Panic has risen across Australia: XCOM 2 Steam pre-order price set at £58
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?
Just buy cd keys for Steam from whichever site you prefer (g2play, cd key house, etc...). Most of the times they're even cheaper than US prices.
Looks like several Firaxis games have stupid prices in Australia. Civ V Complete Edition is US$79.99 in Australia instead of $49.99 as in the US, and Beyond Earth is US$59.99 in Australia instead of US$39.99. Starships, however, is $14.99 in both countries.
On the other hand, Metal Gear Solid V is US$59.99 in both countries, as is Mad Max. Both are new releases and have different distributors, so it seems to be 2K which is charging the outrageous prices in Australia.
At least they're not banning it...
The tax has been approved but won't come into effect July 2016 / next financial year.
Curiously for New Zealand it's only $100NZ (~$63US, £41) to pre-order on steam, normally we just get clumped together. I guess they really just don't like Australia XD