{"id":93759,"date":"2016-06-05T17:57:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T15:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=93759"},"modified":"2016-06-05T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T15:59:50","slug":"this-is-how-game-prices-hit-r1000-in-south-africa-1998-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/93759-this-is-how-game-prices-hit-r1000-in-south-africa-1998-2016","title":{"rendered":"This is how game prices hit R1,000 in South Africa: 1998\u20132016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The price of video games in South Africa skyrocketed<\/strong><\/a> over the past few months.<\/p>\n

Big new PC releases now sell for between R600 and R900<\/strong><\/a>, while triple-A console titles go for between R800 and R1,100.<\/p>\n

Setting the high end for the scale is\u00a0Quantum Break, which is published and distributed by Microsoft in South Africa and was priced between R1,100 and R1,200 at launch.<\/p>\n

Pre-orders on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare are nearly as expensive, with retailers asking around R850 for the PC version, and over R1,000 to secure a copy for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.<\/p>\n

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Battlefield 1, which will be published by Electronic Arts. Its PC pre-order is R600, while its console versions are priced around R800.<\/p>\n

1990s: Electronic Arts PC games 50% cheaper than everyone else<\/h3>\n

This pricing discrepancy among big game releases in South Africa is nothing new.<\/p>\n

As long ago as the late 1990s, releases from EA Games in South Africa sold for significantly cheaper than other titles.<\/p>\n

Over time, EA brought its prices in-line with the rest of the market, and when prices started to increase it managed to hold onto the old price points for slightly longer than other local game distributors.<\/p>\n

Price of video games in South Africa: 1998\u20132016<\/h3>\n
\"Stack<\/a>

The source material<\/p><\/div>\n

Such major discrepancies in prices between video games distributed or published by different companies makes it difficult to compare pricing between platforms over a period.<\/p>\n

Average or median prices can\u2019t really be compared without significantly more data, and comparing just the most expensive games may not paint an accurate picture either.<\/p>\n

The graph below therefore compares the \u201ctypical\u201d price of a video game in South Africa as far as possible.<\/p>\n

Prices were obtained from my collection of NAG magazines dating back to December 1998, until November 2008. From NAG\u2019s 2009 redesign, it started omitting recommended retail pricing for its reviews.<\/p>\n

This was a symptom of the time. From around 2009 or 2010, prices on video games varied wildly by platform, distributor, and even retailer.<\/p>\n

The numbers reported in the graph from that time should therefore be seen as a rough indication of the average, based on various comparisons and old online store listings that are still kept in archive.org.<\/p>\n

Some important dates to keep in mind:<\/p>\n