South African retail pre-order prices for Battlefield 1 have appeared on Raru, with the game set to sell for around R890 on PC, and R999 on consoles.

This means that it will be significantly cheaper to buy digital versions of the game through Origin, PlayStation Network (PSN), and Xbox Live (XBL).

Battlefield 1 costs R599.99 on Origin, R829 on PSN, and R799 on XBL.

This is unusual — typically big titles like Battlefield are cheaper through local retail channels at launch than if you buy digital versions.

The digital versions then typically become cheaper during periodic sales.

A comparison of games currently available for pre-order in South Africa shows that Battlefield 1 is not the only game where this is happening.

All of EA’s other games show the same anomaly, while only the PC pre-order of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is cheaper than its retail pre-orders.

For this comparison, we checked the pre-order prices of Raru, Takealot, and BT Games, and used the cheapest one.

While this is great news for South African gamers who are happy to buy digital versions of games, this is a big blow for local retailers and distributors.

Local distributors have no control over the pricing on services like Steam, Origin, PSN, and XBL.

They are also beholden to the wholesale prices they can get from publishers, and the rand’s strength against foreign currencies, especially the euro.

EA was asked why there is such a big discrepancy between its digital pricing and local retail prices, and we will update the article with their feedback as we receive it.

More on game prices in South Africa

South Africa’s crazy video game prices: 2003–2016

This is how game prices hit R1,000 in South Africa: 1998–2016

This is how crazy the prices of games are in South Africa

Game prices in South Africa: PC vs PlayStation 4 vs Xbox One