A begging Australian

[dark moogle]

I know we are the bane of gaming society, what with our terrible nation wide internet and all. But I have to speak for the land down under when I say 'PLEASE KEEP THE PRICES LOW'

Australians don't get special treatment from Nintendo, so while we pay more for our Wii Points, our Wii Shopping Channel prices aren't adjusted to compensate for this. So if episodes are priced at anything over 1000 Wii Points, it's going to feel like highway robbery. After checking the prices for Sam & Max episodes, I want to be optimistic but when your an Australian gamer you learn to wait until the last minute only to find out that:

a) the price point is overinflated
b) the game will be delayed several months for no reason
c) features (such as online play in EA games) will be cut
d) all of the above

Don't get me wrong, knowing me I will probably still buy each episode (and I plan on picking up Sam & Max Season One when the disc version comes out) but when you guys finally settle on a price, remember that unemployed Aussie student and how he will be struggling to make ends just to play this cool game for attractive people.

[xChri5x]

It's coming out on PC too, if the Wii is too expensive.

[dark moogle]

My laptop can barely handle the demo for Puzzle Quest, let alone other games.

Honestly, it's been on the edge for a couple months (and the disc drive is performing worse than ever) so I'm kinda waiting for it to die.

[Freelance Poster]

Hmm... VC games can be gifted, can WiiWare be gifted too? If so maybe you can find another kind Australian soul to gift it to you.

[Emily]

Australians don't get special treatment from Nintendo, so while we pay more for our Wii Points, our Wii Shopping Channel prices aren't adjusted to compensate for this. So if episodes are priced at anything over 1000 Wii Points, it's going to feel like highway robbery.

I'm not sure I understand. For us, 100 Wii points = $1 (I think?). How many Australian dollars is 100 Wii points?

The US dollar's pretty weak compared to the Australian dollar right now (I took a vacation to Sydney in September and felt the hurt, believe me!), so it would seem like that should even things out for you, but maybe I'm missing the point...?

[Will]

Our economy is in the crapper, so we are passing on the savings to you!

[tabacco]

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/used_car_salesman.jpg

[LuigiHann]

I'm not sure I understand. For us, 100 Wii points = $1 (I think?). How many Australian dollars is 100 Wii points?

The US dollar's pretty weak compared to the Australian dollar right now (I took a vacation to Sydney in September and felt the hurt, believe me!), so it would seem like that should even things out for you, but maybe I'm missing the point...?

According to Wikipedia...
100 Wii Points = AUD 1.50, which is about $1.36 in US dollars.

[Seg]

Hmm... VC games can be gifted, can WiiWare be gifted too? If so maybe you can find another kind Australian soul to gift it to you.
WiiWare will be giftable exactly like VC titles are giftable now. To review:

1) You have to pair friend codes between you and the giftee.
2) You can only gift to people with-in your region.

What I don't know is where Australia fits in. Nintendo treats Australia as apart of Europe for region coding, but I'm not sure if that works for gifting WiiWare/VC titles.

[Juhsayngul]

...Puzzle Quest FTW!

[Hero1]

They always rip us off in Australia... xbox360 games are $120 here in Australia.. $60 in the US which equals about $65 australian..so they are ripping us off $55.. Add to that wii games are released here about 6-8 months after everyone else and you will find plenty of frustrated gamers here in Australia.. 100 wii points should be $1.07 but no they charge $1.50 for no apparent reason! :mad:

[Tester Scott]

Wow how do they stay in business when they are screwing you so bad?

[Shauntron]

I had an Australian friend who had me drive him to Best Buy so he could load up on games for this very reason :(

[Tester Scott]

I could see a lucrative business shipping imports to Aussie Land.

[Will]

This is why we have so many Australian fans. Our games are practically free there!

*edit* oh yeah, and I guess the games are good or something, but whatever.

[Iron Curtain]

oh yeah, and I guess the games are good or something, but whatever.

No, that can't possibly be the reason. :p

[Hero1]

Wow how do they stay in business when they are screwing you so bad?

Because we have no other choice.. With some of that beautiful "region-encoding" we can't even import games..

This is why we have so many Australian fans. Our games are practically free there!

The Sam & Max series is amazing value.. about $40 for that much gameplay is really cheap in comparison to what we usually pay.

[Haggis]

According to Wikipedia...
100 Wii Points = AUD 1.50, which is about $1.36 in US dollars.
Hey, it's even worse in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Points#Pricing) - $1.49. But maybe I should just be thankful I don't live in Chile.

[fco.]

Hey, it's even worse in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Points#Pricing) - $1.49. But maybe I should just be thankful I don't live in Chile.

Well I guess there's actually a good side and a bad side about living in Chile.

On the bad side, retail prices for games are much higher (a $50 game in U.S.A. can cost the equivalent to $90 here) and there's simply no Wii Shop for us.

On the good side, we share coding region with U.S.A., so there's no problems with imports. This means that we get the games faster and cheaper on import stores than on the official ones.
And concerning the Wii Shop, you can access it by just seting U.S.A as your location and buy in U.S.$.

[Haggis]

Oh, well, I guess I'll put Chile on my list of countries to possibly migrate to then! :D

[azza29]

Yeah Aussie games are ridiculously expensive. At one point they were charging A$40 (about US$38) for Sims 2 Stuff Packs!

Which is why we're using Steam and other portals to just buy the games online, for half the price! Or there are some great online stores based in Southeast Asia that target Aussie gamers with their cheap prices and legitimate games.

[TomSuperman]

fortunately where I live games only cost 2 dollars because of mass piration.

[tabacco]

That doesn't mean games are cheap, it just means everyone pirates them. Not the same thing.

[Molokov]

Wow, suprise announcement:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/05/nintendo_wiiware_launches_in_oz_today.html

Wiiware is in Oz, only a week after the US. Wow. So hopefully those Aussie Wii owners who want SBCG4AP can get it via WiiWare on the same release schedule as the US.

I don't have a Wii, so I'm not so fussed. I'll be getting the PC version.

[Juhsayngul]

We still don't have Dr. Mario in NA. =(

[FoboldFKY]

We won't have Super Smash Bros. Brawl for over a month. You guys have had it for nearly three.

Who do you think is getting a bum deal? :)

[Juhsayngul]

I didn't say it wasn't fair. Everyone should get to have games as soon as they're released anywhere. I can be sad!

[leon101]

We won't have Super Smash Bros. Brawl for over a month. You guys have had it for nearly three.

Who do you think is getting a bum deal? :)

I didn't really like Smash brothers brawl I'm sad to say. It's cool that Sonic and Snake were in it, but other than that, not much else for me. Same bash the button until you break your thumbs in two gameplay.

I have a PC that can run the widows versions, and I have a wii to get the wiiware version. I'll be getting the wiiware versions of them.

[Shmeh]

Wow how do they stay in business when they are screwing you so bad?

Because all the competition is screwing just as much. No market pressure to bring the price down. Another reason why PC gamers are using online distribution instead of retail purchases.

When I bought Orange Box it cost US$50. It came to A$56 (AFTER currency conversion charges). The stores were selling it for as much as A$110. For the extra $54 you would probably get a case, a disc, and a useless manual.

I don't think I have bought any game retail since Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

[Teddy]

The reason we pay so much for games is because our economy has gotten so much better (and America's worse) in the last few years but it hasn't been taken into account in any electronics pricing. It's cheaper at the moment to have every part for a pc shipped over from america individually than to buy any of it in australia...
Add that to the fact that we get games so late and it's no surprise that most gamers i know will download a game before(if) they buy it here, whether to get it on time or just to be sure they aren't wasting that much money.

So we go online and it's only a currency conversion fee - then consoles come up with all this bs with points instead of an actual price and back to the exact same problem and then companies assume their games aren't selling well here and we just keep on getting everything late and overpriced. :mad:

rant rave rant rave rant rave...


leon101: we won't even get a chance to decide that or another month

[someguyfromazoo]

fortunately where I live games only cost 2 dollars because of mass piration.

If you're serious,which I practically know you're not, I'm packing my bags.