G+: Wow

David Coles
Wow. Harvey Norman actually went and did it.

From my quick survey of front-page prices, they seem to be competitive with the US prices at a place like GameStop (for console titles). I'd be curious to see what PC prices would be like in comparison to say, Steam.

My experience is that UK pricing can be a little bit cheaper than US pricing, but not the huge difference you see between US and Australia. I wonder how they plan to handle any region issues.

My hope is that maybe this move will show that publishers have been price gouging for a number of years. I struggle to think of any good reason why a title would be up to twice as expensive between markets (even taking exchange rates into account).
Mat Bettinson
Aussie retailer Harvey Norman was particularly vocal about the 'threat' of online shops. They argued that GST (Australia's VAT) should be applicable to all online orders, not doing so put local operators at a disadvantage they claimed.

Seemingly realising that this horseshit isn't washing with anyone, Hardly Norman went ahead and launched a 'direct import' site, flogging games from a operation based in Ireland. Interestingly they bill these savings as having something to do with the GST, note the "tax-free" below.


"The gaming customer in Australia has been paying too much for years and we look forward to providing our customers with a new cost effective offering," said Ben McIntosh.

That's pretty rich isn't it. They whined like little bitches about online competition, and now suddenly they're in on the action and acknowledging that prices have been too much for years.

The tax thing is a total and utter red herring. Australia's VAT is 10 per cent. HALF of the tax in the UK. Yet videogames typically cost over twice as much in Australia. It's interesting that Hardly Normal didn't call out the publishers. They don't seem to want to piss them off but... setting up a massive grey import business isn't going to piss them off?

Harvey Norman Direct Import
(+1's) 1
Matt Giuca
"That's pretty rich isn't it. They whined like little bitches about online competition, and now suddenly they're in on the action and acknowledging that prices have been too much for years."

I don't know the nuances of this situation, but I wouldn't say that's hypocrisy. You complain that you're in an unfair market position, and so you move yourself into a better market position. That's business. It isn't idealistic (the idealistic thing would be to try and fix the problem rather than work around it), but it isn't hypocritical either.
David Coles
The fundamental problem seems to be more publishers setting inflated prices rather than the stores taking a huge margin. Sure, you'll save a bit buying online, but even brick and mortar stores in the UK and US are significantly (up to 50% cheaper) than our online stores.