Price gap between PC and console games in Europe

[borowki]

I've noticed that the price of the console version of a game costs a lot more than the PC version here in Poland. I wonder if this is a pan-European phenomenon.

For example, BioShock costs 90 zl on the PC, but 240 zl on the XB360. HL Orange Box is 130 zl on the PC, but 220 zl on the XB360.

Care to post how much these two games cost in your country? No whining, please

 

[AlNom]

Unless your currency is on some log or exponential scale, that seems pretty absurd! Over here in Canada or the United States, console titles are ~$10 more than the PC counterpart at full price.

For Bioshock in particular, the X360 and PC Canadian MSRPs are $69.99 and $59.99, respectively. In the US, it's $59.99 and $49.99, respectively.

 

[DJ12]

Bioshock is £10 more for 360 and Orange Box is £15 more.

I wonder if anyone in the "trade" could give some of the reasons why console games cost more than the PC ones.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Bioshock is £10 more for 360 and Orange Box is £15 more.

I wonder if anyone in the "trade" could give some of the reasons why console games cost more than the PC ones.

It really is as simple as, 'because they can'. Partly it is because there is an extra hand in the cookie jar (royalties are paid to Sony and MS to make a game for their console), intel or ibm or whoever doesn't get a cut of every pc game sold.

 

[borowki]

Bioshock is £10 more for 360 and Orange Box is £15 more.

What are the prices?

 

[DJ12]

£34.99 for both PC versions, £44.99 and £49.99 for the 360 versions.

 

[Skrying]

$10 difference generally, and to me it also seems that PC games tend to drop quickly in price compared to consoles. PC games slowly drift from launch price down, where as console games maintain a high price then suddenly drop. I don't see myself every buying a game over $50, and the most expensive one I recently purchased was The Orange Box at $45.

 

[infinity4]

PES 2008 sells for 18GBP here in the UK whereas I got my 360 version for 30GBP on wednesday.

Generally they are cheaper, a lot of pc games I see are 18GBP whereas 360 games and PS3 games are normally at 39.99GBP.

 

[aselto]

Yeah, price disparity in Poland is huge - seeing Halo 3 for 239PLN and next to that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for 79PLN makes me insane.

 

[JardeL]

In Turkey ,
PES 2008 PS3 : ~ $135
PES 2008 PC : ~ $ 56

Like a joke ... Lots of people import from send-it.com or playasia ...

No official X360 hw/sw sales here btw...

 

[borowki]

Yeah, price disparity in Poland is huge - seeing Halo 3 for 239PLN and next to that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for 79PLN makes me insane.

CoD4 is going to be launched at 79PLN/245PLN. I don't see the method behind this madness.

 

[DJ12]

I guess they figure more sales at a lower price is better than limited sales and the majority pirating it.

 

[Zaphod]

It really is as simple as, 'because they can'.

In Europe, the reason is actually Jersey.

Big e-tailers established in tax heavens formally outside the Common Market combined with the possibility of VAT-exempt importation of personal goods at certain limits (i.e. £18 in the UK) have pushed lots of titles towards this as a base price. Since these companies could often undersell the distributor prices of your friendly neighborhood official reseller, they (to some extent) have had to follow suit.

Thus, attractive titles that can be made available at (or slightly below) the VAT limits attract customers. They won't bring in much profit, though, so they make that back on decidedly cheaper items or items that won't get close to the limit without incurring a substantial loss.

Many new PC games fall into the first of these three categories while console games always fall into the latter. Voilà! Huge price disparity.

 

[rekator]

In France it's generally 10€ more for 360 and PS3 games than PC…

 

[ArturNOW]

CoD4 is going to be launched at 79PLN/245PLN. I don't see the method behind this madness.

The reason is amount of games sold for PC and Console in Poland. You should also take into account localization of PC games. So if the game is in Polish it will be hard to sell it abroad. So you can adjust PC games to polish market. 7-8 years ago PC games were as expensive as console ones. What bothers me are polish console prices. PS3 40GB costs 1599zl and it's only 399Euros. With current exchange rate is should be below 1500zl around 1470zl. Games shouldn't be more expensive then 200-200zl if European price is 59Euro. It's proof that console still ain't to popular in Poland no sales are lower then PC games.

 

[Gollum]

In Germany the rule seems to be roughly 20 € price difference.

A new PC title will usually cost between 40 - 45 €, while the corresponding console release won't be sold at less than 65 - 70 € (almost 100 $ at current exchange rates !!!) in most major retailers like Saturn and Media Markt. Even gaming stores like Gamestop aren't much cheaper, if they are cheaper at all (at least they sometimes offer decent trade-in deals). In online shops you can often get new console titles for 55 - 60 €, but then the PC title will also be at least 5 € cheaper there.

Also, while PC games often drop in price to sub-30 € regions rather quickly, console games rarely sell for less than 55 € until they get a Platinum or Classic release. Online shops again to the rescue, as they often offer good bargains on older console titles.

Seriously, looking at those prices I often wonder how people can buy console games anywhere but online - to me that's the the ONLY option as I refuse to pay more than 60 € for a game...

 

[ArturNOW]

In Germany the rule seems to be roughly 20 € price difference.

A new PC title will usually cost between 40 - 45 €, while the corresponding console release won't be sold at less than 65 - 70 € (almost 100 $ at current exchange rates !!!) in most major retailers like Saturn and Media Markt. Even gaming stores like Gamestop aren't much cheaper, if they are cheaper at all (at least they sometimes offer decent trade-in deals). In online shops you can often get new console titles for 55 - 60 €, but then the PC title will also be at least 5 € cheaper there.

Also, while PC games often drop in price to sub-30 € regions rather quickly, console games rarely sell for less than 55 € until they get a Platinum or Classic release. Online shops again to the rescue, as they often offer good bargains on older console titles.

Seriously, looking at those prices I often wonder how people can buy console games anywhere but online - to me that's the the ONLY option as I refuse to pay more than 60 € for a game...

IMHO PS3 is great choice when it comes to next-gen console 'cause there is no regional block. You can simply buy games from e.g. play-asia in very good price.

 

[JardeL]

Big price gap between PS3 and PC games make no sense ... PS3 is not hacked yet so you have to buy original games compulsory ... If you keep PS3 prices high people will import from playasia etc which means no PS3 sw sale for local retailers ...

 

[borowki]

You should also take into account localization of PC games. So if the game is in Polish it will be hard to sell it abroad. So you can adjust PC games to polish market.

True. I guess what's weird here is how cheap PC games are. I mean, if someone can afford a rig powerful enough for Crysis, he probably won't be deterred by an extra 50 or even 100 zl.

 

[Skrying]

True. I guess what's weird here is how cheap PC games are. I mean, if someone can afford a rig powerful enough for Crysis, he probably won't be deterred by an extra 50 or even 100 zl.

That's not a good way to look at PC games though. You don't need a vastly expensive system to play Crysis, you only need one of those to play at max settings. My lowly system that has about $700 worth of hardware plays it at 1280x800 with mostly High settings. That's a higher resolution then most console games, and the settings look amazing in that game. Not only that but the games are on average cheaper, which does add up. If I buy 5 games here in the US for $50 each, in comparison I saved enough for an entirely new game compared to console prices. That's a big savings!