For local gamers the pricing points which retailers choose to adopt for new titles can be a contentious issue. The reality however is that shipping costs, customs taxes and operational costs are often forgotten when pricing games at a local store.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless each outlet does make a margin on the products they sell. For this reason there is a measure of competition between each retailer when selling games.<\/p>\n
Another interesting dynamic within the market is the distinction between online and land based retailers. This can often contribute to a marked difference in retail price due to lower overheads on the online retailer’s part.<\/p>\n
With this in mind MyGaming frequently conducts pricing comparisons on various local retailers.<\/p>\n
The retailers chosen arguably offer a good cross section of where the majority of South African gamers buy their titles. This does not however take into account festive season specials; these can be reasonably common at this time of the year.<\/p>\n
As can be seen from the table the most consistently cheap stores are Kalahari.net, which recently instituted a price reduction across most of its game titles and land based store Zaps. Zaps also offers an online service which provides nationwide delivery.<\/p>\n
| <\/td>\n | Kalahari<\/td>\n | Take2<\/td>\n | Look and listen<\/td>\n | Zaps<\/td>\n | BT Games<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC)<\/td>\n | R431<\/td>\n | R451<\/td>\n | R499<\/td>\n | R430<\/td>\n | R465<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Forza 3 (Xbox 360)<\/td>\n | R585<\/td>\n | R623<\/td>\n | R699<\/td>\n | R585<\/td>\n | R649<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Uncharted 2 (PS3)<\/td>\n | R592<\/td>\n | R619<\/td>\n | R699<\/td>\n | R590<\/td>\n | R635<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| New Super Mario Bros. (Wii)<\/td>\n | R464<\/td>\n | NA<\/td>\n | R549<\/td>\n | NA<\/td>\n | R499<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Borderlands (PS3)<\/td>\n | R599<\/td>\n | R632<\/td>\n | R699<\/td>\n | R602<\/td>\n | R649<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)<\/td>\n | R530<\/td>\n | R554<\/td>\n | R599<\/td>\n | R529<\/td>\n | R569<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Dragon Age: Origins (PC)<\/td>\n | R279<\/td>\n | R317<\/td>\n | R349<\/td>\n | R308<\/td>\n | R325<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n |