The South African pricing of Microsoft's "Play Anywhere" games is ridiculous

Well... you're effectively getting two games (or platforms) for a single price. I don't really see an issue with it, the avg console game is ~R900 and the avg PC game is ~R600 so therefor the total would be ~R1500.

Forza Horizon 3 is R999, so win-win.
 
BeoTeK said:
Well... you're effectively getting two games (or platforms) for a single price. I don't really see an issue with it, the avg console game is ~R900 and the avg PC game is ~R600 so therefor the total would be ~R1500.

Forza Horizon 3 is R999, so win-win.
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But are you? Will I be able to play the game at the same time on both platforms? If the answer is yes, your analysis is justified...if the answer is no...well then you just admitted pc games cost R600 and these are way above that, seeing as these are already available on xbox no? only pc people will be buying this, or have I missed something? :p
 
mottamort said:
But are you? Will I be able to play the game at the same time on both platforms? If the answer is yes, your analysis is justified...if the answer is no...well then you just admitted pc games cost R600 and these are way above that, seeing as these are already available on xbox no? only pc people will be buying this, or have I missed something? :p
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I've admitted to saying that an average median price of ~R600.

And I honestly haven't got a problem with. I'm paying the same price I would have for a console only game, that I can now play on PC too if the TV is otherwise occupied.
 
mottamort said:
But are you? Will I be able to play the game at the same time on both platforms? If the answer is yes, your analysis is justified...if the answer is no...well then you just admitted pc games cost R600 and these are way above that, seeing as these are already available on xbox no? only pc people will be buying this, or have I missed something? :p
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At any single point in time, you may only sign into the game on one Xbox One console or one Windows 10 PC. You cannot be signed into the same game on both an Xbox One console and a Windows 10 PC at the same time.
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So there you have it. You get a console game at console game price that you can play on your PC as well.

Personally I also don't have a problem with this as I'm in any case gonna be playing the game on Xbox One, plus I am only one man, and can only play one game at a time, so no need for me to be logged in on two separate systems at the same time. I know, people want to share the game with their SO on the other platform and play with them, and its sucky that it doesn't work that way.
 
PC games are hardly R600 as a standard anymore. R600 is considered "cheap" for a PC game these days.

Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk
 
DieGrootHammer said:
So there you have it. You get a console game at console game price that you can play on your PC as well.
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But it's not from what i saw the price is for Gears of War 4, according to the article it's R999, where as the xbox one version is R899. I don't mind paying the same price for a console game to play on pc, but not really willing to pay more.
 
Gaming as a whole is becoming too expensive. It's my main hobby, and I love gaming but if I look at my purchases this year...well over R10 000 for games? That's insane and it's getting to a point where I just won't buy games on release.

Let's not even get started on the pricing of gaming hardware.

Before anyone preaches how they never buy anything on release...That's great..I'm happy for you.
 
The Joker said:
Gaming as a whole is becoming too expensive. It's my main hobby, and I love gaming but if I look at my purchases this year...well over R10 000 for games? That's insane and it's getting to a point where I just won't buy games on release.

Let's not even get started on the pricing of gaming hardware.

Before anyone preaches how they never buy anything on release...That's great..I'm happy for you.
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Thanks man, I'm glad that you are happy for me. :D

But then I do buy some games at release. Like I'll get Syberia 3 at release and probably the next Mass Effect.
 
So here's something interesting to note:

The games are retailing for $60 in the USA. That means that converted to a generally accepted average exchange rate of 14.50, we get a price of R870 per game. Much lower than the R1k price of the start game. But, if we add VAT to the mix of 14%, we get a price of R991.8. Pretty close to that R1k price mark. I wonder if this isn't the sign that we are now getting taxed on online goods...it may be a coincidence, but it seems rather odd that it calculates that well
 
DieGrootHammer said:
The games are retailing for $60 in the USA. That means that converted to a generally accepted average exchange rate of 14.50, we get a price of R870 per game. Much lower than the R1k price of the start game. But, if we add VAT to the mix of 14%, we get a price of R991.8. Pretty close to that R1k price mark. I wonder if this isn't the sign that we are now getting taxed on online goods...it may be a coincidence, but it seems rather odd that it calculates that well
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You've hit the nail on the head. Whenever I try to explain to people that distributors are not trying to fleece us, however, I get told I'm a corporate sympathiser.

Which is weird since most of our distributors aren't big hulking corporates. But I digress.

Something I've found interesting is that Microsoft-published games have typically been more expensive in South Africa than titles that other distributors handle. Back in the good old days when PC games were R299, Dungeon Siege (GPG, but MS published) was priced at R399.

Also take into account that most of our tech and gaming imports happen in Euro, with some in Pound.

This is also relevant for downloads/digital purchases because as far as I know, local prices for platforms like Origin, PlayStation, and the Microsoft store are set by their European branches.

European gamers have been complaining bitterly over the years because for EU pricing publishers simply flip the $ sign to a Euro despite exchange and purchasing power disparities.

The fact that PC games have been cheaper than console titles in South Africa all these years is actually a bit of an anomaly. In most major markets I've checked, new games cost the same whether you buy them for console or PC.
 
Jan said:
You've hit the nail on the head. Whenever I try to explain to people that distributors are not trying to fleece us, however, I get told I'm a corporate sympathiser.

Which is weird since most of our distributors aren't big hulking corporates. But I digress.

Something I've found interesting is that Microsoft-published games have typically been more expensive in South Africa than titles that other distributors handle. Back in the good old days when PC games were R299, Dungeon Siege (GPG, but MS published) was priced at R399.

Also take into account that most of our tech and gaming imports happen in Euro, with some in Pound.

This is also relevant for downloads/digital purchases because as far as I know, local prices for platforms like Origin, PlayStation, and the Microsoft store are set by their European branches.

European gamers have been complaining bitterly over the years because for EU pricing publishers simply flip the $ sign to a Euro despite exchange and purchasing power disparities.

The fact that PC games have been cheaper than console titles in South Africa all these years is actually a bit of an anomaly. In most major markets I've checked, new games cost the same whether you buy them for console or PC.
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Oh don't worry, I get constantly called a corporate sympathiser. Couldn't care less, if they want to live in their protected bubble of ignorance and hate, then go ahead.

But yeah it makes sense. I've always thought that PC gaming prices has been exceptionally low due to the fact that Steam almost gives us access to circumvent SARS and the tax man by in affect "buying games from outside the country, and import them via the internet tax free". It pretty much comes down to exactly that, as I understand the whole market.

If we look at a previous article you did on the digital prices of games at EA, THIS ARTICLE HERE, this clearly shows that EA has their digital prices for all games much lower than that of the physical copies. It is extremely interesting to note that the price difference pretty much is 14% between that of the physical and the digital copies.

I wonder if EA didn't actually forget to add tax on their games, which is why we see the increase in prices in the past week or so, and this is why the prices of Microsoft Play Anywhere games are so much higher than other PC games via Steam.

//puts tinfoil hat on
 
DieGrootHammer said:
But yeah it makes sense. I've always thought that PC gaming prices has been exceptionally low due to the fact that Steam almost gives us access to circumvent SARS and the tax man by in affect "buying games from outside the country, and import them via the internet tax free". It pretty much comes down to exactly that, as I understand the whole market.
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The price differential actually comes from a number of factors. Remember PC games sold at retail in South Africa attract VAT, and yet they were still significantly cheaper than console games.

I should do an article on this. Sadly, I don't know anyone in industry who would go on record about it, but sometimes you can write without quoting someone :P

DieGrootHammer said:
If we look at a previous article you did on the digital prices of games at EA, THIS ARTICLE HERE, this clearly shows that EA has their digital prices for all games much lower than that of the physical copies. It is extremely interesting to note that the price difference pretty much is 14% between that of the physical and the digital copies.

I wonder if EA didn't actually forget to add tax on their games, which is why we see the increase in prices in the past week or so, and this is why the prices of Microsoft Play Anywhere games are so much higher than other PC games via Steam.
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Hrm... R599 + 14% is R682.86, so if VAT is a factor, it wasn't the only one.

No I think the mistake was much bigger than just forgetting tax. I wonder if they didn't just use last year's prices for new releases instead of doing new currency conversions, or checking with their physical retail departments what local wholesale prices they offered to Prima.
 
Jan said:
No I think the mistake was much bigger than just forgetting tax. I wonder if they didn't just use last year's prices for new releases instead of doing new currency conversions, or checking with their physical retail departments what local wholesale prices they offered to Prima.
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I agree in that I believe it highly unlikely it's tax. I mean for one, why not do what valve did, and take the hit in regards to tax, when they rolled out the south african pricing. 2ndly I'm not sure if i read it here or on some other sites, but it seems the little info we have on the issue of the price hike is leaning towards US users purchasing on the south african site using a VPN. Someone reported they did exactly this for Battlefield 1, and later reported their account had been suspended. I suspect it was a quick solution to the problem, being we are a small market, not exactly going to hit their bottom line.
 
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