Today I passed yet another milestone on my Xbox 360 life… 15,000G Gamerscore!
Latest game to add the the score was Shadow Complex. Completed in 2 days, but a hell of a lof of good fun while playing. 2D Action Performer meets a 3D engine to produce a very engaging game. More on this to come!
It looks again like Europe (or specifically in this case the United Kingdom) is getting the raw end of the deal with regard to pricing. It has been the case for a long time now that consoles and games were more expensive in the UK, but now it’s spread to digital delivery items.
For instance Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the Games on Demand Service is priced at $19.95US in the United States (equivalent to £12.72 at current rates), however in the UK, the same game on the same service is priced at £19.99 (equivalent to $32.76US). Does no one else not think this is particularly harsh on consumers in Europe for what is essentially the same product?
This is not the only way that European consumers get royally shafted financially… Simple things such as games consoles are vastly different in price on one side of the pond from the other. The new Slim PS3 as a case in note, in the UK costs £249 ($408.10US) compared to the US price of $299US (£182.43). Almost a $100 dollar price difference for the same device, with the same features. Xbox Live Gold Subscription card (12 month) in the UK costs £39.99 ($65.54US) compared to US price of $49.99US (ebgames) (£30.50). It was even worse at the higher exchange rate last year of almost exactly $2=£1. It meant things from the US were seriously under-priced compared to the UK and it felt quite insulting having to pay these seriously high prices.
The thing is though… Most of these games on demand can actually be bought on the internet for a vastly reduced price and you would actually recieve a disc copy to keep instead of a non-transferable and non-trade-in-able digital copy. For instance, Star Wars game previously mentioned is available at play.com for only £14.99 (£5 less than Games On Demand). 12 month subscription to Xbox Live Gold is available on 7DayShop for £33.49, a saving of £6.50. But these prices still don’t really match up to the US equivalents, why is this?
What do you think of all of this?