Civilization: Beyond Earth just went up $40 on Steam
Hope you've already pre-ordered.
By Tim Colwill on August 24, 2014 at 10:30 am
Looks like we’ve got another case of Whoops, We Forgot To Apply The Australia Tax on our hands: originally priced at $50, Civilization: Beyond Earth is now sitting pretty at $90 after jumping up $40 early on Saturday morning.
No reason has been given for the sudden price rise, and people are understandably pretty pissed off about it. This has become a fairly common pattern now, to the point where if you’re even vaguely interested in a game, you’re better off pre-ordering it literally as soon as possible because you’ll save a ridiculous amount of money.
At the end of May, Ubisoft suddenly remembered that Watch Dogs was supposed to cost $75 instead of $60. Last year, 2K forced Green Man Gaming to raise the price on Borderlands 2 and XCOM for Australians. Fallout: New Vegas was $50 to pre-order before suddenly jumping to $90 closer to launch. Back in 2007 Activision decided to double the price on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare overnight from $50 to $89.
The game is still available for $49.99 on Amazon and $47 on OzGameShop so vote with your wallet. There’s also a “classics bundle” including Civilization: Beyond Earth on GamersGate for $70.
We’ve contacted 2K’s Australian office for a comment and will let you know what we learn.
UPDATE: sgt_katharn in the comments points out that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel just jumped up $10 as well. Awesome.
Source: NotThatDoug (and many others)
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Another one for the Black List.
Oh well.
Wait, everyone isn’t simply waiting for the expansion + Steam sale?
I did consider buying it at $50. No way I’d buy it at $90. I have plenty of choices for games. It’s not like I won’t be able to find something else to play.
scrav,
+1
Here you all go, cheapy mcheap
http://www.ozgameshop.com/pc-games/sid-meiers-civilization-beyond-earth-pc-game-code-by-email-with-pre-order-exoplanets-map-pack-dlc
You can’t buy it from Amazon either now, 2K have locked new games to people who only have a US credit card and US billing address. Bend over and take the 2K Australia tax…
Your alternatives are trading for tf2 keys, using hola to trick GMG to give it to you at US prices, or other resellers (of which there is aplenty)
I can see 2K and other publishers region locking content for keys/gifts to only work if they are purchased in Australia when we get a local currency storefront.
Borderlands the Pre-Sequal has also jumped in price as well from $59.99 to $69.99 on Steam
Another victory for the pirates.
Still undecided if I want to buy it for $50 after the lack of depth Civ V.
if thats the case you can always use a site like this http://www.wowhd.com.au/games/PC-87 and get a physical copy, I got the non Australian version of L4D2 from them. The only disadvantage is they don’t sell collectors editions.
Yay I got listed a source, to bad its for such crappy news :(
I was trying to decide if I should get it the night before the price rise but decided to watch youtube shows then go to bed and leave it for the morning, shouldn’t have done that.
how can they justify that? i understand if physical copy because of shipping overseas and whatnot but for a but of local server space for a digital copy, nope.
dazza826,
You sure about that?
You sure that just isn’t the standard Amazon requirement of needing a US billing address that has been the norm for years that you’re running into?
(http://cdkeyprices.com/guides/buy-amazon-digital-games-outside-us)
I was able to get right to the end of the checkout process before the final confirmation.
Its ok guys, no one is going to pirate it just out of spite now that its nearly doubled in price.
This is among the big reasons I have no sympathy for the big companies when they complain of piracy. [and before anyone says it I have Civ 5 and all the expansions on steam, I'm not making excuses for myself or some such.]
Yeah I was gonna grab BL:PS because I knew the Australia Tax was gonna come but I couldn’t get a Steam Wallet soon enough. I’ve now held off to see how much the 4 pack will cost. Sadly also that Australia Tax GMG code isn’t working yet.
I also remember Watch Dogs, was about to grab it then Australia Tax happened but then I was pointed towards GMG and the codes I could use to get it to a reasonable price so I did that instead. If I hadn’t been shown that Ubisoft would have completely lost a sale, or at least until some complete pack for under $10.
Looks like I grabbed it just in time.
No sale. If they want brick and mortar stores to have a level playing field. Then be creative. Give a physical item in the box that is not possible with digital. Something other than a cardboard box and a dvd case. People seem willing to pay through the nose for that.
Or move over to allow the stores to sell digital only version, let people choose. Can have just the digital code as they do with steam gift cards. You just get a receipt with the code on it or pay a premium for the physical box and a handful of goodies.
Why don’t they use common sense. The store will make more money and so will they.
Sorry for double post. The site kept showing errors but actually posted.
With the direction technology is going, shouldn’t physical products begin becoming ‘niche’ some time soon? That, or as pointed out, make physical more competitive. Even when you factor in shipping and so forth, I don’t think it is necessary to charge $90 for a game.
I guess when you specialise in products that generally have a cheaper alternative available in digital form, and will eventually be a predominately digital product, you have too though. This probably explains why places like Sanity charge $30 for an album and $40 for a DVD/Blu-ray while places like JB HiFi and Big W charge about $20 and $25-30 respectively (The $58 new release big name Wii games are great too!). I wonder if there were no speciality music/game/movie stores if we’d still be getting charged the ‘Australian Tax’ so heavily in digital products.
Maghook over at GMG forums directed me to the following post he created, read for a laugh. Thanks for him for getting it all fixed up.
https://forums.playfire.com/gmg/thread/121586
The Australian 30% off key had to be reissued and a new key created.
GMGAUS-30J9MF-MUINWW