Wii Fit Pricing Dispair-ity?

Still we should be used to this by now, but its wrong, a long time ago i worked for GAME and at that time i remember the profits were around 3% - 5% on hardware but software was where the money was at upto 50% profit, infact it reminds me of my friend at gamestation the staff discount policy was cost + VAT and around a year into the Dreamcast he could pick up a copy of soinc adventure for 1p + VAT = which was rounded to 2p (he bought a few copies and then posed as a customer and traded them back at £4.99 a piece!) the store was selling them new at £19.99.

what i think we need to remember is that with inflation technically we should be paying more but we dont, back when Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released it Was £49.99 Twilight Princess was released at £29.99 this goess for lots of games, back to the days of the SNES and Megadrive costing around £40.00 and today we still pay the same price even though wages have increased. This doesnt hold true with movies as back at OOT the avarage cost of New release on was £10.99 where as today the average cost is £16.99 (i am talking retail SRP and not online discounts etc) so although we pay more than our US Buds we still are getting cheaper prices now.

I hear a lot of this "costs the same as before" dealy... and ok maybe it is true in England, but it sure as hell aint true over my side of the Irish Sea.

Wii fit is being advertised at €100+ here... which is about $155. Force once we're getting it up the ass worse then you lot over there. Metal Gear Solid 1 when it came out here cost £45 in ye olde Irish Punts works out at about €57 at the original conversion rate. Metal Gear Solid 2 came out at around €65 in most places except HMV who price gouged the poor pre-orders for €75. Metal Gear Solid 3 was €65, it would have been more but by then the PS2 couldn't support those prices. DMC4 at launch was €75-80 so i see no reason why MGS4 won't be up around there. And i got Sonic 2 on the Megadrive for £35 at launch...

I really don't know how game prices have stayed stagnant in sterling but gone nuts over here. The important matter is they have gone down in the US, or at least the weak dollar makes it seem like they have. Stop giving those yanks a free ride. If our currencies wen't down the tube Nintendo et al would be the first to gouge us. I don't care if it's the retailers or the publishers just see to it that the yanks get gouged too.

This one isn't quite so clear cut as the Rock Band farce... keep in mind that $89.99 is (I believe) without US Sales Tax and £69.99 for us UK folk includes VAT), then the difference in pricing is not so much.

I found this when in the US recently, I always thought game prices were a lot less in the states but $19.99 for DS Brain Training translated to around £14 after exchange rate and sales tax which isn't a great deal different to the £17.49 that you'd pay in Asda.

£69.99 minus VAT at 17.5% is £59.56, which is $117.90 according to XE.com. We will be paying $27.91 more than Americans before TAX or 31% of the US price.

Rock Band will cost £179.98 for the game and instrument pack or £153.17 minus VAT, which is $303.18. Compared to $169.99 in the US, a difference of $133.19 or 78% of the US price.

I agree Wii fit isn't as bad as Rock Band, but it's still not on.

GTA IV trade price £31.06 + vat

You don't think international shipping costs are sufficient to explain the variance with WiiFit?

no in fact shipping from China to the US is more expensive than from China to UK

Its 5071 miles from Beijing to London (12 Hour Flight)

Its 8073 miles from Beijing to Washington DC (16 Hour Flight)

You sure about that?

Because this was a very heated topic over in HMX's Rock Band forum...we're not talking about air freight here, we're talking container ships.

Also, that is a spurious comparison, why would you be shipping to the capitol of a country, you ship to the Ports (I know London is a Port, but Washington is not, though nearby Baltimore is)...look at a map you twit, Washington is on the frigging East Coast...the opposite side of the damn Continent...

To get from China to Liverpool (I don't know how many miles, by boat) you gotta go through Suez, or around the Cape...prolly hikes insurance...hell, theres frigging pirates in some of those waters...

To get from China to San Fransisco(6159 miles/just under 10k kilometers, by air, but its a fairly straight shot by sea too)...head East and try not to hit Japan or Hawaii on the way there, make sure you have a full tank of fuel though, long way between service stations...

awww i and there i was thinking i was being clever,

too be honest then, err i dunno??

but pirates are cool! but then those ships are from China and they have Ninja`s!

err, no...Ninja are from Japan, not China, and do not mix with Pirates...they hate each other, actually...

ok well err....shut up :-(, Chinas got errr R4`s there scary! well for nintendo anyhoo.

China has nuclear missiles and a firm cultural conviction that they are the Center of the Universe...scary enough for you?

Besides Pirates>Ninja anyway...and you can tell them I said so...



(actally it is known, but the Tale of Lance and Norbert is for another time, also he meant "Ninja" not "Ninjas")

It's possible, but let's run the numbers to find out. A quick line drawing exercise with Google maps gave me the following (rounded off) figures;

Hong Kong - Marseilles = 9,400 miles
Hong Kong - San Francisco = 7,100 miles

Which is an extra 32% to get to Marseilles over getting to San Francisco which almost exactly matches the 31% extra we are paying in the UK. However that's only significant if the price at the counter only covers the sea freight costs.

I'm going to assume that land distribution costs are, on average, the same for the US and the EU. Obviously, the item production costs are going to be the same.

If the item and road freight costs plus profit come to $70 in both regions, then the difference between the costs in the US and EU are all to do with the sea freight. Those costs work out at $19.99 per unit to ship to the US and $47.90 to ship to the EU (remember these figures are before sales tax or VAT) which is a 140% mark-up on the EU price.

For an item + road price of $50, there is a 70% mark-up for the EU sea freight price.

This means that the sea freight costs alone can't account for the whole of the disparity.

To get the sea freight costs to the 32% difference that the distances would suggest they should have, then there also has to be a 30% mark-up on the item and road costs. Which essentially means that we are paying more for the base item.

I picked Marseilles because I know it's a major port for Western Europe, but if we make landfall in Athens, for example, the sea distance is only 15% greater and we will have a 44% mark-up on the item and road costs.

Either way, Europe is getting a raw deal on the price of Wii Fit. Probably because we are more used to paying higher prices and therefore the market will accept a higher price.

What would be scary would be if it was run by an alcoholic former (allegedly) coke-head who believes he is on a divine mission. Now combine that with nuke-u-lar missiles and a Centre of the Universe world view and I am terrified.



There is nothing mutually exclusive about Ninjas or Pirates. One can have Ninja Pirates and Pirate Ninjas. All this Yahtzee-informed stir-up is merely propaganda from the Bushrangers.

Tim

It is my understanding that there are factors (insurance and canal fees) which may differ between the straight shot across the Pacific, and the coastal route to Europe

As for land distribiution, in the US, the distances are greater, but fuel costs are lower so yeah, they might even out...

We just had an earthquake here...its the first one I've been mostly conscious for...at first I just thought it was water pipes...