As they creep past the R1,000 mark, the price of games in South Africa has once again become a hot topic of debate.
Just how bad has it gotten in the last year?
The Rand has fallen off sharply in the last 12 months, but that doesn’t only affect import costs. It hits every point in the chain including distribution, shipping, and costs of living.
While it’s almost impossible to make identical comparisons, (games don’t release twice) because of the release of annualised franchises we can get pretty close.
We peaked into MyGaming’s archives to see what we were paying a year ago, and the results aren’t pretty:
| Store | FIFA 17 | FIFA 16 |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest Digital (Console) | R799 (Xbox One) | R799 (PS4/Xbox One) |
| Cheapest Retail (Console) | R999 (BT Games/Takealot/Raru) | R749 (CNA) |
| Cheapest Digital (PC) | R999 (Origin) | R699 (Origin) |
Average Rand Increase: R150
Average Percentage Increase: 27.6%
| Store | Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | Call of Duty: Black Ops III |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest Digital (Console) | R1,199 (PSn/Xbox One) | R749 (PSN) |
| Cheapest Retail (Console) | R1,049 (Loot) | R893 (Loot) |
| Cheapest Digital (PC) | R999 (Steam) | R799 (Steam) |
Average Rand Increase: R268
Average Percentage Increase: 24.2%
| Store | Battlefield 1 | Battlefield Hardline |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest Digital (Console) | R829 (PSN/Xbox One) | R799 (PSN/Xbox One) |
| Cheapest Retail (Console) | R999 (Takealot) | R719 (Kalahari) |
| Cheapest Digital (PC) | R999 (Origin) | R499 (Origin) |
Average Rand Increase: R270
Average Percentage Increase: 27.28%
Results:
Total Average Rand Increase: R229.3
Total Average Percentage Increase: 26.36%
Prices were correct at the time of writing.
More on game prices in South Africa: South Africa’s crazy video game prices: 2003–2016
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Which is why i’m boycotting games on my consoles & pc until the prices drop beneath absurd to insane were they were a year ago or may be I’ll wait a bit longer. We might get back to the high robbery bracket of 3 years ago…