The Australian dollar is currently worth (marginally) more than the US Dollar, and yet the game costs an extra $20 here. I don't understand how this is justifiable.
It's not about exchange rates and never ever will be. It's about purchasing power. It's just normal market segmentation, like how textbooks are cheaper in India/China than in the U.S.
Whats the average purchasing power of an Australain versus an American?
The Australian dollar is worth more than the US Dollar, and what's Australia's minimum wage? What's America's? They're about $15 and $7 respectively. If anything, Blizzard could probably stand to charge Australians even more.
But I'm sure they've done the math on this, and there might be other factors, but I'd gander that in terms of purchasing power the costs of the game to an American and Australian are probably pretty similar.
Now if you were making money in the U.S. and had to spend it in Australia, then you'd be very right to meow about exchange rates, since they don't take into account purchasing power, but very very few people who buy the Australian game are going to be in that position.
Having the same price for every country inside the UE and not using the actual conversion rate hurts even more the people in countries where average wage is bellow US wages.
It wouldn't hurt them that much having different prices for different countries inside the UE, just make it so you need a credit card from the country to pay the price corresponding to that country.
(at least there is amazon.co.uk and I am a little happier)
A blanket statement like this is not correct. iPhones aren't cheaper in China. Louis Vuitton purses aren't cheaper in China.
Prices are what the market will bear in that country. $60 is what video games cost in America. More than that and Blizzard would see a dent in their sales that likely would not make up for any increase in price. Similarly, Blizzard probably isn't charging more (or much more) for Diablo in Australia because all other video games are that price.
I guess it's particularly frustrating when you compare it to a company like Valve - who set the same prices for Australia as they do for the US (not sure about other regions) for all of their new releases. Even Apple have brought the App Store price tiers almost to parity between the two regions.
I suppose that they did do the math though - as you said - I think they just priced me into ordering an import instead. A quick look around has shown a few online retailers offerring it for less than $AUD 60.
Meow.
In EU, Apple hardware or games are often priced at the same amount as in the US, but in Euros, not $. No wonder: the price includes value-added tax (20% or so, depending on the country) and the seller has to account for significantly stricter consumer protection laws. For example, the standard warranty period is one year in the US; in my country, the law requires two years; that's got to affect the price.
Is it the box with air in it, only? Which is ridiculous for a game which is only playable with a net connection.
And the battle.net site suggests you can buy a digital copy. If so, why can'y you buy the digital copy? What prevents you from?
While Blizzard itself charges full retail prices...
http://www.game.co.uk/en/diablo-iii-collectors-edition-16712...