Why is DoV pre-order far more expensive for International players?

[Tenilar]

Forgive me if this has been brought up and answered before, but when I just went to see about pre-ordering Velious, I noticed that the digital collector's edition will cost me significantly more than it will my friends in the USA. The price listed on the news article is $59.99 which at today's exchange rate comes to around £37.70, yet when I go to the page that allows me to pre-order, I am told it will cost me £49.99 - which is $79.39. Not exactly a mega saving.

Now I keep my mouth shut about the whole SC thing and I really like this game, but this just seems totally unfair to me. If somebody could explain to me why this is, I'd appreciate it. I could understand if it was a retail edition, maybe, what with shipping etc... But really it just seems completely arbitrary to me.

(And please, try not to say too much about SC and that whole slippery slope )

Edited to change the thread title, after somebody pointed out - quite rightly - that it isn't limited to the UK.

[Dark Beast]

Totally agree, I have 4 accounts and my wife has 2, so if i went for the collectors versions...would come to £300!!! Surely we can get this at the current exchange rate somewhere.......looks like I'll be looking for somewhere else (3rd party website) to get it from as per sentinels fate. Or wait for the SC version and miss out on the pre-order goodies...=((

[Fluh]

All this means is that a lot of players will not buy an addon at the prices being shown atm.

I just looked at the exchnage rates and the addon will be £49.99.

You can buy a full game for less.

[Lortet]

Similar for Australia - AUD about parity with the USD (within 0.5c) yet the preorder is $75 AUD. SC has been ok recently (the exchange rate, not the concept) so it seems to be using some other calculation.

[daceb]

Have to agree, think it is a sham that UK players don't get the same benefits as US players, we all pay the same subs so why can't we all get the same price when buying the game?? In all honesty i wasn't planning to pre-order velious till i heard about the collectors ed and discount for pre-ordering but now i found out the UK price isn't on a par with the US i doubt i will even buy it at a later date even though my sub is paid up till october. And with rift around the corner i am really supprised sony are trying this on this close to both being released, almost like sony want uk players to be rid off, would save them a ton with merging splitpaw and runnyeye as they could just close them, cheers sony for helping me make up my mind

[daceb]

And one more thing, can i just ask why it can't be done that we all pay one price at the US price and let our credit cards sort out the currency exchange rate?, i buy things all the time from other countrys and it's never a problem then so why does sony have to be differant and refuse non US players the right to pay the US price???

[Tenilar]

Exactly, Daceb. I don't understand why we are being charged so much more, when it would surely be easy enough to just let us pay the US price and let the banks do their jobs with the exchange rates.

[ShadyCharacter]

daceb wrote:

And one more thing, can i just ask why it can't be done that we all pay one price at the US price and let our credit cards sort out the currency exchange rate?, i buy things all the time from other countrys and it's never a problem then so why does sony have to be differant and refuse non US players the right to pay the US price???

Right on!

It is pretty crappy how SOE does this to foreign customers. Check your sub price too. Currently the USD and the AUD are almost equal but it still costs $40 extra for me to get a yearly sub. I petitioned in an attempt to get my currency changed over to USD but they refused without me quoting an American credit card. Even worse my cousin recently signed up and he was forced to pay in AUD without even getting a choice.

I thought it was just them not updating their exchange rate because it was advantageous for them not to do so but they did this for the new exapansion too.

DoV prices:

Standard: 40 USD / 50 AUD

Collectors: 60 USD / 75 AUD

This isn't a case of local taxes or importing or postage, none of that applies. If we pay in USD our credit card companies change the currency, Sony takes no hit other than the EXTRA they would have charged us. So why do we have to pay more for the exact same service our US friends get?

[Barenziah]

i would like an anwser to this also. I cannot see any justifiable reason to charge us so much more than our USA friends. I play on an American server, i should pay the same amount as them, its bad enough being charged more for the monthly sub, now we are being stiffed on something that has no import fees and won't cost soe anything more to sell outside of the US than is does inside.

[Tenilar]

No no... it's £50 during pre-order. Presumably the price will go up along with the US prices once it's actually released.

[Zerebro]

http://www.google.com/finance/conve...=EUR&to=USD

1 EUR = 1.3494 USD

I (in the Netherlands) get charged €34.99

US get charged $34.99

So eeehm, even if the price included VAT, there's still 15% extra leeching there.

I buy stuff more often from the US, and always get charged in USD and get a nice bill about VAT, the exchange rate is correct. So: SOE, charge me in USD and act like a normal international company.

Byebye!

[Zerebro]

Good point, I forgot to mention this too. If new players get 1 month, award veterans with 2. That might stop me from cancelling my current 6-year subscription

[Skarl]

I do have to say that this Price is a bit harsh. Is it still 50 euros aswell? Normally its always cheaper in England. Normally we pay the most in euros where they have that typical 1$ = 1€ thing. tbh I think i will wait on the expansion pack and wait till steam have it at a decent price. I'm only low level anyway and taking my time with the levels so got enough content to keep me happy. Was planning on getting special edition and all but by buying it I feel that i will be contributing on allowing SOE to treat us Europeans in an unfair manner compared to the US. Especially in the economic difficulties they could cut us some slack. Micro transactions and expansion packs that cost more then most games that come out with no free month is something i have never heard of with anyother mmo. Not to mention after spending some time in these forums I really do feel a lot of agression towards SOE from its fan base. That isnt a good thing. 

I'm in total shock! Really dissapointed in a company that is literally [Removed for Content] on Europe and its fan base. kinda makes me wonder if I really wanna give the higher ups money. The only ones who deserve my money are the lower end devs for making a brilliant game. Coming from an MMO like Eve online I really find it different as the devs are literally worshipped over there and very popular. They also make the players feel like they mean something to them. Since I originally quit eq2 in 2005 I have never recieved an email from them offering me 5 days or so of free time. I get that from eve every 3 months. That little tactic has brought me back to Eve more times then I can count over the years. Really wonder who makes the decisions up there. does he have any bloody clue about Games or people?

Sry for going off topic in my rant

[Amnerys]

Hello, hello. I don't have an answer for you but I just wanted to let you know that I've read through the thread and collected your feedback. Thank you for providing this information, and I'll pass it along.

[Barenziah]

Thanks Amnerys, happy to see someone is at least listening to our concerns

[Tenilar]

Thank you for the response Amnerys, I appreciate you looking into this and hopefully we can get a reply soon explaining why this is so.

[Lamatu]

I thought people outside the US have been talking about conversion rates from SOE for years. You pay more than a US player for the subscriptions fees so makes since your gonna get screwed on the expansion price also.

I assume the expac last year didn't have this problem because you could buy the digital download from online retailers outside the US.

[ShadyCharacter]

I have been checking the different prices and they seem to be more arbitrary than based on local taxes.

[Negadyen]

To the nearest pound and using todays exchange rate this is what we're looking at :

In the "real world"

Retail = $40 that equates to £25, VAT at 20% brings the price to £30

Collectors  =$60 that equates to £38, VAT at 20% brings the price to £46

SOE World :

Retail = £30 + VAT at 20% = £36 an increase of £6 or 20% over US Pricing

Collectors = £50 + VAT at 20% =£60 an increase of £14 or 20% over US Pricing

Where does this additional 20% charge come from ? Looks like you've added VAT on TWICE ???

I don't expect Sony to soak the VAT up and give us it at the price without VAT, that's the UK governments ruling,  but I sure don't expect to be ripped off for the same amount again.

Please at least drop the price back to USD converted to £GB +VAT.

[Barenziah]

Lamatu wrote:

I thought people outside the US have been talking about conversion rates from SOE for years. You pay more than a US player for the subscriptions fees so makes since your gonna get screwed on the expansion price also.

I assume the expac last year didn't have this problem because you could buy the digital download from online retailers outside the US.

that doesnt make it ok though, like i said earlier, its bad enough that we pay more for our subs. £50 is a stupidly high price for a non boxed expac, and what happens after the pre-order price goes up for US players? are they seriously going to charge us £70-£80 for it?? I just hope Soe looks at this and realises how unfair it is.

[ShinGoku]

Barenziah@Crushbone wrote:

Lamatu wrote:

I thought people outside the US have been talking about conversion rates from SOE for years. You pay more than a US player for the subscriptions fees so makes since your gonna get screwed on the expansion price also.

I assume the expac last year didn't have this problem because you could buy the digital download from online retailers outside the US.

that doesnt make it ok though, like i said earlier, its bad enough that we pay more for our subs. £50 is a stupidly high price for a non boxed expac, and what happens after the pre-order price goes up for US players? are they seriously going to charge us £70-£80 for it?? I just hope Soe looks at this and realises how unfair it is.

The other side of the coin is that we know that this is only HALF the expansion too.  With that in mind [Removed for Content] is going on with that pricing?

Also I have added my voice to the calling bs on the 40% overcharging too, its really unfair and if that is how its going to be, I will NOT be buying the expansion for either myself or my wife!

[Negadyen]

It's tragic though because we all know, despite it being unfair, borderline discriminatory and cannot be justified, SOE will do absolutely nothing about it because they know at some point we will end up buying a version of it even if it's the retail and discounted through a 3rd party in 5 months time.

[Tenilar]

Just a cheeky little bump and also wanted to add that I don't have an issue with paying for the expansion. I don't have much money but I put a bit aside specifically for this because EQ2 is one of the few luxuries I allow myself. I don't even mind especially that it's more expensive overall than I'd bargained for.

What irks me, and what will stop me from buying the expansion at all (and I think quite a few people are with me on this) is that simply because I do not live in the US, I will be paying around 20% more for a product that has no shipping costs and no physical production costs whatsoever as far as box/discs/booklet/etc goes. To be honest, I'd probably be ok with paying more than my friends if I was given a reasonable explanation for why this is so. From this side of the fence, it looks like plain moneygrubbing discrimination, and although I would like to think that there's a reason behind it so far I'm failing to see one.

Now I'm not calling for a boycott, and quite likely at some point I will find a way to get the expansion... because I enjoy this game. But it doesn't sit right with me for the prices to be so unfair, and I feel like if we (the non-US playerbase) are going to be paying significantly more than our American friends, that we should be able to find out why.

Edit: To put this into perspective as far as my personal finances go, the difference between the price US players are being charged and the price UK players are being charged is over 25% of my weekly food budget - for four people and two animals. And that difference is only (I can safely assume) going to get more dramatic after the preorder period is over.

[ShadyCharacter]

The above two posts really hit the spot. It is discriminatory, and it is the principle of the thing that bothers me. I don't even mind the price, as long as that price is no higher for me than it is for the next person. That isn't the case though is it? On another note, I don't need two free months, even one does not bother me.

[Barenziah]

ShadyCharacter wrote:

The above two posts really hit the spot. It is discriminatory, and it is the principle of the thing that bothers me. I don't even mind the price, as long as that price is no higher for me than it is for the next person. That isn't the case though is it? On another note, I don't need two free months, even one does not bother me.

yes this is my main issue, anyone outside of America is being discriminated against with the pricing, if soe wants to rip people off, at least rip us off equally lol.

but i must disagree on your second point. I believe it would be prudent to offer the month free to vet players aswell as new comers as, after all, we are the loyal fanbase that they need to keep the game alive, and they should treat us as such.

[Snowdonia]

All I know is we need this fixed or we need an answer as to why they are persisting with ripping their international players off.

[GlitterPaws]

Here is a currency conversion link so all of you can check the daily conversion rate. It's a multi-national site.

http://www.fxtop.com/

Just a note; the majority of marketing departments do not change pricing daily. Credit cards will not be charged until the day of download. As most companies do not know what the exchange rate will be on that day a figure is selected by the marketing manager/director. Nobody else can change that figure. It's a power thing.

When I purchase books from Amazon.uk my cc is charged the published price at the conversion rate on the date shipped.

Who knows? Maybe SOE will do the same thing.

Marketing/Sales departments are notoriously tight-lipped about pricing of any sort at any time. Let's just hope they give Amnerys decent information this time instead of the usual tossing her to the wolves and shutting the door.

gp

[Snowdonia]

I don't think we're going to see ANYTHING else on this at all. I asked specifically about this in the main thread and Amnerys touched on every other concern posted recently but that one.

[ShadyCharacter]

I don't want SOE to charge me in AUD, just charge me in USD the same price they charge US customers and I would be happy. They probably try to rationalise it as a convenience for us. It isn't an imposition for me to pay in USD, it is however to pay more. Let my bank do the exchange. It is bad enough they won't let me change back to USD after when I signed up I chose AUD. My cousin who recently signed up never got the option, they automatically detected his Australian IP and didn't even give him the choice.

Mind if I ask Snowdonia, where is this main thread you are talking about?

[Snowdonia]

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=493912 Is the pertinent section of the thread I am referring to.