Xbox 360 mods

[doobiwan]

R500 to cover the costs of something that cost over R150 Million (and increasing) to make? I don't think that's that ridiculous, consider the shelf life of those games. It's not like a book or music that people will buy for years to come. Most games fade from view with 3-6 months of launch. The volumes for most games are really not the high. Consider FF12 has only sold 1.5 million copies, and that's the hottest property on the PS2.

Is it a lot of Money? yup, I won't deny that, would I like it lower? sure.

As far as the hardware costs go, lets be fair R3799 for what you get is a friggin steal! A PC graphics card of similar capability will Set you Back over R4000 alone and be out of date in 2 years. They make a massive loss on those console, and make it back on the games.

 

[JBFRobisher]

Rubbish man....

It costs them something like $10 million to make the game. So they have to sell a lot of those games to make a profit, plus M$ or Sony take a cut from every game sold because they have subsidised the hardware. Then the distributor needs cash, the marketing guys, the packaging guys, the stores that sell them and on and on and on...

Then a lot of people wait until it costs R250 and buy it then which means less money for the developers.

They are not overpriced by any stretch of the imagination.

Rubbish yourself.....

R500 for a game in a country where the per capita GNP is approx R500pm? That's just sick. Plus - a game costing approx R350 at a straight dollar exchange costs R555 here? Someone is ripping the ring out of it.

 

[saffakanera]

being a pirate is being out of the box i say.

kudos to all of you. i am a student and i am DEAD poor, i find ways around the ways. kind of like that dude who broke into ur house found a way around the ways.

piracy is a result of thinking out of the box, its conceptual. if you dont like the latter statement? then bend those fat/scrawny fingers of yours and rant away, then watch some Scandal on Etv and bathe in the originality of it all.

you sexy devil you.

 

[Brenden_E]

being a pirate is being out of the box i say.

kudos to all of you. i am a student and i am DEAD poor, i find ways around the ways. kind of like that dude who broke into ur house found a way around the ways.

piracy is a result of thinking out of the box, its conceptual. if you dont like the latter statement? then bend those fat/scrawny fingers of yours and rant away, then watch some Scandal on Etv and bathe in the originality of it all.

you sexy devil you.

Times like these that you need a gun, a big gun...
If you're dead poor, then you shouldn't have an XBOX in the first place - little to mention the TV that goes with it.

The price of games have nothing to do with the GDP - you know how much a bmw costs? Sure as hell out of the range of the average person, but it's not aimed at the average person, now is it?

 

[JBFRobisher]

The price of games have nothing to do with the GDP - you know how much a bmw costs?

Au contrair old boy. It is another example of a foreign monopoly who fully controls the products exploiting the poor nations of the world and stealing their limited wealth by taking it offshore. But not only that - the monopoly actually inflates the pricing to the poor nation to take more than in its home nation. Arrrrrrr!

 

[GavinMannion]

Au contrair old boy. It is another example of a foreign monopoly who fully controls the products exploiting the poor nations of the world and stealing their limited wealth by taking it offshore. But not only that - the monopoly actually inflates the pricing to the poor nation to take more than in its home nation. Arrrrrrr!

Okay please explain...

Don't compare us to a country that 300 million people, rather compare us to a country of virtually the same size the UK.

Most of our games are the same price or cheaper than there. The hardware is also cheaper or the same price. How are we being ripped?

Why should they sell their products cheaper here just because more people earn less than the UK? That is just garbage.

It is amazing that they can sell them at the same price when you consider the smaller market and greater distance that these products need to be shipped.

The Xbox is not overpriced in this country at all.

 

[JBFRobisher]

Don't compare us to a country that 300 million people, rather compare us to a country of virtually the same size the UK.
...
Why should they sell their products cheaper here just because more people earn less than the UK? That is just garbage.

It is amazing that they can sell them at the same price when you consider the smaller market and greater distance that these products need to be shipped.

The Xbox is not overpriced in this country at all.

The UK? In what way are we the same size? Economically? Population? I don't think so.

Selling software cheaper into poorer countries is no garbage, it is good business sense, and morally correct. MS themselves give free licences of their other software to schools in developing countries, and that started here in SA.

 

[GavinMannion]

The UK? In what way are we the same size? Economically? Population? I don't think so.

Selling software cheaper into poorer countries is no garbage, it is good business sense, and morally correct. MS themselves give free licences of their other software to schools in developing countries, and that started here in SA.

United Kingdom — Population: 60,441,457
South Africa — Population: 44,344,136

Granted not exactly the same but closer than 300 000 000 no?

I don't see any good business reason to sell poorer countries (note not people) software cheaper? They then need to monitor all exports of the software to make sure that the UK is not getting it straight from us for cheaper.

Giving free software to non-profit organisations is nothing new and cannot in anyway be compared to giving entertainment software to poor countries cheaper. It is for entertainment purposes only and they don't have any moral or business obligation to help the poor.

There prices in SA compare very favourably to anywhere else in the world. You cannot compare GDI or GDP or average income to make this assumption. Just because a lot of people in SA are poor is no reason to sell something cheaper. The 'rich' segment of the market is large enough to make financial sense to sell in SA. Otherwise they would not.

 

[rwenzori]

There prices in SA compare very favourably to anywhere else in the world.

You probably think Telkom's prices are favourable too.

 

[GavinMannion]

? What an idiotic comment.

Xbox 360 prices compared to Europe are very similar.

Telkoms prices compared to Europe/Africa/US or Australia are not.

 

[JBFRobisher]

You probably think Telkom's prices are favourable too.

LOL!

I don't see any good business reason to sell poorer countries (note not people) software cheaper?

Well, what percentage of Windows installations in Zim are legal you think?

Besides - as I have tried to get through to you, it is just another case of the first world raping the third world.

 

[JBFRobisher]

? What an idiotic comment.

No, rather funny I thought! Both cases of excessive monopolistic pricing.

 

[pip]

IMHO top end games are ridiculously expensive in this country, typically way more than the equivalent dollar price.

 

[GavinMannion]

Besides - as I have tried to get through to you, it is just another case of the first world raping the third world.

Yeah but I don't go for that anti-globalisation rubbish. If we invented the thing then we could rip the ring from the 1st world countries, you are not forced to buy any of these things. They price it at the rate that people are willing to pay. You have a choice whether to buy it or not.

There is no monopoly here. You have PC, PS2, Xbox 360 and soon PS3 and Wii.

If you think they are all to expensive don't buy them. If you can get them cheaper from overseas then just import them?

pip: Like I said previously you cannot compare our small country to the world superpower. Compare to UK or Aus instead and you will see the prices are relatively close.

 

[doobiwan]

@Pip, Not true,

ZA Prices are pretty good, actually, American prices are quoted without tax, because they pay GST not VAT, you need to compare our prices to the EU or Australia, firstly because they already include VAT, and secondly it's the same SKU.

 

[Brenden_E]

No, rather funny I thought! Both cases of excessive monopolistic pricing.

Monopolistic? Last time I checked there was quite a bit of choice in cars. Same with consoles, foo...

Maybe you need to revisit the dictionary...

 

[nthdimension]

Now there's choice. Not too long ago there was none.
And it was reflected in the prices. Local PS2 hardware and software was significantly more expensive than the UK where the prices were already relatively high.

You can't compare a car and software. Each has development costs. However each unit of software has near zero production costs.

They don't need differential pricing, although it already actually exists when it comes to entertainment products like games, music and movies. But as with business software those in poorer countries can and should just use the software without paying for it. Differential pricing could be used on non-entertainment software with absolutely no problems - anyone who would buy from a cheaper location would likely have otherwise just not paid at all so worst case the company gets something instead of nothing, and if the license is only valid in a particular country then it can be treated as no different to using a copy without paying. The latter specifically in the case of businesses.

Illegal copying is obviously not actually a problem since the products continue to be produced and sold. The companies that make these products are making good profits. Those of us who can afford to pay do.

Anti-competition console makers went to a lot of trouble to try to prevent importing from cheaper markets. Region locking exists for the sole purpose of inflating prices in some areas. In the past it was necessary to modify the hardware to fix this defect. Naturally Sony et al should have been hit with punitive fines for this anti-competitive practice. Movie studios should be similarly punished. Australia appears to be one of the few countries that actually takes competition seriously and declared modchips legal because region locking is purely a measure to stifle competition.

You'll also find companies like Sony and Levis misusing trademark law to rip-off consumers. It is time lawmakers put a stop to this type of behaviour by fixing poor wording in these laws and instituting severe financial punishments for companies that try to stop competition by abusing existing laws.

 

[JBFRobisher]

Monopolistic? Last time I checked there was quite a bit of choice in cars. Same with consoles, foo...

Maybe you need to revisit the dictionary...

Maybe you should get to understand a bit more about how it works. It IS monopolistic because you cannot just go develop stuff for e.g. a PS - you HAVE to distribute through or with the blessing of the manufacturer and they sure take their cut. Been that way since the NES. Are are you just a bit too young to know about all that?

 

[pip]

@Pip, Not true,

ZA Prices are pretty good, actually, American prices are quoted without tax, because they pay GST not VAT, you need to compare our prices to the EU or Australia, firstly because they already include VAT, and secondly it's the same SKU.

OK
Ghost Recon3: Advanced Warfighter BTgames.co.za R555
Amazon.com $34.99 * R7-33 plus VAT @ 14% = R292

Other countries' VAT is different ( UK = 17% ) so VAT added in at SA rate.

 

[doobiwan]

Pip, firstly just check that is the 360 version of GRAW. Secondly, it's an older game they're probably discounting. (EDIT: sorry you're right, it is discounted to that)

Look at Gears of War - $59 everywhere, = R432.329 (via www.xe.com), also not considering the 5% forex fee. Add VAT = R492.86.

Take2 = R493
BTGames = R 465.00 and a free T-shirt.

So it does compare favourably. $59 is the 'official' American price for 360 games. South African stores are not really discounting their stock either.