Hello.
In this topic, I would like to present the problem with the price of this game on the Polish market.
The conversion rate from dollar to Polish zloty is terribly unfavorable, which in many cases exaggerates the price of games in Poland - there are cases where games are the most expensive in the world in Poland. I think a price of 95-105 PLN should be fair for the AoM: Retold.
Please reconsider the price in Polish złoty.
Same here in Brazil. Dollar to Real.
Standard version R$ 99,00
Premium R$ 169,00
The suggested prices on Steam have nothing to do with reality.
Im in Euro region and 30 euro is not expensive
For a person earning in Euro and having European earnings, this is certainly true.
For a Pole, 30 euros is a lot of money. In Poland you earn 5-6 euros per hour of work (in a good case). In addition, expenses and prices are similar both in Poland and in the euro zone.
In Poland. You earn little and spend even more.
Yeah I should’ve know that, I worked with polish people in the past and they told me such things.
Sucks for you guys, hope for you they can lower the price in Poland…
The average income in Poland is higher than in some of the countries that have the Euro. For example Greece or Portugal.
There are people that have it worse.
How much do most new AAA games cost in Poland now?
I’m from Poland and 129zł is not that expensive. AOE4 is 159zł and a new AAA game on consoles cost 350~. 129 is for me actually pretty cheap in these days and I’m a student so I’m not rich guy or something.
How much did you expect to pay?
AOE IV is 5% of the minimum wage in Poland vs ~2.5% in the USA, ~3.5% in UK ~3.4% in Germany ~3.43% in France or 4% in Canada.
Poland has a 23% VAT for digital products on Steam vs ~7% here in the U.S., 5-15% in Canada or 0% in most of Latin America. The average for Euro Zone is ~21.6% which is 3x versus the U.S.
You guys are being taxed almost 1/4 of each purchase after being taxed on your income (or taxed to death)… that’s the problem. Poland has EU taxes with Non-EU income figures. Interesting.
350 zł - AAA games (but slowly the prices exceed PLN 400)
240 zł - AA games
150-180 zł - indie games
The problem arises when you also have other expenses not necessarily related to games (fuel, fees, food, etc.).
130 zl is less then that so why do you complain about it being expensive?
I mean it’s obvious that everyone wants to pay as little as possible but that’s not how the real world can function.
I don’t see how this is an unreasonably high price to pay for such a game.
It is irrational that I have to pay more than the British who earn much better.
Game prices in Poland are terribly high compared to other countries.
Regional pricing is an option for companies to be nice, not something you are entitled too.
And if other games are expensive why should AoMR be the only one that is cheap?
It’s still less then half of an AAA game, the same way as in most countries.
In Argentina it is more or less the same…the game costs 40 USD (not counting 30% taxes) and the minimum monthly salary is 152 USD…
I believe companies have gone crazy. In 2020 I bought AOE3DE, with two new civs, historical battles, for R$37.00. Mountain Royals DLC cost R$50.00. In 2024, the shredded version of AOMR(no Chinese, no New Civ, no New Campaign) will cost R$99.00. I understand that there is inflation, rising costs, but nowadays games are just a download authorization code. Without physical media, covers or small books, there is no longer any delivery logistics, so… these prices? our money grows in grass?
Microsoft and Steam are companies not charity organisations.
They invest into the development of a game to make money from selling license keys.
The price for a game is calculated according what they think makes them the most money.
They have to find a balance between making the game cheap to get more buyers and expensive to get more money for each individual purchase.
They calculated that in markets like the US or EU increasing the price by 50% (20$->30$) they will make more money because the amount of people buying the game will be reduced by less then 33% compared to the old price.
For each country they have to make that equation. Both Valve and Microsoft have some experts for that but they can obviously not always make the perfect decision for every country.
Considering the exchange rate from USD and the price increase of the game in the US we get:
R$37 * 1.5 (increased price in the US) * 1.3 (increased value of USD) = R$72.15
Still cheaper then R$99 but not that extreme of a difference.
One of the calculations in pricing for video games are also sales. If you but the game 1 year later you can often get 50% discount or you can get the game with all DLC for what only the base game used to cost at release.
The minimal wage is R$1412 per month in Brazil btw. that’s more then 14x the price of this game.
btw. Games Pass for PC costs R$30 per month in Brazil and allows you to play AoMR as well as all other AoE games and many more.
I and other buyers are consumers, not an endless bag of money for companies dry off.
I understand that prices cannot remain static, on the other hand embracing companies’ absurd thirst for profits, without this being questioned, is simply a lack of consideration for their own salary and work.
Pointing out the value of a country’s minimum wage and making a comparison with the price of an electronic game is not the best measure, as it fails to take into account the entire cost of living of the worker in that same country, which have different weights, especially in developing countries that have part of their products and services sold based on the value of the dollar.
Market practices are great for companies, not consumers.
And to be clear, we are not demanding that the game be given away for free in charity.
That said, we just ask for a little respect from the consumer, who, given the current pricing policy, doesn’t even have any predictability regarding launches.
Sorry for my bad english.
What is the logical justification for a consumer, in 4 years, to go from paying R$37.00 for a complete version to paying R$99.00 for a shredded version?
Companies only aim for profit, and against certain practices it is necessary to stand up against.
Someone could come and release a game for 10x or 100x the price. It’s up to them what they decide their game is worth and up to you to decide if it’s worth for you to play that price.
Regional pricing is a discount that some people get. You get exactly the same product for a lower price just because you live somewhere else.
The fact that your country has a lower average income is not their fault nor is it yours.
I live in the part of the world where games are usually the most expensive.
In the end our argument doesn’t really matter.
They can’t just change the price now. They would have to go out of their way to send all the people that already ordered the game some of the money back which is not that easy to do.
