Purchase Price for Gal Civ II

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi..I have read a lot of good reviews for Gal Civ II and would like to purchase a copy, but as a resident in a South East Asia country, the purchase price of US$39.99 is high.
Would Stardock consider a different pricing scheme based on location? Thanks
13,993 views 26 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I got it for £17.99 form play.com, not sure if that is available in your area, but try shopping around.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Never considered that. Do people market games and the like CHEAPER to POORER countries? Not trying to be racist or whatever, just never thought of that.

Whoa, now that I think about it, everything in Canada is more expensive than the US. Does that make Canada a RICHER country than the US?

LoL, kind of a strange way to look at things.

I'll be quiet, now.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, AUD is about 0.77 USD, and games here cost $90-100. That isn't exchange rate: that's import tax, supplier/retailer grifting, things like that. Ironically, games here have *always* cost that much, way back to the NES/Mega Drive days.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Prices certainly do change from country to country, and not only due to taxes. I bought the electronical version of the game for 39$ and an european edition (to offer someone) for 35$ at play.com (which includes a cd a manuel, tech tree, etc...). So the electronic version is much more expensive.

As for really different prices, the best example is always medical treatments: a pill that costs 4$ in europe or the USA will usually be sold 10, 15$ in Africa, where noone can afford it at that price.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I was suprised too when I got the limited edition via play.com (to germany) for a total of ~30 EUR while
Amazon.de offered the (sucky) German version for ~40 EUR...
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh yes.. lets give them a discount I mean.. a game being hailed as the best strategy game in its genre since moo2 clearly isnt worth an outrageous $39.99 in fact.. lets charge half price because hes in asia and therefore shouldnt be bothered with paying as much as the rest of us. Get a job
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
#7.

I think you're missing the big picture here.

39.99$ for me is about 30 minutes of work, for someone in a poor country in Asia it could be a months work.
Of course, if they have the computer to run the game, they should also be able to pay for it.

Some flexibility in the pricing should of course be encouraged.

I'd also like to see some sort of "reward" system, or discount. Say, now that the game has proven to be a huge retail success, perhaps the price of 39.95$ is no longer "justified".

E.g. they did a "cost of developent" = Price * Estimated Retail Sales.

Now if the sales far exceed that, they make a LOT of money (yay!) but it also means that they can lower the price and still earn a LOT (but not as much) money.

Also, if those who torrented the game purchased a serial for it, they dont have to download it again, and thus the only cost for Stardock wrt that particular sale is the processing of the serial, and no bandwidth cost etc for downloads.


Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A poor asian country? The man is on the internet not a damned rice paddy give me a break hes probably in south korea which isnt exactly impoverished or even china.. Cry me a commy river (if in china). Pay full price like the rest of us! Dont give me that blithering undeveloped nation crap thats eating the worlds import market because china gets "special" consideration buy the game or save up untill you can. No pity here Oh wait, I live in the southern united states where the GDP is lower may I please get 5 or 10$ knocked off the price? Meh!
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
39.99$ for me is about 30 minutes of work



And where DO you work? Rounding up and using stupid-math, my $9 an hour makes it take me 5.5 hours to make that much money.

What, exactly, do you do, Mr. Doctor? Can you send me some money? Please?

((I work for the worst place on earth, which also happens to sell GalCiv2. We had it three days after the release, and seeing as how I preordered it from SD directly, I didn't bother to pick it up. We got four copies, still have two in. And, by the way, I've been at unsaid company for 5.5 years.))
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Games in Brazil used to cost way less (33USD for a brand new one) but thats when the Real (currency) was really unvalorized. Now that its gotten some serious value (we got the highest interest rate in the world..w00t?) a game is 50USD again. Also, 90% of the game market is pirated

I do know that PC games in Japan cost around 80USD. I commented this to my hsot mother there when i spent a month, and she said that to Japanese people that isnt a lot.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
just like the RedBaron said, I got it for 28.99€ from play.com whereas paradox (the European distributor) sells it 45€... I thnik amazon.co.uk sell it approx the same price.

for the time being, I like it as much as civ4 and it is only half the price. It is already a cheap but very high quality game, Stardock are not likely to make it even cheaper... besides, I am unsure it is worth distributing games in China: illegal copies must already be on sale over there... so why go there and make it even less profitable by chopping the prices down again?

just my 2 cents
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
hmm, pricing in Canada (eh?) is better than US.
I got my copy for $38 at WalMart - that's about $34 US (or so)
as for the 17.99 pounds - that IS $39 US peeps... British pound is almost 2.2 that of US and Canada.. nice eh?

I think the 'more independent' dealers give better deals, but I think the 'web-retailers' have to cap-it so that they don't lose money or distributors within their area by under-cutting them.

Just my thoughts.
Going to go enjoy the game now!
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well their price is lower than usual, the quality is higher... and they might have little power on the overall price anyway. There are intermediaries and so on, and since those are all paid in $US...

So there are some limits there. And it might be even more limited as they cannot use a different model for each individual, trying to figure out where here's from. That's what I see, there might be more.

I once chatted with someone who was very interested, but couldn't buy a 40$ book. So for this US guy saying pay "as I do!", well maybe you would see things differently if you worked "as they do". Life's not all perfect
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't really think that works, since if you were to set pricing lower in undeveloped regions, then could'nt we all just buy the game from a retailer in that area online?

I think the best bet for someone with a lower income, whether they live in Canada, China, Campodia, Chile, Cameroon or the Czech Republic is to shop around, or wait a while before buying. Prices do generally drop atleast a bit as time goes by for games.

TIP
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
To be fair, no one should get special treatment and have a price reduction. The only reason why the price varies in different countries is because of taxes, currency rate, retail price addition and discount on batches. But everyone kind of buying it at the same price more or less - although over time, the product value does depreciate (unless it becomes rare and sought out).

US$44.95 is excellent value, as I brought it digitally from the UK, that amounts to around 30 pounds. A bargain!
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The problem with offering it at steep discounts is that you end up with someone reselling the game. Offer it at a cheap enough price (say 20) then someone goes and buys up as many as they can, brings it back to the states and sells it again.

Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Or they resell them in their own country at a higher price. games are not a necessity, so I don't think that a price reduction is in place.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I ordered it from play.com and didn´t get it. "Lost in the post" they said. "Wait for up to 28 days", they said, "We´ll try to send it again, when we have it in stock", they said. I wanted that collectors edition...

Anyway, back to topic. Have you heard of the Big Mac index. It´s one measure of a currency´s relative value and thus a heplful pricing index. You will find that in most "poorer" countries prices for generic (and thus comparable) goods are considerably less than in "1st world countries".

So, a different pricing scheme does make sense.

However, with the internet becoming a better used distribution platform everyday, incentives to order abroad (as I did with play.com) in order to take advantage of the exchange rate are increasing. This is would be an argument against greater pricing differences in different parts of the world.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wargoat , if I earned in dollars like YOU do, I´ll be happy to pay like YOU do. The problem is that the games are sold here at 70 dollars, which is 1/4 of a normal salary. You are complaining because it is not fair that others pay less than you do, but aplying the same reasoning, it is not fair that you earn your salary in dollars... The point is to put prices that relate to the life cost of the customers... so if you earn 800 dollars per month, the game should cost 50, and if you earn 300, the game should cost around 20... The thing is that you want the cake and the bread, you are not grateful that you earn in dollars and that games are designed especificaly for your market, you also want the lower cost of countries that don´t pay salaries in dollars... You are a selfish man (or child)... I think that you should be happy that other people could share your same hobbies and likings, but instead you say that they should f**k themselves for living in a third world country... Way to go, Wargoat!
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
STOP COMPARING THIS TO MOO2! thank you.
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
STOP COMPARING THIS TO MOO2! thank you.


Huh? Wrong thread maybe? Or do you have a bot that posts whenever the term is used in any context?
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
WorstBuy?


Close. Starts with a W, has a star, ends in a D.

Give up? I know I already sold my soul to them (grrrrrrr)
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top

As for really different prices, the best example is always medical treatments: a pill that costs 4$ in europe or the USA will usually be sold 10, 15$ in Africa, where noone can afford it at that price.


A bit off topic, but the $4 pill in Europe is about $15 in the USA - we get to fund all the research rather than have the govn't limit the prices.