Waltzing Nintendo
As I said in the last post, Australia has a problem with the video game industry. We’re ripped off, and must endure often-long delays. And Nintendo is one of the worst for this problem.
Before I get to the solution, let me write a little more extensively on the price issue, which I didn’t spend enough time on in the first post.
We’re ripped off, and New Zealand, who are considered to be part of Australia for the purposes of video game regions, are, too. This can be seen by looking at videogame prices across the regions. Let me list a few, starting with Nintendo’s own titles, then moving onto some other titles. All other regions’ prices (including New Zealand’s prices) will be converted to Australian dollars, and expressed relative to Australian prices (meaning, in the UK, where sales tax is 17.5%, I’ll remove the 17.5% tax, then add 10% to represent Australia’s GST). Australian dollars will be assumed for the dollar sign, unless the appropriate code is attached (US$ means US dollars, rather than Australian dollars).
Regions are listed by decreasing equivalent price.
Super Mario Galaxy
- Australian price: $100
- New Zealand price: NZ$110, equivalent to $95
- UK price: £40, equivalent to $82
- Japan price: ￥5,800, equivalent to $64
- US price: US$50, equivalent to $62
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
- Australian price: $100
- New Zealand price: NZ$110, equivalent to $95
- Japan price: ￥6,800, equivalent to $75
- UK price: £35, equivalent to $72
- US price: US$50, equivalent to $62
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
- UK price: £40, equivalent to $82
- Australian price: $80
- New Zealand price: NZ$80, equivalent to $69
- Japan price: ￥5,800, equivalent to $64
- US price: US$40, equivalent to $49
Endless Ocean
- Australian price: $80
- New Zealand price: NZ$80, equivalent to $69
- Japan price: ￥5,800, equivalent to $64
- UK price: £20, equivalent to $41
- US price: US$30, equivalent to $37
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (Note: Australian/NZ version lacks online)
- Australian price: $100
- New Zealand price: NZ$100, equivalent to $86
- UK price: £40, equivalent to $82
- Japan price: ￥6,090, equivalent to $67
- US price: US$50, equivalent to $62
Nitro Bike
- Japan price: ￥6,090, equivalent to $67
- US price: US$50, equivalent to $62
- New Zealand price: NZ$60, equivalent to $52
- Australian price: $50
- UK price: £20, equivalent to $41
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
- Australian price: $100
- New Zealand price: NZ$110, equivalent to $95
- UK price: £40, equivalent to $82
- Japan price: ￥7,340, equivalent to $81
- US price: US$50, equivalent to $62
Dewy’s Adventure
- Australian price: $100
- New Zealand price: NZ$110, equivalent to $95
- UK price: £40, equivalent to $82
- Japan price: ￥6,090, equivalent to $67
- US price: US$40, equivalent to $49
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
- Australian price: $100
- New Zealand price: NZ$110, equivalent to $95
- UK price: £40, equivalent to $82
- Japan price: ￥5,800, equivalent to $64
- US price: US$50, equivalent to $62
Wii System prices
- New Zealand price: NZ$500, equivalent to $431
- Australian price: $400
- UK price: £179, equivalent to $366
- US price: US$250, equivalent to $308
- Japan price: ￥25,000, equivalent to $275
So as you can see, with just two exceptions on that list, Australia pays the worst price followed by New Zealand, with the other regions getting much better deals. The exceptions are WarioWare, which UK got hit rather harshly with, and Nitro Bike, which PAL regions got a good deal on. I hope this demonstrates the extremely bad deal that Australia generally gets.
Now, having addressed the price problem, lets talk about the solution to this and the delay issue…
The first thing for us Australians to understand is that we have power. Without us, these companies don’t make money. So long as the customer is willing to pay more, and to accept delays, the company will continue to charge more and delay until they can be bothered releasing titles. To emphasise this fact, let me talk for a moment about the exchange rate between Australian and US dollars.
In 2001, the Australian dollar crashed. At its lowest point, it was worth just 48.9 US cents (monthly average from March 2001). At this point in time, a game costing US$50 would cost AU$100 (US$50 would have converted to AU$102, before tax), meaning that Australia was getting a moderately decent deal. However, when the Australian dollar climbed back up, video game prices didn’t adjust. As a result, we now have an exchange rate somewhere around 1 AU dollar = 88 US cents. At this exchange rate, US$50 is equal to just AU$57.
Problem is, consumers had adjusted to the AU$100 price point for video games, and as a result, video game publishers didn’t readjust prices to suit the new exchange rate. So long as the consumer didn’t mind paying that much, publishers didn’t mind charging that much. And with region-locking being so common, it wasn’t like consumers could shop around, anyway.
So what can consumers do to get a more equitable price point for video games? They can use their consumer power, and refuse to pay more than they see as fair. If retail companies start seeing people only buying games when significantly discounted, those discounts will become more common – and in the process, the retail companies will use their power to force publishers to lower their prices, as the retailer isn’t going to consistently sell product at a loss. So consumers use their consumer power on the retailers, and the retailers, in turn, use their power on the publishers. As publishers discover this pattern repeating itself, they lower their prices to compensate, and video game prices fall, and there is no longer a need for discounts to get reasonable prices – instead, discounts become great deals.
Of course, this method works best in conjunction with direct communication with publishers, where you complain about such things as the unfair pricing. It makes use of market forces to actually force publishers to lower prices, while also informing them that lowering prices will increase their image in the eyes of customers. This will solve the price difference… but what about the delays?
The same basic method can be applied to delays in order to force publishers to bring games to Australia on a fairer timetable. Of course, nobody expects worldwide release dates for every game, and delays between Australia and Japan are understandable – delays between Australia and America, at times, are understandable, in fact. However, we should be expecting reasonably prompt delivery of games in Australia relative to America.
So how do we apply the method? We place a price on delays – if a game is delayed by a certain length of time, we reduce the amount of money we are willing to pay for it, so a game that we are willing to pay $70 for if delivered within a month, we may only be willing to pay $60 for if delivered more than a month late. If it’s two months late, we’ll only pay $50 for it, and so on. To further this, we actually inform publishers of our intent in this, and thus, they discover that, to make a reasonable profit, they must bring games over relatively promptly – of course, this side of the method will fall apart if publishers are not informed of the plan.
Some people think that importing games from other regions is the solution – with mod chips, if from America. This, however, does not solve the root problem. In essence, rather than punishing the company for ripping us off, you’re rewarding them by still buying the game (which means profit for them); sure, they’re not making as much profit on that one sale as they would if you bought it here, but reducing the price significantly would also reduce the profit they make, so it really doesn’t harm them at all. Furthermore, they observe a shrinking market for the games, and end up either spending more money on advertising, or reducing their support for those games, resulting in longer delays and higher prices. It’s anti-productive to import for this reason.
Another thing that can help to reduce the prices and delays is to bring an end to region-locking. If the Wii were region-free, retailers would have reason to import games from other regions, thereby saving themselves money, and then they would be able to sell games to us for discounted prices. And since any Wii would be able to play these games, the local publishers would find that they make no money at all, and would be forced to lower their prices to be more competitive with other regions, and release games on better schedules.
But of course, so long as Nintendo gets to make region-locked Wiis, they can keep doing it. As such, this needs to be resolved on an Australian level, using Australian law. Already, Australian law requires that DVD players be region-free. It would not be difficult to extend this law to also cover video games – and if Nintendo were required to make the Wii region-free, they could do so via a simple update. And thus, another part of the solution is to contact the Australian government, and lobby them to institute region-free laws for video gaming. New Zealanders should do a similar thing, to ensure that they aren’t left out in the process.
This method of introducing laws can easily be encouraged by getting the nation on the side of the gamers, and so it is also quite effective to get the mainstream media involved. Australians will rally behind a group that is being unfairly disadvantaged compared with those in other countries, and will work to fix it. As many people on various forums have suggested, shows such as Today Tonight and A Current Affair can be contacted about this, as they enjoy making segments about how normal Australians are being ripped off.
And so, I will be implementing some of these ideas, myself. I will be restricting all video game purchases to $80 for top-tier titles (such as Super Smash Bros Brawl) and $70 for other titles (such as BWii). Following the release of Brawl, any game that is more than a month late in arriving in Australia after America will be docked $10. If it’s more than 2 months late, $20. More than 4 months late, and I won’t pay more than $40 for it. I will also be informing any of the publishers who have internet contact info (and I’ll send a message to Nintendo of America, to be forwarded to Nintendo Australia) that this is what I plan to do. I will also send a message to Today Tonight and to A Current Affair, regarding these issues, with a focus on region-locking.
Remember, we consumers have power, and it’s about time we used it to fix this problem.
Tags: Delays, Nintendo Australia, Ripped off, solution, Video Game Prices
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11th 2008f February, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Really good read, I believe that contacting TT and ACA is a good idea as it will bring attention to our cause. If we were able to make region locking illegal, think of the possibilities…Hope you’re successful in getting the current affairs shows in.
12th 2008f February, 2008 at 9:49 am
i think you and other people should be worrying more about other MORE IMPORTANT issue’s than how much your silly games cost
12th 2008f February, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Angie, I think you should be spending more time doing more important things than browsing the blogs of people you don’t know, and reading their posts about topics that you clearly care nothing about, and then commenting in a way that is sure to annoy said blogger.
We aren’t “worrying” about it, we’re simply fed up with it. It’s a problem that is incredibly easy to fix, if we do it the right way. Consider the fact that, if a gamer buys 10 games a year, for 5 years, at $20 more than we should be paying, that works out to a rather noticeable $1000 more that we pay for the life of a console – that’s a rather significant amount of money. And I’ve already gotten 21 games in the year and a quarter that the Wii has been out, so it would be even more than that for me. This isn’t a trifling issue, this is a significant one.
13th 2008f June, 2008 at 11:03 am
Angie, being ripped off by megacorporations is not acceptable. This issue is nothing to do with gaming – it’s price fixing and it would be an issue whatever the product was. To understand the point, substitute “video games are nearly twice as expensive here than overseas” with “Angie’s favourite consumer product is nearly twice as expensive here than overseas”. Or imagine that DVDs cost upwards of $60, CDs cost upward of $50, paperback books cost more than $35, etc.
None of those things are in any way essential to life, but that doesn’t mean that we should be forced to pay well above the normal price simply because we live in Australia.