Prominent and longstanding Fairfax Media blogger Jason Hill has outlined the current issues surrounding Aussie videogame prices.
Hill predicts that recent reports indicating that Amazon may be about to open up shop in Australia will lead to increased pressure on publishers to reduce the RRP on their games. Amazon does currently ship to Australia, just not videogames at publishers' requests.
Hill told MCV: "For the past six years Screen Play has been campaigning for a fair-go in regards to game pricing in this country because readers have overwhelmingly and repeatedly voiced their frustration."
"Many say they would prefer to support local distributors and retailers but cannot justify the discrepancy between imports and locally-sourced games. It is disappointing that few gaming distributors will even acknowledge that there is a problem."
The legitimising of grey importing by such online retail services as Harvey Norman Direct Imports has been of some concern for the pricing situation in Australia, and its likely that tension would only increase if as reputable a site as Amazon were to reach our shores.
Hill goes on to outline some of the notably reduced prices of such upcoming games as Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Lollipop Chainsaw and Dragon's Dogma as evidence that prices are indeed starting to drop.
Whether or not the lowered prices on these titles are part of a wider move remains to be seen. The Amazon news follows on from reports by Crikey that a parliamentary inquiry is soon to be led into pricing in the IT sector in general.
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