(edited by lazlo.9238)
Expansion more expensive in the u.k ?
Most probably you should compare the euro to dollar exchange rate and the dollar to pound rate .Would believe Anet set base price in dollars not pounds or euros and convert accordingly.
It has to do with VAT (value added tax) which isn’t included in the dollar price but is included in the European prices.
It’s nothing to do with VAT otherwise the game would be more expensive in places like Sweden or Hungary for example. The Vat rate in Sweden is 5% higher than that in the Uk, yet the game (base) is £3 more expensive in the uk.
Price in US $99.95. Lets call it $100 for ultimate as an example
$100=£64…. Game is £80 in uk. Difference to U.s price= €22.5
$100=€90…. Game is €100 anywhere in eu. Difference to U.s price= €10
Why ?
(edited by lazlo.9238)
Its because the EU can’t settle on a kitten currency, a set of rules, or even a common mind set. Even excluding VAT from the pricing, every game I’ve seen that used fixed pricing in a region had obvious disparities between places that use pounds vs euros.
I imagine part of this has to do with distribution rights in areas, as many US publishers are either required to, or at least favor using a 3rd party distributor who operates in the region. I don’t think this is the first time this has been an issue with an NCSoft game….. but its much more obvious now that VAT has drawn a lot of attention toward the relative price of games and in-game cash shops.
Price points also play a factor
EU has to pay VAT on digital purchases, USA does not, so we pay 20~25% more, yes.
You can get around this by asking a trusted USA friend to purchase a key for you, and paypaling the funds to them, though.
Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.
Yeah, it was a lot simpler when the law was that the Vat was applied in the country from which the product was sold. Now since January it applies in the country that the purchase was made and it’s an absolute shambles.
Even key sellers like g2a ask you at checkout now which country you are from and apply the Vat rate accordingly. Or you can just click the ‘i am not from the eu’ button and get it Vat free. It just seems to have been a dummy spitting excersise at Apple (luxembourg), leaving the rest of the digital media world in a kind of unregulated limbo
EU has to pay VAT on digital purchases, USA does not, so we pay 20~25% more, yes.
You can get around this by asking a trusted USA friend to purchase a key for you, and paypaling the funds to them, though.
Yes this is true. I’m not griping about the price U.s>U.k because this has always existed, just the disparity between the Uk and the rest of europe.
EU has to pay VAT on digital purchases, USA does not, so we pay 20~25% more, yes.
You can get around this by asking a trusted USA friend to purchase a key for you, and paypaling the funds to them, though.
Yes this is true. I’m not griping about the price U.s>U.k because this has always existed, just the disparity between the Uk and the rest of europe.
probably something to do with pound to euro conversion rate fees, as we have to pay through digital river Ireland, who deal in euro, not pounds.
Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.
The Euro has been falling against the dollar for at least the last year, but if you’re going to look at the graphs and pick an average, something between 1.17 and 1.2 seems about right. The european VAT rates also fluctuate between 17% and 27% depending on where you are in europe.
Arenanet still have to pay the full VAT on each digital sale, but I would imagine that in order to simplify things, and avoid having to have a different Euro price for each european country, that Anet decided to pick an average VAT rate of 20%, or maybe they just went with the lowest at 17%.
Either way, as the exchange rate difference is also at 17% to 20%, it is logical to use the same price brackets for EUR as USD.
$49.99 / 1.2 = €41.66 * 1.2 = €49.99
$74.99 / 1.2 = €62.49 * 1.2 = €74.99
$99.99 / 1.2 = €83.33 * 1.2 = €99.99
The UK/USD “average” exchange rate has been around 1.5 for quite some time.
$49.99 / 1.5 = £33.33 * 1.2 = £39.99
$74.99 / 1.5 = £49.99 * 1.2 = £59.99
$99.99 / 1.5 = £66.66 * 1.2 = £79.99
Once you take VAT into consideration, it actually seems that the Standard Edition for UK players has been discounted for some reason.
So yes, using the current exchange rate (as of today) ‘some’ Europeans are getting a better deal that the UK players. However exchange rates change constantly and it is not reasonable to expect product prices to change along with them.
When you look at average rates and VAT rates, it all seems to work out pretty logically TBH, well, other than the strange UK discount on the standard edition.
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Table Warfare Miniatures - Armatures, Custom Miniatures, Moulds etc.
Table Warfare Miniatures - Armatures, Custom Miniatures, Moulds etc.
(edited by Kaz.5430)
Expansion more expensive in the u.k ?
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: The Comfy Chair.7265
You can drive yourself insane constantly comparing the price of games across different markets. However, in the end, the UK and Europe usually don’t fare too badly for the most part. When taxes are added to the US prices, they tend to end up about the same as the UK/EU prices anyway (which include their respective taxes). It’s Australia that gets screwed over.