The big discrepancy between US and EU is due to tax - for most PC related things you end up paying ~25-33% more in the EU than in the US. It is even higher in the UK where you often pay double of what you would have paid in the US. Terrible really :(

It's because Gamestop and other major retailers don't want to receive stock after other retailers in the US, and they are also not willing to accept stock on days that they don't schedule.

So, thanks to Gamestop and the other degenerates, we in the US have to wait 4 days after everybody else.

Just remember that if you're ever thinking about buying from them. They made us wait for Duke.
It is likely true, whether or not the poor reviews are fair, I suspect that it will scare some folks off.

In all honesty there are a lot of people out there that are bad mouthing the game, many without having played it, because it didn't live up to their vision of what the game should be.

It's going to be a shame for folks to miss out on it if the criticisms ultimately are primarily caused by delusion rather than actual game defects.

The problem is countries with a lower cost of living than the US, often by a dramatic amount, get higher game prices.

MS has started down that path to an extent to try and get the Chinese to pay for software, but it's largely a losing battle, particularly the end stage when they presumably try and charge the full price.

Personally, it angers me that because I live in a country where people typically pay for software that I have to pay so much more for software.

Meh agreed - but then again, in many of these countries, if people have enough money to buy a computer that can run a new game, they probably have enough money to buy the game. The average peasant probably doesn't care much about the cost of his software. In other words, there is greater social inequality.

True, but I don't think the issue is always affordability. I could probably afford to pay $100 for games if I cut back on my purchases, but why should I when everyone else pays $50? That would be how I imagine Aussies and others look at it.

I agree - but how great are the differences, and which countries are you comparing? In Europe we pay about 25-30% more than you do in the US, due to taxation (even more in the UK). Personally, I don't really care if I pay 30 or 40 pounds for a game because I buy them so infrequently, and I probably wouldn't buy more games if they cheaper (except for those awesome 2-3 pound sales).
Keep in mind that there are also all kind of other nighmares that come with distributing abroad, i.e. hiring foreign lawyers, customer supper in different languages, simple costs of transport, etc.

And in the end, there will always be parallel trade.

I don't know much about European economies, or really any but my own. I know you can't just change their money into dollars and then complain, it depends more on average wages and cost of living.

What I do have Aussies tell me is that their cost of living is roughly the same as ours, as are their average wages, and yet they pay double what we do for games. I'm sure import taxes for boxed copies and taxes has something to do with that, but surely not double?

Also I can't imagine Brazil has a higher average wage than the US, yet this whole conversation started with someone living there saying their games cost $120.

You should probably send me a link or something in PM that better informs me...for science and all that.

Anyone playing yet? I just went over to the Duke forums on steam and I'm reading how they say it's like Duke which got me to ask, if it's truly Duke, does it have the same great level design complete with shortcuts, alternate paths and secrets? Sadly the response I got was it is just extremely linear. That has me concerned.

Dumbest Duke comment of alltime was on that forum too. "The graphics are as blocky as Duke Nukem 3D from 1996".

That's just too funny.

Sigh, I wish Mr. Gog would stop eating my posts.

Graphics aren't blocky, I can't imagine how the full release graphics could possibly be worse than the demo graphics. Which I would have killed to have had in 1996. And probably well into the 21st century.

The demo was itself very linear, but it didn't have blocky graphics.

Bumping to remind everyone that DNF is out soon.......too bad us Americans still have to wait though.

I'm not going to do it, but I'm really tempted to pirate the thing while I wait for my retail version to unlock. It seriously pisses me off having to wait so that the retailers can maintain their usual release schedule.

Yeah....still, it requires Dukelike strength to maintain your composure until then...so props where props is due. :)