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UK (and other regions) customers getting the sharp end
JudgeUK
Member RarePosts: 1,703
The game forum has lit up with the Heavensward CE pricing strategy across different regions.
CE price for the US = $129.99
https://store.na.square-enix.com/final-fantasy-xiv
CE price for the UK = £129.99
So according to SE the new dollar to pound rate is 1=1
But of course in the real world it isn't. Converting the UK price back to dollars it's around $194
Good job I'm not a "must have CE" fan of the game :-)
Comments
I am not saying this is strictly true, but when I have looked into this with other games, the explanation was, that, if you compare price list to price list, they look wrong, BUT the UK has a single tax rate, so the price you see, is the price you pay.
But the US has a different tax rate, per state (some are obviously the same rate), but the prices don't always include tax.
So $129.99 doesn't equal £129.99 it's more like $129.99 + tax equals £129.99
So depending on the tax rate, for example Washington state :
http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/state-local-sales-taxes-2014-(large).png
According to the 2014 guide (linked), the tax there is 8.88%
So $129.99 + 8.88% (11.54) = $141.53
Now, that being said USD to GBP according to xe.com is $141.53 = £94.65
So it's still a large difference, but it does possibly account for some of the difference, they do also pad the price to allow for currency conversion rate changes as well, plus if the seller has to pay for currency conversion as well, for example they might have to pay £2.50 per GBP transaction to convert to USD or whatever currency is the companies base. (So a USD trading company selling to USD country wouldn't pay a conversion cost).
Am I missing something or some places are selling the collectors edition for £45?
In any case the price of the regular edition is in line with what you would expect. I got it for £25. CE are for suckers imo
EDIT: Scrap that I found the regular edition for £20!
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
20 sounds about right for regular edition. Its 39.99 US for me.
The 45 one you mentioned is collectors edition Digital download. Basically you get the CE digital items and none of the extra stuff that comes in physical edition eg dragon statue , art etc
I thought I was very clever once and bought something from the States had it shipped to Italy and it was way cheaper in US dollar. When it got here the postman was waiting downstairs with all the added value tax and so on I had to pay before I could get the package. It came up to about 5 Euros cheaper. Was not worth the 6 week wait. That was a lesson.
Lot of times though if you buy online though things that do not need to be delivered physically you can get it cheaper than what the publisher of the game is selling it at in your currency
This is just something I casually read and did not look into at all, but If the digital version sells for cheap, then it's likely an issue with importation and localization fees. If this is the case, then I suppose they could just raise the U.S. version to be $150 and just make an additional $30 out of the NA consumer. Though that would very much be an extra $30, as even if they're sold evenly, fees will make the EU version the lesser of the two (in terms of making outright profit). Which may lead to more focus being put on making future U.S. editions better. They are or already have released EU servers at no small expense, I'm sure. And it's not like they're profiting extra with the current setup (again, assuming it's an issue of trade fees and governments).
The post before mine seems add credence to this -- and I do know it is true with other companies but can't say for Square as they're a large publishers -- in that they bought a cheap copy and still had to pay all those fees, plus wait six weeks. Australia has it worst when it comes to these things.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
I call BS on that Australian comment. What taxes? The GST? it is 11% not 50%. What regulations? Cite some examples. Not its BS game companies charge more in Australia for the same reason as book publishers, film makers and retailers. Greed.
Not taxes, not regulations, higher margins and pure greed.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
Tax laws are incredibly complicated. This is especially true for the U.S. and the UK.
Poeple have no clue how vat works and when you are supposed to pay VAT. At least 99% of the non finance people have no clue. The same can be said about Forex.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
You are making a comparison in a very flawed way. Prices of goods in different countries are derived in different ways.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
With the way the Pound is going it'll be 1:1 soon lol.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I'd fully agree with this - if there was an actual difference in the pricing figure between US/UK.
However, it's blatantly obvious here that all they've done is change the symbol in front of the number. To me that comes across as simply screwing various player-base locations.
Greed is a two edged sword, and it didn't take long for the game forums to hit on this bit of region racketeering.