XBL Sale Roundup: September 29th, 2015

Dwaggienite said:Entirely misdirected rant.I'm just going to copy/paste something I've told you time and time again:
xPut Name Herex said:Because as we all know, Microsoft breaks the law and sets the prices for these games .

If you are going to be at anyone, at least point it towards the people who actual set the prices (publishers, as at least in the US Microsoft/Apple/Steam/other marketplace holders are forbidden from adjusting the price of a digital item without the publishers consent) and government officials (since they put a lot of taxes not only on the goods you buy, but also on the money companies try to move from country to country. This was actually a factor in Microsoft's decision to purchase Mojang recently, since there was no way to bring their overseas holdings stateside without losing a sizable chunk of it to the EU so they spent it purchasing an asset in the EU instead).If you are going to be mad at someone, at least direct it towards the people who are actually making these decisions and not Microsoft who is effectively acting as middle-man in these transactions.

EDIT: Let's even example case this for the game in the sale Microsoft published (and thus has control of the pricing over):
Forza Horizon 2
• "Car Pass" - 40% off - Now US$14.99 / £11.99

0.8*11.99 is about 9.52 (to account for VAT included in UK price, but sales tax not included in US price).

At current exchange rate, 9.52 = $14.43. The UK is actually getting a better deal here before government interference. For FH2: F&F, a relationship is observed (after accounting for tax, it's $5 in the USA and $5.44 in the UK). This can occur because Microsoft has vast overseas holdings and operations, and thus can use the money they acquired in the EU in their EU businesses.

Now let's take a look at your list. As far as I can tell, the entire list is made up of properties from Warner Brothers. Warner is an American entertainment company with very little in the way of overseas holdings. Especially as much of their business is done in the US state of California (due to Hollywood), with a second large set of operations presumably in New York (the two big film/TV locales in America), it makes absolutely zero sense for them to leave that money overseas, as in order to use it effectively they need to bring it back to the USA. At this point, the UK/EU steps in and takes a huge chunk of the cash being exported from the UK/EU as a tariff, because they don't want the money to leave their shores without getting a cut of it (and to encourage companies to invest in the EU instead of bringing the money back to the USA). There's your dramatic mark-up.

Dwaggienite said:o Heres Jonny o said:+1 all the way. Thank you for doing the sums. Absolute rubbish the UK has their pants pulled down on these sales. I know we are not the only ones either but its getting beyond a joke.I agree. I might start making this a weekly occurrence and tweeting it each week to @MajorNelson and @Xbox. Hopefully if enough people retweet it they might pull their fingers out of their backsides and start treating the non-American countries much more fairly price-wise.'MERICA!

is anyone else bothered by the fact that the season pass for Shadows of Mordor is worth more then the game or is it just me? Is the dlc for it better then the acutally game?

Shadow of mordor for meee

Love that no one awnsered my question at all, wasn't even one of those annoying "first!" kind of posts.

Thanks for the info. I had been looking at Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition.

Just finished installing Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition

Great buy for $4.00 US.

Dwaggienite said:US$34.99 / £38.49 • Dying Light - 30% off
US$12.00 / £20.00 • LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - 60% off
US$6.60 / £10.56 • LEGO Marvel Super Heroes - 67% off
US$8.00 / £12.80 • LEGO The Hobbit - 60% off
US$12.00 / £22.00 • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - 60% off
US$16.00 / £20.00 • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game of the Year Edition - 60% off
US$8.00 / £12.80 • The LEGO Movie Videogame - 60% off

ONE OF THESE CURRENCIES IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER.

Microsoft, you can shove those prices up your price-gouging arse.

And for those that think I'm complaining about nothing? Let me illustrate the differences:

Current exchange rate: £1 = $1.515
US Prices - UK Prices in US$ - UK Price compared to US price in %
US$34.99 / $58.31 / 166.6%
US$12.00 / $30.30 / 252.5%
US$06.60 / $16.00 / 242.4%
US$08.00 / $19.39 / 242.4%
US$12.00 / $33.33 / 277.7%
US$16.00 / $30.30 / 189.4%
US$08.00 / $19.39 / 242.4%

These so-called 'sales' are where the UK are paying way more than double the amount than the americans in most of these listings.

Microsoft... sort your shit out, because this is unacceptable. And don't hide behind the 'tax' excuse either. The tax is 20%. NOT 177.7%.brother Australia gets ripped off to the shithouse too..

• LEGO The Hobbit - 60% off - Now US$8.00 / £12.80 / €16.00 / AU$35.98 (50% off for Silver members)

8.00USD = 11.43AUD

306% higher

and you think UK prices are bad....

Dwaggienite said:o Heres Jonny o said:+1 all the way. Thank you for doing the sums. Absolute rubbish the UK has their pants pulled down on these sales. I know we are not the only ones either but its getting beyond a joke.I agree. I might start making this a weekly occurrence and tweeting it each week to @MajorNelson and @Xbox. Hopefully if enough people retweet it they might pull their fingers out of their backsides and start treating the non-American countries much more fairly price-wise.I just tweeted to xbox support and majornelson the following:

Dear Xbox/Larry, please advise why Australia continues to be RIPPED OFF by Microsoft on XBL sales. 300% higher prices than US.

then

LEGO The Hobbit 60% off US$8.00 AU$35.98. 8.00USD = 11.43AUD. 300% higher here. I think we deserve an answer.

Tendoman77 said:Love that no one awnsered my question at all, wasn't even one of those annoying "first!" kind of posts.No it's not worth it

Dwaggienite said:US$34.99 / £38.49 • Dying Light - 30% off
US$12.00 / £20.00 • LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - 60% off
US$6.60 / £10.56 • LEGO Marvel Super Heroes - 67% off
US$8.00 / £12.80 • LEGO The Hobbit - 60% off
US$12.00 / £22.00 • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - 60% off
US$16.00 / £20.00 • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game of the Year Edition - 60% off
US$8.00 / £12.80 • The LEGO Movie Videogame - 60% off

ONE OF THESE CURRENCIES IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER.

Microsoft, you can shove those prices up your price-gouging arse.

And for those that think I'm complaining about nothing? Let me illustrate the differences:

Current exchange rate: £1 = $1.515
US Prices - UK Prices in US$ - UK Price compared to US price in %
US$34.99 / $58.31 / 166.6%
US$12.00 / $30.30 / 252.5%
US$06.60 / $16.00 / 242.4%
US$08.00 / $19.39 / 242.4%
US$12.00 / $33.33 / 277.7%
US$16.00 / $30.30 / 189.4%
US$08.00 / $19.39 / 242.4%

These so-called 'sales' are where the UK are paying way more than double the amount than the americans in most of these listings.

Microsoft... sort your shit out, because this is unacceptable. And don't hide behind the 'tax' excuse either. The tax is 20%. NOT 177.7%.Digital prices are too high in the first place, what about that?
Prices drop too slow or more like never, DLC is almost always at the same price after 4-5 years.
If they really want to take a piece of the PC market vs Steam, they have a really really long way to go.

Might pick up The Arkham Origins season pass and NBA Jam on Fire edition

Hell yea it is. If you buy the F7 game you get that dlc for free as well. The extra cars makes it less repetitive.

gobey17 said:Tempted by LOTR: War in the North, considering if the co-op is actually decent. Hmm...worked for me easily. just one coop achievement

Dwaggienite said:Here's the first tweet, for anyone who wishes to retweet it. https://twitter.com/Dwaggienite/status/648963746547802113Retweeted.

Jamiereloaded23 said:Those deals are pretty great if you live in the US, not so good if you live in the Uk/Europe, most of the games are much cheaper on the US marketplace with the various discounts, which I really don't understand to be honest.On average we have higher minimum wages! And do those US prices include taxes? In the US all shop prices always exclude tax

Skate. and Skate 2 indeed have discontinued achievements.

Grab several games as below
- Forza Horizon 2 Car pass (TBH last time got 50% but it's small difference)
- Blue Estate
- Shadow of Mordor GOTY
- Lego The Hobbit

I got several games before so not this time, for achievement hunter, go for another world which need < 1 hr to 1000G :)

Too many posts to quote anyone in particular.

Prices for the Lego games are set by TT Games, nothing to do with Microsoft (as already pointed out by xPut Name Herex).

Digital prices are regional, just like physical prices, so go complain in the stores that they are charging too much for physical and digital prices will drop.

• LEGO Jurassic World - 25% off - Now US$44.99 / £33.74 / €44.99 / AU$67.46
converted into USD at todays exchange rate plus taxes:
• LEGO Jurassic World - 25% off - Now US $49.98 / UK $51.13 / EU $50.65 / AU $47.32

So as usual AU is the cheapest (as is Canada) and UK and EU (and New Zealand) are the most expensive.

The problem many of you seem to have is with the fact that older games have far less value in the US. Walk into a store in the US that has 1 million second hand copies in stock of a 3 year old game and you will realise that if they ask $50 for it they are not going to sell a single one. So they drop the price to $5, but now realise if the digital version was $50 they are not going to sell a single one. TT Games know this and so drop the digital price, but only in the US.

Walk into a store in Australia and see a deal like this one at ebGames:
LEGO Batman 3 Crazy Clearance price $57 (=$40 USD)
and you will realise that
• LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - 60% off - Now US$12.00 / £20.00 / €24.00 / AU$35.98
is actually a better deal for Australia than stores such as ebGames. Same applies to UK and EU. TT Games have undercut store prices by $4, it makes no business sense to undercut them by $40.

GoD prices have always been regional. DLC prices (add-ons, themes, gamerpics, etc) were the same everywhere in the world. This was back in the days of MSP and is not always the case now. But since stores do not sell DLC there was no regional pricing issue.

So my point still stands, until you can get the prices reduced in the stores, you can't expect digital prices to follow. And imagine if digital prices did follow and you could get LEGO Batman 3 for USD $12 everyone in the world, then every store in Australia would go out of business overnight (and almost have in UK).

I am not a mod.

xPut Name Herex said:0.8*11.99 is about 9.52 (to account for VAT included in UK price, but sales tax not included in US price).
Slight correction on the Maths. Final price minus 20% is not the same as Original price plus 20%.

This is example is actually £9.99 + 20% VAT = £11.99, which if you think of the price as £12 it makes sense.

Agree with all your other points though, especially with licensing across multiple territories.