Topic: games pricing: US vs Canada

[ryancoke]

The Canadian dollar (as of Aug 1 on Yahoo finance) is worth $1.06 US.  But for some reason all our games are $10 more expensive, the PS3 is $50 more expensive and the wii is $30 more.  If it wasn't for expensive shipping charges, it would make sense to order everything online from the US.  I wonder if there will be some sort of price reduction on games related stuff in Canada some time.  On a related topic, there are tons of Canadians who go to the states just to buy a vehicle and then drive it back. My dad was pricing out a new Ford F150 and it's about $10,000 cheaper in the US! Crazy times in north america.

[KDR_11k]

Wait until the CAD is 1.40USD, then you know what Europeans feel like.

[Ceric]

I really should go with my gut... Bought Euros when they first came out nad invested a little in the Canadian dollar.  Though I'm sort of curious why the Canadian Dollar is now overcoming the US Dollar.

[ShyGuy]

Perhaps if Canada bought in bulk, you could get the savings!  

[Ian Sane]

Yeah this pisses me off.  I went to Comic Con last week in San Diego and had a blast just spending money on little things like chocolate bars because to me it was all super cheap.

The reason the prices have not adjusted is simple.  Most people are idiots and probably don't notice they're getting ripped off so why change it?  Us Canadians have been so used to paying more for so long (my whole life until now) that they probably figure they can jerk us around and we won't do anything about it.  And they're probably right.  It's a pain in the ass to wait at the border to drive over and governments always nail you with duty and stuff like that so few people will bother to do anything.

Though it isn't as simple as changing the prices as people's salaries have long reflected the difference as well.  Any positive effect is more likely going to be prices not rising as quickly as before.  They wouldn't lower the price while our salaries remained where they were.  That would *gasp* lower the cost of living.  Like any big corporation wants to do that.

Though the Wii is actually cheaper than the Cube was at launch despite the Wii in American funds being more expensive.  So we've had at least a bit of a price drop.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Correct me, but isn't the entire Canadian market smaller than the State of California?

Also, maybe Nintendo is just getting back at those hardcore French Canadian language policies.

[Ian Sane]

"Correct me, but isn't the entire Canadian market smaller than the State of California?"

Yes.  But it's still 32,978,400 people.  That's not like Finland small or anything like that.

[Caliban]

It's not a big deal, at least for me. I know it's kind of icky that since at the moment we have a higher valued coin we are getting shafted. Think of it this way, when the US $ was higher in value than the CAD $ did we end up paying more for games? We didn't. I guess they could at least tone it down to $54.99 CAD but meh whatever.  

[stevey]

Are you sure you dont have it backwards? Right now on Google its

1 U.S. dollar = 1.06410034 Canadian dollars
1 U.S. dollar = 0.729660708 Euros
1 U.S. dollar = 119.07597 Japanese yen

[tiamat1990]

Hah...you think you have it bad. I'm paying $34 more for every Wii game and $130 more for every Wii console. Oh and get this, $400 more for every PS3 console.

[vudu]

Exactly how many Wii/PS3 consoles do you buy?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I guess he took Kutaragi's advice.

[couchmonkey]

Ha ha ha.
The upside to being in Canada is that since we're right next door, this kind of gouging can't last as easily as it does in other places.  It is annoying though.  Cars in particular...it makes a lot of sense to go down to the states to get one now, if you can.

[tiamat1990]

Quote
Originally posted by: vudu
Exactly how many Wii/PS3 consoles do you buy?

Well only one each yeah but that's still $530 (That's american $ btw) more and I don't even know why. Shipping does not cost that much.

[Guitar Smasher]

You have to understand that although the Canadian Dollar is gaining versus the American Dollar, it may simply be that American Dollar is underperforming wholy (which it is).  Aren't games like $60 CAD now?  Last gen was $70 so that's a welcome improvement.

[ryancoke]

Quote
Originally posted by: Guitar Smasher
You have to understand that although the Canadian Dollar is gaining versus the American Dollar, it may simply be that American Dollar is underperforming wholy (which it is).  Aren't games like $60 CAD now?  Last gen was $70 so that's a welcome improvement.

Right now the average new release Wii games are $59.99 and PS3/Xbox360 games are $69.99 Canadian. I believe both prices are $10 lower in the USofA at the moment.  PS2/Gamecube games were also $59.99 in Canada. Not sure about Xbox1 games.  Although I remember buying a NES back in the 80s when I was like 10 or something and my mom bought me the original Final Fantasy for $80!!