Australian Parliament Launching Inquiry Into Australian Game Prices

It’s no news to anyone living in Australia that games are incredibly expensive here in comparison to overseas, which causes a lot of Australian gamers to import. The Australian Government will be asking a number of video game publishers why this happens as part of a new inquiry into the price of music and game downloads.

Parliament, which has invited software publishers such as Apple and Microsoft, is hoping the publicity generated will cause prices in Australia to drop.

Games in Australia are often ‘price gouged,’ forcing consumers to seek alternate forms of purchase such as CD Key stores and import services such as Amazon. Fallout New Vegas, for example, was priced $47.71 AUD on launch when using a US Steam account, but set Australians using an AU Steam account back $85.85 AUD, which is a whopping difference of $38.14.

The inquiry is set to take place later on in the year.

[Sydney Morning Herald]