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Panic has risen across Australia: XCOM 2 Steam pre-order price set at £58

XCOM 2.

XCOM 2 might be delayed, but it’s already available to pre-order. Firaxis’ bold reworking of the Julian Gollop formula costs $59.99 on Steam’s US store, and £39.99 in the UK. So far, so standard – but Australians are seeing $127.45 – which makes XCOM 89.95 US dollars or £58.27.

It’s tricky to view alternate Steam prices from your own region – but you can wonder at the disparity over on SteamPrices.

That’s for the standard edition, spotted by PC Gamer – the sole version that’s currently on-sale on Steam. A pre-order bonus comes in the form of the Resistance Warrior Pack – which unlocks a number of ragtag soldier customisation options, and sees a survivor of the “old war” (that of XCOM: Enemy Unknown) turn up as a recruit in the barracks. One suspects that won’t be enough to tempt Australians to hop back in the Commander’s seat early.

While this is a particularly egregious example, Australians are forever falling foul of iffy game pricing. In fact, Firaxis’ last big game – the ever-so-slightly disappointing Civilization: Beyond Earth – was bumped up by 40 Australian dollars this time last year.

Australian Steam prices were predicted to rise across the board earlier this year, after the introduction of a new tax on ‘intangible’ digital imports in the country’s 2015 budget. The tax was designed to make up for downloads dodging the country’s Goods and Services Tax – but the Australian Commerce Committee had said already that high Australian game prices were “unjustifiable”. Have any of you lot struggled with Steam price hikes?