Developers: Aus/NZ/Asian players would like you guys to stop letting us down.

Background: Grew up in Asia, lived in NZ and now residing in Australia.

Guys, you didn't have the physical editions available during opening preorder (March 16th) and now EB Games/GameStop here in Australia are charging AU$300 for a physical CE. This price is ridiculous and is going to scare people away from buying the expansion.

We Aussies/Kiwis are feeling really let down here.

We can't buy game cards from shops. We are charged in Euros when entering our credit cards and the bank charges us international fees on top of the exchange rate. We don't have a server that we can call our own (we'd settle for sharing with parts of Asia that aren't Japan)

And now this massive price hike for buying the expansion.

Please do something about this guys.

I'd gladly volunteer to help bring XIV to this side of the world as there are many Eorzeans living here that love playing your game and I hate to think of the missed opportunities because you guys chose to focus on NA/EU/JP only.

Also, I travel to Asia frequently and I see zero FFXIV presence. There's a huge market you've yet to tap and I hope you don't forget them as almost every one I know grew up with Final Fantasy one way or the other.

Come on guys. Show us you care.

Simply put it's the same reason a lot of video games cost more in Australia. Besides exchange rates, there are higher operation costs, marketing and a less competition-driven market makes things a bit ropy. Key to this though are regulation costs. Australia is practically legendary when it comes to censorship and giving games a higher rating than they would have overseas. Higher ratings drive up the costs as it often translates to fewer sales. It's why so many movie producers in America try to avoid the dreaded 'R' rating by removing or altering content.

It's not often something the publishers have any direct control over, so it's likely to persist as an issue for some time to come.

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

It's why so many movie producers in America try to avoid the dreaded 'R' rating by removing or altering content.

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It's a bit more complicated than that (there's also nepotism...not important to this though) but the reason you want to avoid certain ratings is because ratings also translate to demographics.
An "R" rating is bad for comic book movies, but for raunchy comedies or slasher films, it's important.
How this is relevant here, though, is that, as you mentioned, Australia's rating system is notoriously strict. It's a lot harder to get a rating that encompasses your demographic when a few adult themes can get your game outright banned.
This, along with the AUS audience frankly being smaller than the NA, JP, and EU audience means that there are just going to be certain things that aren't worth the effort for SE regarding AUS.

Gamestop will charge as high a price as they can get away with which is why I wouldn't buy from them. Just get the digital edition.

The price tag seems in line with the edition Oceanic players are buying. You're having to purchase a EU copy of the game which cost more than the NA copies for some unknown reason.

Price of EU physical CE: £130 (USD193.56)

This is roughly equivalent to AUD$250 and doesn't include shipping and other fees.

Now why the EU edition costs so much is anyone's guess. It could have to do with other language support since additional manufacturing is needed to hire translators, voice actors, and additional animation to match the lip movements with the audio. That's just my best guess because I just don't know why the EU copy is so pricey, but it is, and that's what Oceanic players are seeing.

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Originally Posted by Zumi

Gamestop will charge as high a price as they can get away with which is why I wouldn't buy from them. Just get the digital edition.

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Pretty much this. Theres not as much competition in ANZ to bring down the prices of games, and years (10+) ago the prices were somewhat set based on the exchange rates of the time, so charging double would have been fine. Over the years the exchange rates have gone up, but the prices haven't adjusted, why would they? We were willing to pay those prices then, and a lot of people still are :/

NZ is getting screwed over as well on the physical CE, $399.99 NZD. Even if you include some exorbitant shipping costs + GST its still a $100 gouge. I got my digital copy from GreenManGaming just the other day with their discounts and ended up paying ~$44 NZD for the digital CE. If you want the statue, you're better off buying a digital CE then importing a US copy of the physical - it'll cost you less than buying the ANZ versions.

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Originally Posted by PetiteMalFleur

The price tag seems in line with the edition Oceanic players are buying. You're having to purchase a EU copy of the game which cost more than the NA copies for some unknown reason.

Price of EU physical CE: £130 (USD193.56)

This is roughly equivalent to AUD$250 and doesn't include shipping and other fees.

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You can't do it quite as a comparison like this, that GBP price is including VAT which is 20%, so the base price would go down for Oz and NZ (10% and 15% respective GST). Shipping would not fairly make up the difference, especially in NZ where the price is $400 NZD (130 GBP = 256 NZD).

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Originally Posted by Kith

You can't do it quite as a comparison like this, that GBP price is including VAT which is 20%, so the base price would go down for Oz and NZ (10% and 15% respective GST). Shipping would not fairly make up the difference, especially in NZ where the price is $400 NZD (130 GBP = 256 NZD).

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I live in the US, which doesn't have VAT, but if the game is being imported from Europe doesn't it still have the VAT imposed on the the distributors buying it? For example, if gamestop EU stocks the game and sells it to their subsidiary company in Australia wouldn't they have to pay the VAT?

I guess I'm just as baffled as you are if the price should drop that much when sold in your region.

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Originally Posted by PetiteMalFleur

I live in the US, which doesn't have VAT, but if the game is being imported from Europe doesn't it still have the VAT imposed on the the distributors buying it? For example, if gamestop EU stocks the game and sells it to their subsidiary company in Australia wouldn't they have to pay the VAT?

I guess I'm just as baffled as you are if the price should drop that much when sold in your region.

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To my knowledge, as long as you are sending outside the EU then the VAT isn't added, and its up to the destination country if you have to pay their tax on arrival for imports. In NZ, if its less than $500 (I think) you don't, so technically it'd be even cheaper than I made out before to import from the EU or the US down here though you'd still want to declare something as big as the physical CE and they may quibble... it does look pretty impressive :P

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Originally Posted by Kith

To my knowledge, as long as you are sending outside the EU then the VAT isn't added, and its up to the destination country if you have to pay their tax on arrival for imports. In NZ, if its less than $500 (I think) you don't, so technically it'd be even cheaper than I made out before to import from the EU or the US down here though you'd still want to declare something as big as the physical CE and they may quibble... it does look pretty impressive :P

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Wouldn't the VAT be imposed upon import into Europe? I don't see anywhere they drop the price for European export of this game. I don't see anywhere that SE has any direct sales to Oceania. If that's so then wouldn't the European distributors be paying the VAT before redistribution to your region? You probably have more knowledge in this area than I do. I'm just trying to understand.

http://i.imgur.com/ZGOvlQM.jpg


I had a feeling it would be this. I was already buying the digital version just because the other previous one was collecting dust (see image above). But for those that are dedicated fans (and YOU DO have a large Asian and Oceanic majority, c'mon SE) this is majorly expensive... the first one didn't cost this much...even Skyrim's CE with a bigger freaking dragon didn't cost this much @_@

I don't think SE controls how much of a markup EB games/gamestop is going to put on their international prices, so why is this complaint directed towards them?

It costs a lot of money to ship things to Australia...

I would like an easier way to get Square Enix OSTs personally, it would be nice if our APAC store sold all Square Enix goodies and wasn't just a game shop. I want to give my money directly to Square but they won't let me give it to them!

Like what Chiramu has said Square Enix could just cut out the middle man and start selling the physical CE in the online store. That would drive down the cost considerably.

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

It's why so many movie producers in America try to avoid the dreaded 'R' rating by removing or altering content.

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Just to point out, a US R is equal to a lesser rating down here, usually a M or MA15+. Our "legendary censorship" was also due to us having no r rating on games until a year ago, now games are only refused classification if there are depictions of sexual assault (that are not essential to a plot/story) or drug use that is beneficial to a character (ie taking a drug that then makes you amazing at something). Even then it's only illegal for store owners to sell the product, we can get it off steam, practically every website and other digital retailer.

What the OP is saying is that an Oceanic players, we have no localised way of even PAYING for our game without being charged a min $2 international fee and anywhere from $3-$7 extra for exchange rates.

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Originally Posted by Chiramu

I would like an easier way to get Square Enix OSTs personally, it would be nice if our APAC store sold all Square Enix goodies and wasn't just a game shop. I want to give my money directly to Square but they won't let me give it to them!

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Chiramu,

There is a way to get the Square Enix OSTs, and I have been doing this for some time since Square Enix Europe does not ship to us in Australia. I find HMV Japan satisfies my needs for all kinds of Japanese related stuff from magazines, art books and gaming.

Mind you by the time I remember HMV Japan might sell heavensward in Japanese of course it has been sold out completely for CE at least and boy was the price nice less than 15k in yen for PS4.

The shipping is reasonable, I use EMS often but I think there may be other cheaper options, that I am unsure but at least this way you can find some or most game related OSTs.

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Originally Posted by reality_check

I don't think SE controls how much of a markup EB games/gamestop is going to put on their international prices, so why is this complaint directed towards them?

It costs a lot of money to ship things to Australia...

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Yeah, fair enough but keep in mind, I don't remember the first CE costing this much - I was able to buy two copies at a price similar to this for just the one. And we have to buy the EU version so I'm assuming because EU got marked up, ours is marked up as well?