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Pricing isn't about fairness, it's about maximising surplus for the seller. Businesses aren't a public service, they're in it to make money. Valve will have pricing analysts that have studied the demand curve and concluded the higher price point may reduce demand but is nonetheless the point where marginal revenue from that geographical segment approaches some notion of marginal cost, thus maximising returns. With such a varied range of content and the ability to vary pricing dynamically through specials and discounts and bundles, they'll have collected a wealth of data about game price elasticity in different market segments. As anyone who's studied economics 101 would say, it's all about willingness-to-pay and how that translates into price elasticity. In a similar vein, it is 80% more expensive to prebook an Avis rental car at Melbourne airport (MEL) if you declare US residence vs EU residence. Yes, really, 80% more, try it. This is explained by expectation, which translates directly into willingness-to-pay: US visitors are so used to renting a car that they don't explore the alternatives. European visitors on the other hand are astounded that there is no rail link into the city, and renting a car is at the bottom of the alternatives list. In the game distribution world, it's likely that the US has more volume, more alternatives and more domestic competition, hence greater price elasticity, hence more aggressive pricing. Steam has strong differentiation and provides global access to products not otherwise marketed outside the US, and Valve are typical of a leading oligopolist, exploiting this position in their pricing strategy. |
I guess it just frustrates me because I can't get around it.
With physical goods, if I don't like the AU price, I can easily shop online on another countries website and get the goods shipped. No problems.
With digital goods, there's mostly no way to legitimately purchase them from overseas. You can use a VPN and a fake address, but that breaks the terms & conditions.