hedwards: What does that have to do with it? The cost of the hardware is the same regardless of how much you earn, the hardware doesn't suddenly cost half as much to produce, just because you're making half of what somebody else is making in another country.
Yes, it's unfortunate that it's not equally affordable to all, but realistically these units area being sold at a loss in all likelihood already.
EDIT: And European prices are higher in large part due to the better warranty that the governments over there require. As well as expanded consumer rights in general.
dr.zli: But why is then price different in US and EU when we all know the cost to produce 1 unit is the same? Your argument is not valid. The real reason is the pampering of US market (one of the largest markets in the world).
But I'm ok with that as long as I can buy stuff in US with the help of my family.
I already told you, the EU mandates things like longer warranties and extra consumer protections. You don't honestly think that getting an additional 21 months of warranty is free, do you? Not to mention the extra patching that sometimes happens, I remember Creative needing a special patch for Europe that differed from the US version only in limiting the volume to a couple decibels below what the US version would deal with.
hedwards: What does that have to do with it? The cost of the hardware is the same regardless of how much you earn, the hardware doesn't suddenly cost half as much to produce, just because you're making half of what somebody else is making in another country.
Namur: The problem isn't a flat price, there's NO flat price to begin with, the problem is lower average incomes being asked to pay insane mark ups in regards to prices offered to (much) higher average incomes in order to cater to specific markets.
Given your anti-American rant in the rest of your post, I'm going to have to assume that you don't have any clue as to what you're talking about. Small markets are small markets, if you're needing to localize for a country that has a small population, then you're going to have a smaller number of units being sold, even though the cost to do that isn't going to be any lower.
And there are probably other costs associated as well.
As I said before, the cost of a unit has little or nothing to do with the wages being paid in your particular part of the world.
hedwards: And European prices are higher in large part due to the better warranty that the governments over there require. As well as expanded consumer rights in general.
Namur: That's funny, i always though it was on account of the industry wide penchant for ripping off the European customer in order to subsidize the American customer.
So Europeans are asked to pay ludicrous mark ups of 20%, 30% and higher becasue we have 'better' consumer rights, uh ? Makes perfect sense. But not the right to expect fair pricing policies apparently, i mean, what would the world be without the shameless wide spread subservience to the NA market.
Sigh, this attitude right here is pretty disgusting. Not only are you demanding more rights than we get, but now you're trying to make us subsidize them.
Having to provide a warranty for an extra year or in many cases and extra 21 months isn't exactly cheap. And, in many cases the European version of things requires special testing and IIRC has had to be lead free for quite some time.
I can sort of get MS focusing on the US, but why on Earth would both Sony and Nintendo be enforcing subserviance to NA on Europe? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, if they were going to engage in global politics of that sort, you'd think they'd make their own home region the king of things.
