I was going to buy Battlefield: Bad Company 2 tomorrow, but I’ll be making other arrangements, now.
JB Hi-Fi usually does this thing where it charges an actual plausible price for new release games, $79, on the day they come out. Then it increases the price to the farcical $99 or higher price that the game distributors think Australians should be paying. I’d sooner go without than be gouged that much. The point of this is that it encourages me to go out and buy the game on the very limited early reviews, rather than waiting around and considering how the title is going down before laying down my hard-earned.
In the case of BF:BC2, JB is selling only the “Limited Edition”, and at $99 (which is still $10 cheaper than the nearest rival at Eastland). And what “extras” do you get in this “Limited Edition”? You get some guns and armour. That’s right, you’re paying $20 extra for basic content that’s on the disk – ie, if you buy the normal edition at the somewhat reasonable (but still inflated in Australia) price, you’re having content deliberately locked away from you.
Dear publishers, distributors, everyone responsible for this system – get stuffed. I won’t be buying the game at all at this rate – or, at most, I’ll be importing it from Play Asia for about $70. Unless the game is truly spectacular, I may well just go without. I’ll certainly be waiting to see what everyone else thinks of it, on reflection – it might not be worth buying at all.
What’s even stupider about this is that EA is trying to get the Bad Company 2 set up as a competitive rival to COD:MW2. And the way it starts that is by gouging Australian customers on the first day?
I haven’t, by the way, heard that EA is implementing a local match filter for BC, either – the biggest problem with the COD series in Australia will just be repeated with EA’s effort.
No, I’m not sold. Screw ‘em.
Tags: Australian price, bad company 2, DLC, EA, lag, ripoffs
Jeremy
Try AussieGamer.com.au.
I picked up boxed version of MW2 for $66.00 including delivery, they have BadCompany2 for $49.00. Just ordered my copy then.
Aussie Gamer has BC2 for $84?
I think he means PC, where it’s $49 – apparently the console tax is $35. Screw that.
Also the Playasia version is not PAL compatible
there’ll be a few versions at playasia, and the NTSC ones work fine in HDMI. I suppose there’d be a problem if you were watching them on a very old TV, but who’s doing that?
i bought my 360 version from BigW for $76
PC version = $49.00 I’m old school, the PS2 is only a toy for my 3yr old. Console games are too limited compared with PC games.
Talking about the bad, Jeremy, if you ever want to engage in a Smokin’ Guns showdown with me (or El Indio from For A Few Dollars More), just let me know at my blog.
PC gaming means having to upgrade your PC everytime the next good game comes out. Prefer to sit in the lounge in front of the 50″ plasma, opposed to hunching over my PC.
Jeremy, noticed you playing last night where did you get/what price?
Bought it for $76 at Game, price-matching Big W.
I remember when console games were £20. Now they’re £60.
There are many reasons for this, but in my mind, its ridiculous.
I sure wish gaming was still unpopular!