Greetings Aussies!
I'd like to ask about game prices and the process of buying games in Australia. I write about games, but I must admit that I'm not too familiar with your country and its business practices. For the record, I'm Filipino so my familiarity will mostly come from my own country or, relatively, from knowledge and research about US practices.
The reason I'm asking is because I was having a discussion with another Redditor regarding the Epic Games Store (it's a gaming storefront; basically like a not-so-good version of Steam). The user was asking why game prices were higher in Australia even though "competition due to Epic's exclusives should lower the price."
My answer was that it was a very broad issue not just relegated to "video game exclusives," or even just "game discussions in general." It was more about the prices of actual goods being sold in your country and why they tend to be more expensive compared to others. I think I mentioned factors such as currency fluctuations, purchasing power parity, taxes, and the like.
I'm not sure if my answer was valid, because the user seemed adamant that the Epic exclusives should have led to a lowering of prices in Australia.
I also mentioned that prices can be very different from release date to the present when digital stores don't have the features to let users purchase directly using AUD. Even then, prices might also increase if that direct-purchase method using AUD is applied. For instance, Steam made that possible in late 2018, and that led some games to increase their prices in AUD.
Another statement that also made me scratch my head a bit was that the user claimed that JB-HiFi (an Aussie retail store) sold games at lower prices. According to the user, he could "walk into any store that sells a copy," then he can "ask them to match the competition," which will lead that store to "sell their copy at JB's price."
I'm not sure if that's how it goes in Australia or if the user was pulling my leg.
One more thing of note, I misspoke in one statement: "<Game> was priced at AUD 90 when it launched for retail and digital versions." I should've just removed the "retail" part. I then offered a correction and, apparently, doing that was considered "lying" in your country. Oh well, I'm not entirely sure if that's a cultural thing or the user was, again, pulling my leg.
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