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Bit of an inflammatory title.

But Aussies pay through the roof for anything GW, so we often hear.

And on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee (spelling?) tends to go on about how delayed releases of games are over there - how they cost substantially more and how you're lucky to get a lot of what you do.

Why do retailers despise Australia? Is it tax or what?

I honestly do not know, Maybe it's becuase we're just soo damn awesome we have to pay even more? lol

It may be becuase of monetary system, I'm not too sure honestly. Could someone also tell me?

If you believe ole Dick Smith and company, it's the tax, and especially the GST. But ultimately, I don't think anyone knows anymore - it's been that way so long, we've all just accepted it as gospel.

'Cause we're an out-of-the-way island full of convicts.

/sarcasm

None of the local retailers have changed their prices from the times when our dollar was worth less than half of its current value.

As a result, compared to importing something, we pay about double the price for just about anything.

And then GW made it as difficult as possible to import anything. Bastards.

It's traditionally been because of the exchange rate but that sort of thing goes out the window when you can buy the exact same goods from another country for half the price, hence the attempt to keep Aussies buying locally and it really stinks, to put it mildly. I would even go as far as to suggest it is an attempt to price fix quite frankly. According to Insaniak, Borders attempted to do a similar thing by hiking the cost of retail books but then were outdone by people simply switching to online purchases. I guess Borders don't have the clout in their respective market that GW do.

GW have traditionally shown a lot of disdain for the internet in general and pricing their stuff like this in different territories seems to show a bit of ignorance for modern consumer habits.

You cover a couple of points actually.

Retailers charge a lot here because they can. They're still modelling prices on the old exchange rates, and since people still pay it, they don't change them.

Regarding delayed releases in Australia of video games, this can be caused by various reasons. The biggest reason a game release here is delayed is by our classification board insisting that a game be censored. Yahtzee was seriously verexaggerating 'being lucky to get games at all' though. Very rarely games are banned outright, and almost never high profile games (the only one in recent memory was the new Mortal Kombat, which I'm still stewing over). A lot of games even sneak in on lower ratings. GTA 4 should not have been rated MA, for example.

When they insist it be censored, do you mean that Aussies get modified examples ala Germany?

So, a game with decapitations has these removed, or blood is dyed purple, etc?

Or do you mean that they kick up a right hoo-ha and insist on some inquiry that ultimately gets nowhere?

^ The latter, i think. We have puh-lenty of gory games, don't you worry about that.

I did not even know that the land downunder was despised by everything After reading this tread it seems Australia have been left adrift by GW and other companies, alongside their insane rules for videogames,

All of Australia's wild life seems to hate its human inhabitants, so why shouldn't the rest of the planet?

Don't feel too sorry for them, you can earn $150k+ for digging in the dirt over there.

Most of the issues come down to having a volatile currency.

Henners91 wrote:When they insist it be censored, do you mean that Aussies get modified examples ala Germany?

So, a game with decapitations has these removed, or blood is dyed purple, etc?

Or do you mean that they kick up a right hoo-ha and insist on some inquiry that ultimately gets nowhere?

No, it's the former. We have a rating system that currently lacks an 18+ system for games, so when a game is too mature to be rated at a 15+ rating, it is refused a rating, and thus cannot be sold in Australia. Last major example I can think of is the AvP game. It had to be modified to get down to a 15+ rating.

Its the awesome sheilas and killer drop bears.

This should be in OT methinks.

Henners91 wrote:When they insist it be censored, do you mean that Aussies get modified examples ala Germany?

So, a game with decapitations has these removed, or blood is dyed purple, etc?

Or do you mean that they kick up a right hoo-ha and insist on some inquiry that ultimately gets nowhere?

Depends on the game. Dark Sector and Left4Dead 2 are the only games I can recall that had violence censored. Dark Sector had dismemberments removed, and Left4Dead 2 was butched beyond repair (zombies had no bullet damage, and would just fall down dead, then disappear when they hit the ground). Though being gifted a US version of L4D 2 got you the uncensored version. Mortal Kombat 9 was flatout refused classification because of its violence.

Other games have other things done. Fallout 3, for example, was banned for having real drug names. Australias rating system says we can't have drug use with positive effects under an MA rating. Since the game originally had Morphine as the health pack, it fell under that, and the game was refused classification. Bethesda renamed drugs in it for all regions. GTA 4, if you pick up a... lady of the night, you don't get the options you get in other versions, and the camera pans underneath the car so you can't see anything. This was done by Rockstar prior to sending it for classification. It was a surprising move to classify it MA anyway, since the violence level in it is above what should normally be allowed outside of R18.

Our classification board is, quite simply, stupid. And it affects game release dates because of it.

Skits wrote:'Cause we're an out-of-the-way island full of convicts.

/sarcasm

Basically
/sarcasm

Having lived there everything in Australia is expensive. But having to pay to live a beautiful country like that. I will pay that to do that.

Though in all seriousness. Australia has so many comedians traveling around and doing shows in Sydney, Brisbane and all that it makes up for the fact that everything like toys are super expensive.

But you guys also have lamb, fresh sea food.

Maybe the fact that minimum wage is $15.51 in Australia.

More than double what it is hear in the states. Higher minimum wage means higher overhead. I always keep this in mind when I hear Australians complaining about prices on pretty much everything.

inquisitorlewis wrote:Maybe the fact that minimum wage is $15.51 in Australia.

Almost double what it is hear in the states. Higher minimum wage means higher overhead. I always keep this in mind when I hear Australians complaining about prices on pretty much everything.

Yeh they also have relatively high interest rates in this current economic climate.

ifStatement wrote:

inquisitorlewis wrote:Maybe the fact that minimum wage is $15.51 in Australia.

Almost double what it is hear in the states. Higher minimum wage means higher overhead. I always keep this in mind when I hear Australians complaining about prices on pretty much everything.

Yeh they also have relatively high interest rates in this current economic climate.

The only reason we don't is by design to combat recession.

Inquisitorlewis, yes the minimum wage is $15.51, no tipping included.

Before our dollar went bananas it sat for many years at about 60-65cUS to the Oz dollar, started rising in 2006.
By 2007 it was $0.85US to the OZ$
Now it is $1.04US to the Oz$

So only a few years ago the minimum wage would have been about $10.30US

Our GST is less than the UK VAT and about the same as the sales taxes in most US states and it replaced a 22% sales tax on gaming 'things'so there was a drop in price for alot of gaming items.

Transport palys a part.

As does GW price gouging.

If GW offered us prices at US levels I'd be perfeectly happy and would not be dropping hundreds of dollars on mass purchases at adepticon, but would instead be buying from my FLGS.

We're jealous of their sunshine, beaches, seas, immigration policies, and women.

Simple.

ph34r wrote:

ifStatement wrote:

inquisitorlewis wrote:Maybe the fact that minimum wage is $15.51 in Australia.

Almost double what it is hear in the states. Higher minimum wage means higher overhead. I always keep this in mind when I hear Australians complaining about prices on pretty much everything.

Yeh they also have relatively high interest rates in this current economic climate.

The only reason we don't is by design to combat recession.

Yet unemployment is at 8.3 percent in the USA, and at 5.2 in Aus. Maybe our design is slightly flawed.

It seems they are having a better time of it over there. Perhaps GW doesn't lower their AUS prices because they know you can afford them? After all it makes little sense to price themselves out of business.

edit: Woah hold on, I just had to look at that number again. Seriously a minimum wage of 15.51 aus dollars (over ten pounds sterling)? That is huge. No wonder they charge you guys more. Wow.

If we thought GW was selling us models at a fair price, they wouldn't have put the 'rest of the world'' embargo in place.

The WHFB tournament scene is really struggling since the start of 8th ed. A lot of the long time players and more competative types left for warmahordes (primarily a rules issue). But they are not being replaced by new gamers as WHFB is a very, very large outlay often over $1000 for a 2500pt army if bought retail.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:If we thought GW was selling us models at a fair price, they wouldn't have put the 'rest of the world'' embargo in place.

If I found out I could get something cheaper by ordering from abroad I would, regardless of whether thought the price in my own country was fair or not.

In regards to the delay on games it's defantly ecause of the censoring crap that they do for Aussies, like how tey banned MK9 the bastards, which made it ever so difficult for me to get but I do have. A copy now and my it is awesome!!! Can't see why it was banned tho, I mean surely GTA is worse as it is mre realistic then MK but oh well. Ps if anybody wants to buy mk9 on ps3. I have a copy for sale so hit me with a pm
As for gw's prices they basically do it because they know they can and know people will pay that high dot it. It's a shame really.

I generally use the magick of the interwebs to find cheaper models.

Pretty much solves my problems lol.

Frazzled said: Its the awesome sheilas and killer drop bears.

Got it in one. Who wouldn't despise the drop bears.

Dam plague on humanity, that's what they are.

The drop bears that is, not the sheilas

filbert wrote:It's traditionally been because of the exchange rate but that sort of thing goes out the window when you can buy the exact same goods from another country for half the price, hence the attempt to keep Aussies buying locally and it really stinks, to put it mildly. I would even go as far as to suggest it is an attempt to price fix quite frankly. According to Insaniak, Borders attempted to do a similar thing by hiking the cost of retail books but then were outdone by people simply switching to online purchases. I guess Borders don't have the clout in their respective market that GW do.

GW have traditionally shown a lot of disdain for the internet in general and pricing their stuff like this in different territories seems to show a bit of ignorance for modern consumer habits.

Too bad Borders went out of business, and with policies like this I can see why. All I have to say otherwise is "Fair Go!"

filbert wrote:It's traditionally been because of the exchange rate but that sort of thing goes out the window when you can buy the exact same goods from another country for half the price, hence the attempt to keep Aussies buying locally and it really stinks, to put it mildly. I would even go as far as to suggest it is an attempt to price fix quite frankly. According to Insaniak, Borders attempted to do a similar thing by hiking the cost of retail books but then were outdone by people simply switching to online purchases. I guess Borders don't have the clout in their respective market that GW do.

GW have traditionally shown a lot of disdain for the internet in general and pricing their stuff like this in different territories seems to show a bit of ignorance for modern consumer habits.

And look where Borders is now... Nonexistent.



IMO... I think it's because of their beer commercials. Lets face it, Fosters is dingo piss in a can.