IAmSinistar: Nae worries, and you posted good and valid points as well. I think global economics is a complex and abstruse topic, particularly for a bunch of armchair pundits such as ourselves to bandy about. We can only argue from our perceptions and from what we feel is fair. My own stance is purely one of principle, with no ulterior motives of sycophancy or celebrity. And I freely admit it is formed partly from my very incomplete understanding of the full economical scope of matters in the world, and partly from my own idealism. I do however most certainly "vote with my wallet", by backing GOG and other vendors when they choose what I believe to be the higher path. My complaint is rather that those votes of mine used to be untrammeled by other concerns, but now have to be asterisked by my conditional approval.
All is good between us, however. :)
Jolly good! :)
You know, I find it difficult to argue with you, because in way we are similar, both in our views, and in our believes and deeds (wallet vote, for example).
Although I don't think we'll ever get something as universal price all over the world that is fair. Simple example, digital distribution and physical distribution. In physical distribution you have to pay for manufacture and shipment of all elements, involved in game's package, starting from box, art cover, and disk, to all memorabilia and other collectibles that could be put in there. In digital copy you don't have all those things in their physical form. Map is digital, book is digital, you don't have any pictures, so no paper wastes. Similarly no polymers were used to make disks where game, "how it's made" and soundtrack are stored, and box cover. No metals were used to make steel book, if there is one. Also you don't pay physical sales involved costs - no retail store share (okay, Steam 30% is there), no shipment costs, no shelf cost, no price tag swap cost (yes, this has its own cost as well). Yet you pay same price as buyers of physical copy pay. So in a way, you pay for them, as you receive less goods than them. Is it just?
Next example, workplace location. Climate is very different, one place may have searing hot summer, yet very mild winters, with barely any snow, second place may have mild climate all over the year, yet overcast weather being dominant, third may be placed in northern country where snow lies for nine to ten months. work conditions will be different in these places, as you can imagine. In first case your electric bills will involve a lot of air condition during hot times, and, depending on winter climates, mild heating. Second place may require a lot of lightning. Third, in addition to lightning, will require heating expenses, and, probably, expenses involved into living up north - many goods, agricultural ones, simply do not grow there to feed the population, thus require transport services to bring them there. Simple need to haul majority of things will increase cost of everything, unless that northern place have a source of something that may compensate for lack of another things, that can be used to support local needs (geothermal source to provide cheap energy, for example, thus allowing some greenhouses to provide vegetables during winter, or source of fuel, allowing keeping costs low). Otherwise, the mere need to haul fuel for vehicles to refuel for the way back will sky-rocket prices on everything. Moreover, should local "powers that be" include toll on the road, this will also increase cost of all goods brought there. Especially if toll-rate will be flat, say for every truck that is heavier than 18 tonnes (that's your run of the mill tractor truck alone). This way, 6 tonnes of toilet paper will have same added value as 20 tonnes of beverages. And this not involves only game development, this involves basically every area. Do I believe that backpack that has "Made in USA" label is more durable than one that is made in Paraguay, or in Vietnam? Nope. All revolves around raw materials' quality, workers' skills, and machinery, if one involved. So I don't see a difference between backpacks, if we have same starting conditions. But will the price be different? Oh yeah. And we shouldn't forget than actual workers' share in that proverbial backpack's cost is not that big.
Combining these two things, if we'll have "flat just price" some will pay for other. As they do now, only in different, unjust way (not sure quotes are needed here). There must be lights burning brighter somewhere.;)
In addition, there are questions regarding games pricing. All we hear (unless it's Google's fault, who gave me this data:D) is how expensive games' development is now, how many hundreds of millions dollars involved now, and price tag is same old 60 bucks (then we suddenly stumble upon Witcher data, saying that both games were made for 5 millions or so each). In this way, studying games' credits and checking amount of outsource studios involved (cheaper labour), you may wonder, how the hell those games costs as much as stated.
Plus, as we discuss localized prices, we should also include localization cost. And that's why big games will never get a localization that it beyond translated subtitles. Let's be realistic, here, in Eastern Europe, we don't have big pool of cadres who actually understand how to properly voice over games. There are professionals, but there are few, and soon you'll start to notice them everywhere - in games, in films of all sorts, in audio books, on radio. I even afraid to open fridge at times, you know. But that's irony. In reality, we either have pretty mediocre localization with not so stellar actors, or localization will require a lot of money involved (thus affecting prices), or it will sound like most games from this studio. Could be all three.
If we leave localization of content aside, then we need to come to consensus of determination of "just" price. Percentage from income? Percentage from free money, left after paying taxes, rent, utilities, necessaries, mandatory reserve, savings? Should software prices to be tied to hardware prices? I could be wrong, but I've heard Argentina and Brazil or some other country nearby (guys from these countries, my deepest apologies if I made a mistake, but I really read a lot of data on my work, so I confuse things at times, women despise me because of that - I tend to forget their cats' birthdays and similarly important data) have high taxes on every imported item, therefore hardware, like console, costs exorbitant amount of money, thus making gaming quite expensive, if not unavailable, unless someone would like to refer to grey import. I think discussing games' prices without mentioning hardware is somewhat unjust, after all, you can't play games without something to run them on. Even if we somehow mitigate import taxes, all logistical costs will remain, and as cheap sea shipping may be, it still has price.
But there is more: infrastructure. Not only roads to deliver hardware and physical copies of games, but also internet and power supply infrastructure. Digital distribution is useful as tits on hog if customers have only dial-up or tether their internet through phone or similar means. Internet services cost is also different, I remember times when I paid one buck per hour per megabyte. And that wasn't the most expensive tariff even for 28.8 kbps. If you think these data came from 1990s, you're wrong, 2010. ;) Power supply is also important, not by the cost of electricity bills (no jokes on Radeons!), but condition of power grid: how old it is, how many watts per user it can withstand and so on.
As you can see, we barely scratched the surface, but already have more than enough problems to discuss or attempt to determine "just" price, even if not flat for world, but at least region-based.
I hope we still can be friends after all. :)
