Hey there, I'm an Australian and I'm quite interested in purchasing Rage. The problem is though, that despite the $29.99USD price tag on the US steam store, the price still remains a ridiculous $89.99USD on the Australian store (which is ridiculous even for a release price, but I'm not going to go there). It is simply too much for a game which has been out for nearly 9 months. Even come sales, the Australian store will barely go below the initial US release price (which I believe was $59.99USD). I'm aware I can buy elsewhere, where prices might be more reasonable and since Rage uses Steamworks it'd still be on steam, however for convenience and reliability (and admittedly sales) the Steam store is my most preferable place to shop.

To my understanding, on release, the US steam store had Rage for $59.99, and it has evidently been reduce to $29.99, however as you can see the Australian price was untouched. I'm uncertain about other countries' steam store pages, however I can guess the European steam store page is probably still at release price too because that is often the case. So if this is even acknowledged it may be worth having a look at all steam store prices for adjusting.

So what I'm saying is that a price reduction to make all 'Rage' Steam store pages reflect a $29.99USD cost (or cheaper even, but maybe that's asking for too much) would be greatly appreciated.


I'm not sure if this message will even get across to those in-charge of this kind of stuff, I can only hope. If there's a more appropriate place for this, or maybe even a place which will be more likely noticed, I would appreciate being directed there.

get it from amazon or ebay.. just a suggestion

I did mention this,


Plus, simply ignoring such an issue because there's another alternative isn't always the best idea. This really should just be sorted.

Before you buy (if you end up doing it), could you please tell us what graphics card you have and what your system specs are?

Sure,

Graphics: Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
Processor: Intel Core 2 6700 @ 2.66GHz (I will be getting an old-ish quad core (I can't remember what model it is exactly, though it is Intel) from a friend, which is 2.4GHz but I intend to overclock it to 3.0GHz)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
RAM: 4GB
Motherboard: Intel Corporation D975XBX2

Good thing you have an nVidia card. Many of the drivers ATi released for their Radeon cards were broken with Rage (the newest drivers should be working fine), but GeForce cards should have no issues.

Anyways make sure your motherboard supports the quad core and that the CPU is stable when overclocked

Go to the gamestop website. I picked up the Rage anarchy edition for $9.99. Honestly I felt $9.99 was decent price for it. I think I would have been angry with myself if I paid anymore for what i got. Steam sometimes has good deals but other times an unpopular game will hold a high pricetag for a long while before it drops in price.

We (Australians) don't have Gamestop, we have EB Games, where the prices are also quite high (though I will admit I was surprised to see Rage for $28.00 when I looked on the website). Anyway, it's all well and good to buy from somewhere else, but like I said, the price really should just be reduced on Steam. I think the case is probably that the Australian store page has simply been forgotten about. I don't imagine Bethesda really expect anyone to actually pay the full $89.99 on Steam when there is cheaper alternatives if you have a bit of a look around.

Also keep in mind the game is fairly big in file size.. ~22 GB's, and considering how the average internet speed in Australia isn't that good, it would be probably be best for you to avoid a digital download.

Our speeds aren't actually that horrible (well, providing you're on ADSL+2, which is fairly standard these days I think, at least for heavy internet users), compared to some connections in other countries they're not great but they do the job. I've downloaded many large games without issue, it might just take several hours, which I'm fine with because I can just download it in the background/while I'm asleep.

The main issue with the internet is Australia I believe is download quotas, resulting in capped speeds. This isn't a problem for me personally though, I'm fortunately on an unlimited download+upload plan.

Could you not go to the gamespot website and order it? You would still be paying alot less then the 30 bucks for it off steam. I also notice that gamespot sells the download for 20 bucks. which makes no [censored]in sense. Sell the disk for 9.99 but sell the download for 20! Still cheaper then steam or any other source atm.

http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/rage/75621

If there aren't any GameStop stores in Australia they'd have to mail it to him.. which could get very expensive.

Physical copies from America are a no-go like xaxxiron777 has mentioned, the shipping just ends up being far too much, probably about as much as it'd be buying it off Steam.

For testing purposes, I just added a digital copy of Rage to my cart on the US Gamestop site like you suggested, surprisingly I can actually buy it from the US store it would seem, however it appears to have added $70 to the price tag (making it $89.99).

But yeah, while I appreciate the suggestions, this thread isn't really about looking for other places to buy Rage, it's about having the Steam store price adjusted. I'll know where to go in the event it isn't adjusted, but I just plea to Bethesda that it is.

Could you have someone in a country where the steam price is sensible buy the game and gift it to you on steam? Then you could pay them back via PayPal?

Edit: forget that. Apparently it is against the steam rules to try and bypass regional pricing and can lead to the account being disabled.

Its not just RAGE though. Australians are charged roughly 2x that of Americans for software, apparently because the company can charge that. Which really p1$$3$ me off as why should we be chraged more just because it was the whim of a company. The problem is that everyone has followed suit, and Bethesda having this at that price really is not going to change because that's just the way it works. I found out that when Duke Nukem was released, it was going for around $40 in America, but here it wsa $80 or $90. People can claim this is because of differences in currency, but at that point we were roughly even. And before last year, the American dollar has always been stronger, yet we are still charged more.

It's crap, but you can't do anything about it. Just have to look elsewhere

I'm completely aware with how often we Australian's are constantly [censored] over with ridiculous prices, and I also don't expect this to be a post which will have all publishers follow through and adjust their pricing to be universally fair. This is specifically directed at Rage for a reason. Most games, including Bethesda's, will often have their price reduced a while after release (it's usually doesn't take 9 months for the Australian price to be adjusted though). I'm just trying to get the Rage page looked at so maybe Bethesda will realise that the price is still that high. Maybe that's even a little too optimistic, but I figure it's worth a try.

Unfortunately, Bethesda don't exactly set the best example in this area anyway, because they normally continue to have the AU price higher than the US price even after adjustment, though it's at least a bit more reasonable than $89.99, and there's not a $60 difference.

Just curious. Did you actually see how much it would cost to have it shipped to from the gamestop website? I can`t see it being that much. I got my copy of tw2 from germany and the shipping was only like 3-5 bucks and had it within a week. Austrailia is on their shipping list.

It's actually the best thing consumers can do. Steam continues to get away with it because people keep buying their games at insulting prices, nobody can force them to have region-free pricing.

How can they possibly justify a price by region for a download? Something don`t seem right about that. Is my 30 US dollars worth more then your australian 30 US dollars? Do yourself a favor and wait till your local game store has the game on clearance in the 10 dollar and under bin.

I didn't actually try, I'd probably do a bit more looking around at other closer retailers before I decide to ship from America anyway.


Steam doesn't decide the prices on their store, publishers do, and evidently many take advantage of the fact that some people are willing to pay $89.99 because they know no better.




Yeah that's what it looks like I'm going to have to do at this rate. Though I doubt I'll see Rage in an Australian retail store for $10 (even on sale) for a while. What I've normally done with over-priced games (that I can't find cheaper anywhere else, even from other digital distributors) is ship them in from the UK. It's cheaper but I have to wait a little longer for it to arrive.

This is something the Australian government is investigating with an inquiry later this year,they're looking into the pricing disparity for online goods there compared to elsewhere in the world.

From what I understand they are aware of Apple, Microstoft and Adobe but have made no mention of the likes of Steam or Bethesda, if you can rally more information I'd make sure that the later are included also. The Australian government has already taken legal action against Apple for an unrelated case, so who knows.

Yeah I've heard about this, though Steam itself does not need mention - this pricing is not Steam's doing (hell, Valve have always priced their games fairly), but rather the publishers.

Anyway, while that is partially relevant, it still doesn't explain the $89.99 price tag after 9 months since Rage's release. Prices will often be lowered, even in Australia, after a few months (though more often than not the AU price is still more than the US).

Simple answer is smaller market and shipping dictate retail shop prices, publishers can't undercut those that stock physical copies. There will be a time period, online prices will adjust accordingly.

If they want people to stock physical copies then they need to take into account the extra costs, of course businesses tend to mark up slightly where an opportunity to do so arises on top of that. Some publishers won't, some will, typically the smaller releases have a smaller retail base so it is less of an issue.

Re Steam, I'm aware Steam aren't party to what publishers charge per region, but they are the distributing service so I don't see how they get off without mention.