This is something that has come up a few times in the past. Mostly around the fact that most games that come to Australia end up being priced up to twice or sometimes three times the sale amount of those prices in the UK or the USA.
No doubt most of us have seen some comparisons by now in regards to some of these prices. For example a brand new copy of killzone 3, (just the normal edition as apposed to the collector's one) retails anywhere between $110.00 to $100.00 depending on where you go. Mass effect 2 on the ps3 at EB retails for $100.00 and yet at JB it retails at $89 or so. Now for either game price in the USA or UK is much less than here and yet the aussie dollar is trading very well with the USA.
Like me, most of us have asked the same question why is there such a difference in prices when its still the same copy of that game being sold elsewhere in the world? Granted we do have the different region codes.....PAL and NTSC but the ps3 still plays either version without any difference. The xbox prices are roughly the same for games as well.
However at the same time there are some games sold at $50.00 brand new.....tron and some other titles that seem to slide in under the radar (sleeper titles) for some reason are not marked at the full price of the "normal" $100.00 or so.
Sure some may argue the fact of shipping costs etc, however there are game developer's here in australia that develop games and yet us aussies still pay upwards of $90 or more for a new game that may have been made here. Probably the best example I can use for that as a case in point would be the transformers game based on the armada series. That was released on the humble ps2 and that itself retailed brand new at the time of its release at $80.00 or so. The game itself was developed by melbourne house which is based in the southern state of victoria.
Another way of comparing these prices is to look at the prices of dvd's/blu rays now. Most dvd's and with some exceptions blu ray also sell for around $30.00 or less. The box set of "the pacific" retails for $89 on blu ray and around $10 less for the dvd box set.
So until I get a reasonable answer as to why us poor aussies pay such high prices on brand new titles, I will do what I always do.....wait a few months for the games to drop in price not only brand new, but also those that get traded in at EB and like most of us, I certainly do shop around as sometimes kmart, target and JB do often have their sales on with reduced prices. Of course the other option is to wait for EB's sales they seem to have ever quarter. The next one that is coming up is the easter sale's then of course we have the end of financial year sale in june-july.