Price gap between PC and console games in Europe

Actually you're looking at it the wrong way. PC games are competing in price with their own pirated rival products. You have a situation where people are making purchase decisions based on difficulty of acquiring the free version vs the retail price, so pc games are more price sensitive than console games in that respect.

 

Is Play Asia any cheaper? A quick look suggests it's no better than Play or HMV, especially when you could be paying VAT on the delivery for imports. The government stepped up tax and duties legislation on the 19th of July in the UK, in what I think is a European initiative, so the days of tax free internet shopping are supposedly done for, if the retailer is operating legally.

There was a similar change to legislation with the internet shopping boom and companies relocating to the Channel Islands. Most of them have been kicked out, and some only sell VAT free to the UK now (I think Amazon's Jersey operation runs this way). Jersey changed so HMV moved to Guernsey, and I think we can see that won't last forever.

As I understand it, console games cost more than PC titles just because of the license fees. For every disc printed (not sold) you have to pay some $10 to the console company. That's going to be passed on to the consumer. Where you have stiff competition the difference will largely be market driven I expect. eg. In Germany PC gaming is big, so retailers will be trying to undercut each other on the PC games which is such a large market, while remaining happy to sell console titles at RRP where there's less competition.

 

I imported a lot a few years ago when I had a US PS2. I used dvdboxoffice.com because they had free shipping and I never had to pay taxes or duty.

I will test if there has changed something about import taxes and order R&C there.
Now with the stronger Euro and If nothing has changed this will save me €15-20 per title.

 

Amazon got kicked out too, I believe, but are still working around it. Now all their £17.97 merchandise are being sold by "Amazon UK's Preferred Merchant Indigostarfish.com." Preferred indeed. Due to their registered address, no doubt.

 

Have you read my firts post in thread ?..

I live in Turkey , which is not in EU btw , and PS3 games are priced between $90 to $145 in official Sony stores ... F1 , Motorstorm and Resistance are $90 all others are $145 ...

Shipping from Play-Asia costs $3.10 to $43 to Turkey [ Fedex costs $30 with tracking + insured ] ... No extra taxes for under $200 imports here ...

So , it is cheaper ...

 

Australia (considered Europe since it's PAL, and it also follows EU launch timetables) has $10-$20 difference. PC games are normally $99, with new 360/PS3 games generally being $110-$119.

Interestingly, though, more and more games are being launched day one at much cheaper prices than PC games. As an example, JB Hifi is starting to sell some new releases for $79 - I picked up 360 Orange Box last week, which the PC retail was still $99. PGR4, Viva Pinata and Shadowrun also launched at budget prices, though the pricing is fairly inconsistant... I want Eternal Sonata, but most places have it for $119.

If anyone has some info as to why this is happening I'd love to know.

 

10-20 Euro price difference here (20 being more the exception). On the plus side, let's not forget that console games usually yield higher prices when reselling them online - in my experience, at least.

As for the unfortunate gamers in Poland, Sony did open a Polish branch about 2 weeks ago, so game prices might go down in near future. At least, there might be some light at the tunnel for you after all.

EDIT: added link after searching the IntArWebs

 

It's not that simple and I really doubt that many people in Poland have powerful rigs. PC game price are more or less adjusted to Polish salaries, but still 100zl in considerably more for someone in Poland then 50Euros for French, German etc. I don't know what is average salary in those countries, but minimum is ~1300Euro and in Poland is 930zl(250Euro). I know that minimum salary is not appropriate and it would be better to know average salary for old UE contries.

The price difference between console and PC prices which is 10Euro is something obvious as console makes charge some percentage from income, because actually they loose on every console sold except for Nintendo. But difference in Poland is so huge that is very hard to consider console gaming as mainstream entertainment. Of course it comes from the fact that PC publishers were able to adjust PC games prices and as it turns out it profitable for them. Otherwise I think more people would choose pirated games and this was incentive to lower the prices.

I still don't understand German spread between PC game's price and console's. Gollum wrote that PC games are average fo 45Euros and Console are 65-70
Euros. I thought that next-gen consle games have oficial price of 59Euros and 49Euros for Wii games.

 

In the UK you usually pay £25 to pick up a new PC game from amazon.co.uk or play.com, while a console game will set you back £40 from the same sites.

 

I apologize in advance for asking a very stupid and ignorant question, but I thought Poland was in EU? Why don't you guys use Euro then as currency?

 

The European Union and the Single Currency are two different things. The UK is in the EU, but doesn't use Euros.

 

We are in EU since 2004 so it's not that when you join UE you accept the common currency. What's more our country is not ready from econimical point of view to introduce Euro. Euro should be used in Poland around 2012.

 

I did a bit of research on European and German duty procedures.
Even if I had to pay the import tax I`d still save money.
Software is duty free from outside EU, the site ships for free that leaves 19% tax
Game price : € 45
Import tax: € 9
Total: € 54

 

Isn't piracy one reason? I always thought that because PCs cost you fortune to upgrade, and many people turning to *the dark side* they offer games cheaper to make PC gaming market remain competitive.