Are you microsoft lawyer? You rae so defending game price. You can earn so much money, you can buy the game. Everyone has right what to do. They can buy it or dont buy it. They can say game price is so absurd for their country conditions.
They can say its too much for them, but most of them demand a price reduction, so then they should expect people to teach them economics.
Personally, I think we don’t have anything to expect soon.
They will probably wait at least that the Steam pre-order refund deadline has elapsed…
Just don’t mind such people, it’s between us and Microsoft that they price the game too much for some countries while keeping it low in others. Such people don’t add anything new to the discussion except talking in circles. So far it seems Microsoft is quiet and will be quiet about this. Well I mean I still have the other definitive edition games that I bought all 3 of for less than 1/5 of the price that Microsoft is asking for AoE4 so if they don’t make some proper changes I’ll just continue playing those 3 games because Microsoft actually had reasonable regional pricing then. And since they are antognizing a good chunk of the community for various reasons such as some people not liking graphical style, others not liking that they went for medieval times again, some not liking studio, some Europeans and Americans thinking 60$ is too much for the game, people from developing countries complaining about regional pricing descrepencies among other things I wish Microsoft good luck selling their product to enough people while I’ll just sit back and enjoy AoE1 2 and 3
I’d like to further add that this thread has as many replies to as the thread that was about Delhi sultanate being the choice as an Indian civilization and this thread has almost twice as many views as that. Microsoft was quick to reply to that but has stayed quiet in regards to this so I believe their goal is to make this thread just die out without saying anything and just letting time kill this thread so I suggest that we keep this thread up and active because even if Microsoft wants to stay quiet on purpose it’ll be a slap on the face to them to have this on top all the time
Also it seems that gaming news websites are more interested in what fans of the game think than Microsoft:
https://www.jioforme.com/age-of-empires-4-fans-are-angry-at-regional-price-differences/524168/
Says a lot doesn’t it
Ah yes you show microsoft!
They surely will go bankrupt or lose face with 10 people complaining on this post!
Look I understand that its a lot of money, and fore some more so than for others. I also wont be able to buy it imeadiatly because 60 euros is also a lot. But ill save up for it. You guys know the game is coming so you have plenty of time to start saving if you really want it.
Just fyi the American $60 price is before tax. They have to add tax on to that amount.
For us, the $100 pricetag is inclusive of tax. That’s the exact amount we pay.
So converting US$60 to AU$80 that it is today, and then adding on 10% tax brings us to AU$88. So really we’re paying $12 more than Americans, not quite as bad as it first looks.
Oh i thought $60 was after tax.
Standard Edition
60 US$ ~= 54.95 CHF before taxes
54.95 + (54.95 x 7.7 / 100) ~= 59.20 CHF after taxes
74 - 59.20 = 14.80 CHF price difference after taxes
14.80 / 59.20 * 100 = +25% price variation rate after taxes
Deluxe Edition
79.99 US$ ~= 73.25 CHF before taxes
73.25 + (73.25 x 7.7 / 100) ~= 78.90 CHF after taxes
99 - 78.90 = 20.10 CHF price difference after taxes
20.10 / 78.90 * 100 = +25.47% price variation rate after taxes
I do not even know if the responsible actually pays the 7.7% tax in Switzerland …
taxes are paying automatically ( at least from steam for most of the countries. Don’t know if there are any country that does not made any contact with steam asking the taxes ). In steam payment email there are details about VAT you payed. For example steam VAT in Greece is 24%. Don’t know if it is the same in every EU country.
Yep, I’m just verifying currently, just in case …
But it still doesn’t explain the price difference in Switzerland. They “fixed” the problem with UE by one unique price for the customers. Just look at this video from the European Consumer Organisation in 2016 :
Now imagine that you’re in Switzerland, and you have to pay the price of a product + VAT + ~25% “special tax ?!”. And I repeat : no local support, almost no distribution cost, no retailer cost, almost impossible for Swiss consumers to defend their rights…
Btw, here some info about taxes by country on Steam :
(source : Taxes FAQ (Steamworks Documentation) )
Why don’t they sell the game for U$50,000 ?? They will not sell infinite copies anyway, so why not get 50k per copy they sell…?
Maybe because only a dozen of diehard fans will pay this price and they will get a low amount of money…?
Then why not 10k? 5k? 1k? 100 bucks…? Why they don’t sell for U$100 on the US? They will get more money per copy.
They charge U$80 on Swiss, so why not the US too…?
You know why, because there is a value where they will maximize profit. They are charging U$60 on the US because they think this standard price is the one that generate the maximum profit on this market.
Now take a look at Brazil price:
https://steamdb.info/sub/516509/
Valve already give a suggested price for Game Devs based on their calculations of purchasing power that will maximize profit of devs based on the economy of this particular market.
Microsoft is selling the game for $38.94 dollars. According to you, they are LOSING A LOT OF MONEY and will bankrupt because of it and it’s better they charge U$60 in Brazil than give copies to people with lower prices.
But the microsoft price is 82% HIGHER than what Valve suggest is the optimal price.
That’s what people are complaining. People just want that Microsoft use the Valve suggested regional pricing instead of doubling the price of what Valve suggest.
This game IS WAY TOO EXPENSIVE to buy on my country and unless by some random luck I have a lot of disposable income on my account, I will not buy it untill there is a sale with a lower price.
But ultimately the decision is theirs. If they want to get $0 instead of $30, it’s their choice. But don’t come later crying that the game sold a low amount of copies on the Brazil region and people pirated the shit out of their game.
Tell me where I said Microsoft would go bankrupt, ill wait.
Also Valve is not factually right. Not that microsoft is right, but you just want them to use Valve system as you dont want to pay a lot of money.
Again 60 euros is also a lot for Europeans. Its probably the same as 30 for brazilians. You know its coming, so you could have saved for 4 months by now if you really wanted it.
Then what is your argument about money about…? If it changes nothing, so why you think they need to price higher?
Valve have more information than microsoft about video game sales on the Steam platform. Why would they suggesti price X if their data does not suggest that price X is the best they could calculate…?
And I can just pirate the game and pay $0 for the game if my concern is getting cheaper. I want it to succeed so the devs get players and money to create more Age of Empires, just like how I buy all Stellaris expansions. You know why I buy them? Because they pratice regional pricing based on Valve calculations.
I’m tired of game devs that expend money making dubs and subs in Portuguese and then they price their game absurds prices and then complain “well, it was not worth the investment, no one brought our game on Brazil!”.
We can tell you are from a first world country just by what you said here. The price is 20% of the wage of most workers. And without considering the low Purchasing power of brazilians. If you calculate the price by PPP, you will see how expensive the price is.
Did you REALLY give the argument of “Stop being poor” …??
Can’t be more elitist than that. Sure dude, I will spread the word and tell everyone here to stop being poor.
i think u dont understand.
No one thinks that they need make price higher.
They just try to explain why price is higher than ur expectation(ur “wants”)
PS everyone wants great free game. but on the other hand everyone wants to get payed and return investment.
Actually i hope whey will make aoe4 free in multiplayer after half year or an year, to increase multiplayer base. but it’s too early to think about it.
PS like sc2 did.
Spellforse 3, made something different. They made a stand alone expansion with the civs (till that time) that does not support any campaign etc.
Its just for pvp and skirmish games. And yes, this happened after 1+ year of release. Its not free, but it cost 1/3 of the original title (disadvantage is that it does not have any discount during sales).
PS.: After a year I don’t expect discounts more than 30-40%, so yes, something like this would help some people jump into game. Don’t think the free version of Starcraft 2 as something vial. Starcraft 2 became free 7 years after release. Practically everyone who wanted to buy the game had already done it.
It will be too late then. If the launch doesn’t go as expected, you’ll get the effects of “Artifact” - check out what happened to that game. Starcraft 2 made it work. We’ll see how the reception will be for AoE4, especially given that we still don’t know anything how the game actually plays out just yet.
I have no problem with regional price differences. The real problem is that this game is far too expensive regardless of which region you’re in. You’re dreaming if you think I’d spend $100aud on an RTS. I’ve been hyped for this game for a long time and now I’m just frustrated.
I tried the game for the first time yesterday, and I can say with precision, I will stick to AoE2 and AoE3, no way will I pay R$200.00 for this game.
It really doesn’t look good enough or innovative in any sense to me, not even in the graphics.
I’m not saying the game is unplayable, but the price is far from what is offered, and that makes me feel sad.