dollar for a bit. It used to be 10-15 cents lower but now they're pretty much equal all the time. Our games were never that expensive, but hardware most certainly was. I used to drive down to Syracuse to buy really expensive electronics or to take part in black friday. Luckily (or maybe unluckily) we've started adopting black friday up here as well. Last year was the first time I heard multiple retailers advertise for it. The one thing is Australia is pretty far away from everything and I can't imagine shipping is very cheap. I could be completely wrong though.

When I can choose to either buy a new game on the shelf for $109 or import it for $34 including shipping, something is wrong.

Aussies get a really raw deal. Bloated game prices AND heavily censored games on a lot of releases. I feel for you my brothers.

It's about time. US consumers complain about the $60 price point on their games but we're paying over $100 for some releases. How is this even fair when our dollar has reached parity with the US dollar?

"Husic says he hopes companies like Microsoft and Apple will respond to consumer concerns and lower their prices rather than wait to be forced into action by the law. " Oh yea, forcing them to lower their prices will definitely convince them to sell to your market and not totally pull out from it. *Edit: To all the downvoters, I'm not saying there shouldn't be a change of things, but trying to strong-arm a company that doesn't HAVE to deal with you isn't going to go in your favor.