Australian 3DS Event Set for February 8th

You're sending me to the event, right? Right?

Wish it was in Brisbane
Pretty sure this will confirm my need to import the 3Ds to i) get it early and ii) save money

I feel bad for you guys. Probably going to be 400 and 80 for the games.

pretty sure most Aussies already know to import an EU console given (as far as I understand) that they're the same region and can play the same games.

For the 4 that aren't...I hope they don't gouge you on prices as bad as they normally do I seriously can't believe how shafted you guys get price-wise....I just don't understand why. Is there some magic electronics tariff that doubles the price at the last minute or something?

Gaming-wise, I would not be able to live in Australia. And funny how you guys are just south of Japan and have to pay twice more than the US. Europe doesn't have to pay as much as you people and they're farther away from Japan too. I dunno how it goes, but it just sucks. It'd be a miracle if the 3DS' price is the same as Europe's price range. Maybe even Japan's, since I don't see the $250 happening...

The American and Australian dollar are about US$1 for AUS$1 and the 3DS is expected to be AUS$400!!! IF Nintendo did convert it from US to AUS it would be $250 here. The DSi was released at $300 in Aus same as the DSi XL but now their prices are from $240 to $280. So this could be making room for a 3DS price of around $300 to $350! (which would be awesome )

Smaller market, far away from everything, it sucks to be Australia. If I were you I'd just import everything fromthe US like Chibilink. Even with shipping, you'll probably be able to get most US games cheaper and quicker by importing. Hopefully competition from importing sites like Playasia will eventually bring lower prices.

Even though I'm likely to import from the UK I'm still interested in the date and price. If a miracle happens I might just buy it in Australia! At this event (thanks NL for covering it, you usually leave Australian stuff out) I'm more interested to see what colours we are getting. If theres no red at launch then I'm waiting until it comes out and by that time there will probbably be a price drop so its all good for me.

I don't see how small market and distance is an excuse for that much of a markup. If it's $400 that's more than the EU price PLUS conversion PLUS shipping PLUS 10% GST and that's for one unit not 100s of 1000s. Don't get me started on the US price.

Thankfully retailers are becoming increasingly aware of the import markets which means one of two things. Either they ignore it and then, as has happened a lot before even with popular items, stuff doesn't sell out OR they drop their prices (which they full well can) and compete. All I can say is... thank god for JB HiFi.

Isn't the PAL region The Europe/Australian region. So that means I could probably import from somewhere in Europe.

If it's less than ~$360AU then it's not worth importing from Europe. If it's more than $340 I'm going to be pestering big retailers for their best price.

Wow I just did the conversions and its not much cheaper in Europe. If we get it for $350 then its cheaper here. If its $400 then its not really worth the extra $10-$20 to import. Either way I'm doomed with high prices And damn the US with their $250 price and region locking.

@Skywake "I don't see how small market and distance is an excuse for that much of a markup. If it's $400 that's more than the EU price PLUS conversion PLUS shipping PLUS 10% GST and that's for one unit not 100s of 1000s. Don't get me started on the US price."

Because it's a smaller market, and logistically it's horrible. Fewer units shipped means they need to be sold at a higher price to justify selling them locally in the first place. The cost of shipping boxes to Australia, and then around Australia, is much, much more expensive than elsewhere, too.

If you think games companies gouge Australia for profit, then you're wrong. It's rougly as profitable here as it is anywhere else in the world.

That's why digitally downloadable games are sold at prices much closer to the US/ EU equivilent - slightly higher, but traditionally Australia's dollar has been weaker. Should it stay this strong, longer term the prices should normalise more.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how business works. Sucks to live in a country with just 26 million or so people, huh?

Unfortunately, for the DS at least, the game chips have (AUS). This may mean that we have no option. And when will us Kiwis find out what our price is?

@ Bobpie - about 10% more than Australia, going from history.

I am ordering my 3ds from the UK and all other aussies should do the same ninty in Australia sucks, atleast we have PAL so sorftmodding isnt too hard

Don't worry, Bobpie, it's not as bad as people make it out to be. I will probably import later games from Euroup but for the concole ill have to take the plunge and any way I have bout 500-600 US dollars stockpilled, so I'm set.

The distance between Australia and Japan is not too different from the US and Japan, both geographically and culturally speaking. Far enough that Australia would have its own separate economy from Japan, certainly.

It's too bad the computer and video games market in Australia is so small, relatively speaking. I wonder if that's one of the reasons Aussie distributors use to justify the high prices. I suppose they would have to mark up the price due to shipping and customs, but also to make up for the smaller number of eventual sales.

Shrugs I'm going with the 3DS from the US, given its $100AUD cheaper price point than the EU 3DS (& probs the same or more difference between the US 3DS & the AUS 3DS) so Nintendo Australia can price however they like, I won't be buying (unless it's cheaper or similarly priced to the US 3DS.... Hahaha )

@WaltzElf There really shouldn't be that much of a premium for shipping goods to Australia considering pretty much all of this stuff is made in China. If anything Australia is closer to China than the US and EU. Pretty much our whole economy is based on trade with China so there is no way that shipping between the two countries is that expensive.

It shouldn't be cheaper to ship a 3DS from the UK that was made in and sent in a batch from China then it costs to buy one shipped in a batch directly from China to Australia. Either someone is making a bigger profit then they should here, and I'm certain it's the retailers, or it's being done very inefficiently (i.e. they are shipping it all over the place before it gets here but... I doubt it).

and the trucking argument isn't valid. The goods are shipped to ports and people in country towns pay ANOTHER premium ontop of the high cost we already pay. Ports that are all closer to China than any other part of the western world not named Japan.

Besides, we pay the same premium on digital distribution. 1000 Nintendo Points costs $10US but $15AU a 50% premium and more if you buy said cards from some retailers, 99c iTunes Apps cost $1.19AU a 20% premium. You can't use distribution cost excuses there because I'm already paying for the higher cost of bandwidth on my end.

The only reason I can think of is that they priced it at these sort of prices when the Aussie dollar was weaker. We got used to it so they, the retailers, kept it there despite hugely reduced prices. Why do we pay more for digital distribution then? Well, same reasons. Some extra costs for servers in Australia (I don't know about Nintendo but Apple has some here) but it wouldn't make that much of a difference. How much can a <40MB download cost in bandwidth? Not $5. They get away with it so, why not?

not only does it suck that we get F!@#$ for prices, but what also sucks is that i'll probably end up buying it from here anyway, sigh lucky i have a decent part time job

Prices are set by the economy not exchange rate. What's the average hourly pay rate in the US compared to Australia?

@23 - to dismiss the points argument first - those prices were set when Australia was at a far weaker exchange rate. Again taking into account the small audience, 50% more is actually about right.

Pricing is set in US dollars or Japanese Yen, typically, so even downloads are, in fact, affected by exchange.

As for the rest - again, you're assuming the same concentration of population that the US or Europe enjoys. That just isnt the case. Logistically sending a product to a person is far more expensive than sending 100 products to 100 people within a small geography.

Supplying New York is similary far less expensive than suppling the same number of consumers in Australia - ie Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.

The entire supply chain is heavily influenced by the size and sparse population of Australia. That is fact, not my opinion.

Here, play a game for me. Set up a business that imports goods from Japan, the US or China, and try and charge the same for them as the price in the US. Just see how long you stay in business.

I'm curuious what they will charge in Australia. If it's cheap, I could import it as it is the same model as in Europe.

@WaltzElf I'm fairly sure this thread is dead now but I think you missed my initial point here. I was saying that it shouldn't cost less for me to import ONE unit, ONE 3DS, from the UK then it costs for me to buy one of the 1000s shipped directly to the Australian market.

I'm not suggesting that a small retailer in Australia could sell the 3DS for a lower cost than a major retailer sells the 3DS in the US for. Not at all. I'm just saying that, if we are going to pay $350+ and upto $400 for this, a small retailer could very well import the 3DS from the US and charge a lot less than what people are speculating it will cost here. Said 3DS would be useless here BUT there is no reason why it shouldn't be cheaper than that. The US is a larger market? Well, if I did that I'd be creating a secondary market of ONE and it'd still be cheaper.

And don't say that this is a fantasy because it is happening. Just look at how much is being stirred up about online shopping ATM. You can't tell me that those online stores aren't making a profit. Even if they are pocketing the 10% the prices are much, much lower than they should be if the retailers were pricing close to their costs. You can't tell me that their margins are't ridiculously huge.

Actually, considering I have seen Harvey Norman's books. The margins are not that high. Anywhere near it.

If anyone if gouging the market, it's Nintendo and the other vendors, but again I suggest a lot of people underestimate how expensive, relatively speaking, it is to offer products to the local market.

As for your suggestion about a small retailer importing from the US and reselling here... It does happen. It's called Grey Importing, and when you start doing that the vendors make it their mission to destroy you. It's not illegal, but vendors don't like having products they can't support hanging around in local shops.