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Blizzard Ripping off people from Australia?
So i was gonna buy overwatch however when i seethe game was $70 dollar for the basic game for the Australian audience and $40 US for the America Playerbase the conversion rate didnt seem right so i checked the conversion rate which is $40 US = $55Au so im like ok wonder what the conversion rate for other countries area.
When u select countries
US $40= $55.21 Australian
South Korean Won 45,000 = $52.38 Australian
New Taiwan Dollar 1,300 = $55 Australian
Euro $40 = $61.53 Australian
Like serious its kinda stupid why not let us pay the converted price of the US value like you do for everyone else around the world. I can select New Zealand for country and it be $40 us Dollars
When u select countries
US $40= $55.21 Australian
South Korean Won 45,000 = $52.38 Australian
New Taiwan Dollar 1,300 = $55 Australian
Euro $40 = $61.53 Australian
Like serious its kinda stupid why not let us pay the converted price of the US value like you do for everyone else around the world. I can select New Zealand for country and it be $40 us Dollars
Comments
Edit: oh yeah I forgot - high ping...
Origin Edition
$60US - $89.95AU
exchange - $60US = $82.85AU
so there is only a $7 mark up on the origin edition but on the standard edition it's more like $15... which again is still weird, because most blizzard games i've never paid an intentional mark up on it's only been the exchange difference
Think about it some more.
and on blizzards servers i get like 13ms with 100/40 fiber, which should be soon getting upgraded to 200/200... so i mean it's not all bad especially living in the suburbs
there is no tax on digital purchases.. it's seller descretion, i buy plenty of games online at the sale price + currency conversion, on pretty much most blizzard games it's been the same.. WoW / D3 / HoTS... it only seems to be on overwatch they did this
I think the Brits are usually 2nd in line to get screwed over.
I remember Final Fantasy 11 gave me the option to pay in € from now on rather than $ to bypass the conversion fee of my bank. I happily agreed back then - not knowing that they just changed the $ on the bill with € now...
Over night my subscription became 40% more expensive. (back then)
I buy all my games in such shops and they cost a tiny tiny fraction of what they would cost buying from blizzard or a retail shop.
Diablo 3 with the expansion, cost me 17 euros... and thats just an example.
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I have no issues playing conversion rates however im not gonna pay conversion + extra for a digital copy. Physical i dont mind paying extra due to shipping costs.
that isnt true....
World of Warcraft Legion : Digital Deluxe
$70US - $94.95AU
converted
70US is $96.65
and i've spent over $380 in HoTS and all of it has been just currency rate more than the US price.
it's only been like this with overwatch, i'm looking at all the money i've spent on blizzard games in my account settings, and none of my purchases have been marked up $10 - $30 compared to the US rate
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Like that can be understanable if they were lowering the price for the country that have less income than adverage income of the US but it just seems they wanna be greedy and instead take what they can and not give back.
How many physical copies could you fit in a 40ft container? It's about $1800.00 to ship a 40ft container from LA to Sydney.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
When I was living in Singapore I ordered a DVD of a BBC series and the Customs wanted to watch the video before allowing me to get it and I would have had to pay them the manpower to watch my DVD. Needless to say I decided they could keep it and went back to Malaysia and reordered it.
Here what the support team got back to me with:
As for the differences in pricing, our customer support is not part of that decision, so I can't tell you the exact reasons. However, from my own experience, here are some factors that likely played into that:
1. Wages in Australia are a lot better than most other country's such as the US and UK.
2. Transportation Costs (for physical copies), Australia is far away from the bulk of the developed world and shipping costs will be expensive.
3. This also effects digital copies of the game, as they need to compete with the importing costs for retailers. Retail might may refuse to sell games for which the publisher sells the game cheaper then they can afford to due to the import costs. If you are interested in further reading about this, I woukd suggest the following: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cjeez/eli5_why_do_video_games_cost_so_much_in_australia/ Kind Regards, Game Master Schavinoss Customer Support Blizzard Entertainment http://us.battle.net/support/
It's like people in Hawaii wondering why milk is 12 bucks a gallon or people in Bahrain wondering why KFC is 10 bucks for a 1 piece meal.
As I recall the AUD is not equivalent to the USD so using a direct conversion is silly but it also doesn't take into account shipping and taxes which the government does put on some of these companies (not to mention the need to certify the game for certain audiences and whatnot that also costs money).
No other game company i have found has charge extra for selling a digital version of the game to somone in Australia but blizzard.
If it was a physical copy that acualy cost them more then yes its understandable.
Like a new console game in AU is like $100. That's regardless of the current exchange rate. Same deal with Canada, it's like $80 for a new game regardless of the exchange rate. Then in the rates change there is some play, until such a time that the base price for that country requires adjustment. So when the exchange rates are in the favor of the companies, they'll make more money, I'm assuming. When it isn't, then they won't make as much money. There was a time when the CAD was exchanging higher than the USD, but Canadians were still spending more than an American for a new game. Game prices don't fluctuate with the ever-changing economy.
Oh!!! Idea! We should just have a single currency for the entire world!!! We'll call it the USD.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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There you go.
Since you obviously need someone poinnting it out for you:
Makes sense doesn't it? I would not sell a game in my store (I don't own a store) if the producer of the product sells it cheaper (not talking subsidiaries, franchises or company stores, but stores with a choice).
That is also why you can buy old games - that aren't relevant to retail - or ingame purchases (like Hearthstone packs) for a price quite near to the actual conversion rate.