Why pricing by region is lame, Steamprices.com lists region prices along with conversion rate

Stumbled on this while browsing Reddit instead of working as usual. There is no denying that the market for games has prices changing on a regular basis all over the place, with some far cheaper or far more expensive than others. Steamprices.com lists these quite brutally. Examples after the jump.

Skyrim, Bethesda’s upcoming game set in the Elder Scrolls universe is going to retail for $60. What are the gamers in the down-under of Australia going to pay for it? An unacceptable $90, and guess what, the exchange rate between US and AUS dollars is pretty much the exact same with US$1 equaling AUS$.95. This in fact what the original post on Reddit was about in the first place and the comments are what led me to the site.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit which was released a year ago is £29.99 in the UK, what is that in dollars? US$50. How much will the Americans pay for such a game? $19.99, or 12 quid.

Now, it would make sense if these games had to be physically shipped or if they had to build a production factory in these regions, but that excuse has zero merit in these modern times, and even worse, these are -digital- sales. It does not cost more money to send data to Australia than it does to the UK, Indonesia, Antarctica, Easter Island,  Japan, Georgia, Sudan, Bangladesh, or any place on the planet that has advanced enough to have an internet connection.

Nowadays? It’s simply outright greed. I don’t know what ticks me off more, piracy or unfair international pricing for the same product. I wonder if I can gift someone in Australia a game with a $30 price difference for the price of the game and a $10 fee, I could make a fortune! I’m starting to see what people mean when they say piracy doesn’t cost anything because they weren’t willing to pay for it in the first place.

To Aussie readers who are being unfairly ripped off, I recommend this site: http://www.ozgameshop.com/