I was working on this a few weeks ago after I purchased Fire Emblem: Awakening for £39.99 on the eShop. I noticed on the NL page, the US price is $39.99. Now I'm no expert at exchange rates, but I know that isn't right! So after finding the prices I paid for all of my eShop purchases and comparing them to the US prices I found out some interesting facts:
First of all I'd spent £300 on the eShop... Even more frustrating as someone stole my 3DS after completing this research (If anyone has a MHU3 Recommendation code going )
eShop games are on average 28% cheaper on the US eShop and 22% cheaper on the Japanese eShop when compare to the UK eShop
Overall, I spent £78.35 more on the UK eShop compared to if I'd bought the same games through the US eShop, £52.27 on the Japanese eShop for the same games
Fire Emblem Awakening is 34% cheaper in the US and 22% cheaper in Japan.
Now these facts are based on the prices of games and the exchange rate when I originally put this spreadsheet together about 2 or 3 weeks ago.
I thought it would be worthwhile sending this information to Nintendo of Europe. So I put together the facts, attached the spreadsheet (I have a copy available if anyone is interested?) and sent it to NoE customer services. Last week I received a response.
I'll summarise the response because I don't think Nintendo like you sharing exactly what they've sent you. Basically they said thank you for the feedback, they can't explain the significant differences, they went on to explain the difference between digital and cartridge, talked about the Club Nintendo points a little but did say they would forward the information to the marketing department.
Should we all expect a eShop Europe price crash? Probably not.
I've noticed this too, I really hoped New Leaf would be €35 here.. Though I think it partialy has to do with the fact that there are far more different languages in EU. Many 3DS owners only speak French, Dutch, German, Italian or spanish. All these games have to be translated because a lot of smaller children own the system and don't speak english. My copy of Luigi's Mansion has dutch translations and it takes a lot of time and devotion to translate something like that. I wish I'd bought an American 3DS though. They should have just made the damn thing region free..
3DS Friendcode: 2234-7361-0146
NNID: Soddard
3DS Friend Code: 2234-7361-0146 | Nintendo Network ID: Soddard
Translation and higher taxes are the killer here.
However, certain companies need to do more to price fairly. $1 should not always equal 1€, only on cheap games.
When Fire Emblem is near enough $60 in the UK, there's a problem.
No one uses exchange rates when pricing in different regions. This point is moot.
No one is saying they should use exchange rates. The point is that the gulf in price often reaches unfair levels.
Though Australians and New Zealanders are worse hit by this.
Hence why I got a North American DS >.<
Not even physical copies of imports are safe over here in Australia. $60 for both 3DS and DS games at reatail? Yeah right.
Stay safe, kids: Make sure to save frequently during multiplayer, and always use a stylus!
No one uses exchange rates when pricing in different regions. This point is moot.
No one is saying they should use exchange rates. The point is that the gulf in price often reaches unfair levels.
Though Australians and New Zealanders are worse hit by this.
Oh my gosh yes this. New releases retail here for $90NZD here! Do you know how much that is? well helluva lot more than everyone else pays. But I'm getting Animal Crossing soon and the cheapest i've seen it for was $68 NZD, which is much fairer.
My Nintendo Network ID: NinLiferOMB
Currently Playing: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity (3DS) The Denpa Men 2: Beyond The Waves (eShop) My Backloggery
3DS FC: 2320 6151 3634
Email me at [email protected]...
3DS Friend Code: 2320-6151-3634 | Nintendo Network ID: NinLiferOMB
No one is saying they should use exchange rates. The point is that the gulf in price often reaches unfair levels.
Though Australians and New Zealanders are worse hit by this.
Oh my gosh yes this. New releases retail here for $90NZD here! Do you know how much that is? well helluva lot more than everyone else pays. But I'm getting Animal Crossing soon and the cheapest i've seen it for was $68 NZD, which is much fairer.
No one uses exchange rates when pricing in different regions. This point is moot.
No one is saying they should use exchange rates. The point is that the gulf in price often reaches unfair levels.
Though Australians and New Zealanders are worse hit by this.
Different regions have different taxes and currency inflation. Expecting the price to be the same across the world is simply a pipe dream that will never happen unless we have a unified world economy.
Current games: Everything on Switch
Switch Friend Code: SW-5075-7879-0008 | My Nintendo: LzWinky | Nintendo Network ID: LzWinky
No one uses exchange rates when pricing in different regions. This point is moot.
No one is saying they should use exchange rates. The point is that the gulf in price often reaches unfair levels.
Though Australians and New Zealanders are worse hit by this.
Different regions have different taxes and currency inflation. Expecting the price to be the same across the world is simply a pipe dream that will never happen unless we have a unified world economy.
Who expects the price to be the same? Kiwis should not have to pay $65-90 for games. I'm not saying they should pay the same, no one is; you're misinterpreting the message. But $90? Are they serious?
Well. Up here in Norway digital is cheaper Thon physical. A physical game can easely cost around 600 kr ( around 100$ us)
While digital retail games costs around 300 - 370 kr.ca 60 $ us.
Well. Up here in Norway digital is cheaper Thon physical. A physical game can easely cost around 600 kr ( around 100$ us)
While digital retail games costs around 300 - 370 kr.ca 60 $ us.
What????? Here in neighbour land Holland games are are around 30 Euro (40 dollar) in webshops like shop4nl.com. or wowhd or zavvi.com.
The last two have a 1 to 4 weeks delivery time.
I am considered to be in poorest layer of society and i can easely buy 3 new games a month.
Well. Up here in Norway digital is cheaper Thon physical. A physical game can easely cost around 600 kr ( around 100$ us)
While digital retail games costs around 300 - 370 kr.ca 60 $ us.
What????? Here in neighbour land Holland games are are around 30 Euro (40 dollar) in webshops like shop4nl.com. or wowhd or zavvi.com.
The last two have a 1 to 4 weeks delivery time.
I am considered to be in poorest layer of society and i can easely buy 3 new games a month.
I am not poor, I can also afford thee physical games if I want to. The reason the prices are so high is that Norway is a rich land. On a normal vacation my family usualy has every year, I can afford up to five-six games.
(Within reason - A full Neo Geo AES collection would be out of my reach - but them at the original RRP of £250 I could afford the ones I want.)
I won't put up with any 50hz stuff any longer.
(So means eventually I will get a US Wii U - Already got a US VPS that I use to get US Netflix when I need to. I might use one of those US unlocked virtual credit cards).
If I want physical I will probably get it from Play-Asia.
(Only slight worry is what happens if my US Wii U needs fixing for whatever reason. Losing a few eshop downloads doesn't matter but losing £1000 worth of content is not something I particularly want to do and the US eshop prices are closer to UK retail with no money going to game.co.uk (Who I won't buy from under any circumstances)).
“30fps Is Not a Good Artistic Decision, It's a Failure”
Freedom of the press is for those who happen to own one.
Yeah, I know a lot of you guys don't like him, but Michael Pachter actually brought up this issue on a recent episode of Pach-Attack.
There were actually a few factors as to why this is, but the one that stuck the most out, was that since exchange rates fluctuate on pretty much a daily basis, it's simply not reliable to price games based on them, and it allows companies to operate their business' much more smoothly when a game has a uniform number attached to it worldwide.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Yeah, I know a lot of you guys don't like him, but Michael Pachter actually brought up this issue on a recent episode of Pach-Attack.
There were actually a few factors as to why this is, but the one that stuck the most out, was that since exchange rates fluctuate on pretty much a daily basis, it's simply not reliable to price games based on them, and it allows companies to operate their business' much more smoothly when a game has a uniform number attached to it worldwide.
Uniform number attached to the game worlwide? if that was an issue then the number would be the same no matter the currency, Australian eshop woudl be 39.99 AUD instead of 69.99 and Mexican eshop would 39.99 pesos which would be virtually free....... It has nothing to do with number uniformity it has to do with stupid Nintendo prefering to protect local retailers from competitions from digital sales than make money by offering games to customers at reasonable prices....... If you think about it there is no reasons digital pricing should vary by region the factors such as size of the market, import duties, ect that make games to be more expensive in some regions do not apply to digital sales..... currency conversion is not an issue because that's something banks handle Nintendo would get its money in whatever currency it wishes
Forums
Topic: eShop Prices in Europe
Posts 1 to 17 of 17
This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.