Friday with Means - November 18th, 2011 - Agent Document vs 1.2

[Mastablasta]

Hey Means,
There is one question from Darkripper I was really interested about your answer, but I havent found it.

1- When are you going to fix the price difference between Euro and US Dollar?

While Americans pay 14.99$ Europeans pay 17.19€.
17.19 EUR = 23.6401 USD
14.99 USD = 10.8988 EUR

I really dont see why europeans have to pay more, I mean ok, we look better but that cant be the real reason, so please give us an answer.

They've done some things to fix that. Like the mentioned "hardcore pack" does not cost more in EU countries. VAT is included. Big step forward!

[Tilli]

yes but also in Germany is no longer deserves much of the cost is 18 € are ok very much for such an old game. one means or would replace its € 1 to1 against $ I do not think

the rest is up to Europe in UK worse off

13€ is enough for Ao

[Mesa]

I dont feel like paying AO for 12 months.
Actually I dont feel like paying FC for a single month if this wont get fixed ASAP.
Its an unfair and nonserious thing FC is doing to their costumers.
And not responding to this question shows me even more how FC cares about the costumers who have played and paid AO for years.
Just fix it.

[Roswell]

Doubt you will get an explanation.. There is a thread on Steam forums, I use to follow for a while, about the exact same thing. It was started on or about January of 2008 and is rarely off the 1st page. It is to date one of the longest running player made threads with around 10k post and 1.4m views.

Not once has any employee of Steam acknowledged the thread, with the exception of banning the OP for an unknown reason. As far as I can tell it has not even been moderated.

The biggest complaint turns out not to actually be VAT. Turns out most people on the Steam forums have a pretty good understanding of how VAT factors into the price difference between games sold in the US and in Europe.

It would appear that somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.4m people are trying to figure out where this extra charge is coming from. I am guessing the exchange rate and VAT still don't add up properly. I personally don't fully understand it.

Link

EDIT

Got to reading some more of that thread and found this..

"The Commission is well aware of the fact that certain online services such as online games are often not available across the entire EU or priced differently depending on the country. While online platforms are not obliged to distribute their services for the same prices in different countries or EU-wide, such practices have recently been questioned by the European Court of Justice in the so-called Premier League Case with regard to satellite broadcasting of sports events. In this judgement the Court stated that absolute territorial exclusivity which is such as to result in artificial price differences between the partitioned national markets is irreconcilable with the fundamental aim of the Treaty, which is completion of the internal market. It is to be seen what influence this ruling, in the specific context of satellite broadcasting, will have on other business models, including online games.

In order to facilitate the development of a wide variety of consumer-friendly service offerings and the cross-border availability of creative content online, with the objective to create a true Digital Single Market, the European Commission has undertaken several initiatives, in particular, the "Digital Agenda for Europe" adopted on 19 May 2010 ( http://ec.europa.eu/information_soci...a/index_en.htm ). - Page 619 Steam

[Mastablasta]

Companies are just taking a bigger share of the pie for as long as they can. Nothing new about that at all. It's one reason why I don't ever shop new at Steam, retail is 35% cheaper on average, even when factoring in that Danish VAT is 25%, not 15 like EU VAT, and that this is a physical media that I'm buying. Even when they're steam-required products, like Rage or Deus Ex 3. Publishers, however, set their own prices on steam. So they're the ones to blame, really, not Valve.

[drakio]

I'm gonna pay my VATed Yearly subscription, ao deserve it.

Anyway why u r complaining with Means about VAT? is he Mr. Euro ? :O

[Melcom]

yes

so pls fix the euro means ^^

[Tanisthonus]

I'm not trying to support the Europeans paying more than me. I'm all for an equal price (possibly equal before VAT, I've no idea how that works.), but I wonder if continually asking Means to change it will help.

He's in charge of the game, yes, but is he also in charge of the business side? Or is there a group in the rest of Funcom that dictates this stuff.

[Cogline]

If Means can fix the game engine fixing the global economy will be a doddle. Means for Global Dictator!

[Roswell]

If Means can fix the game engine fixing the global economy will be a doddle. Means for Global Dictator!

No {stuff}!! I'd be on board with living under a Means dictatorship... You can bet you ass it would be better than anything we have now.

[Mesa]

I'm gonna pay my VATed Yearly subscription, ao deserve it.

Anyway why u r complaining with Means about VAT? is he Mr. Euro ? :O

You can't blame that disparity on VAT alone, if we take the estimate from above

14.99 USD = 10.8988 EUR

and add 20% VAT we get to about 13.08 EUR, put this back into USD and we get 17.99. So why are we europeans paying (23.64-17.99) 5.65 USD/4.11 EUR above VAT more than those able to pay in USD?

Never thought there was such a difference till i read these last few posts.

not cool.

[Mastablasta]

I'm not trying to support the Europeans paying more than me. I'm all for an equal price (possibly equal before VAT, I've no idea how that works.), but I wonder if continually asking Means to change it will help.

He's in charge of the game, yes, but is he also in charge of the business side? Or is there a group in the rest of Funcom that dictates this stuff.

The business side is done by a different team.

[Brampfine]

15 US$ = 11,0946746 €
i stop paying 17,19€ each month
17,19 € US$ = 23,24088 U.S. Dollars

[Mastablasta]

If you pay 12 months you pay less than that ^^

[Brampfine]

i can not pay for one year
i have 100€ in month for food, car fuel and gaming

[Joralf]

If you pay 12 months you pay less than that ^^

I don't see people complaining about the discount on the different ways of paying here. I'm seeing people complaining about the difference between the EU price and the US price. You keep mentioning these deals and offers that has nothing to do with the current price difference.

People might have different reasons for not paying for a year at a time, or three months for that matter. You saying that they can go and do that, does not change the fact that there is a significant difference between the EU and US price.


Now lets hope someone that manages the prices on this game reads this part of the thread :P

[Mastablasta]

They never will comment on it something will change or nothing will change. It's probably not feasible to cut 35% of profits from europeans.

[Joralf]

I know. But they can increase US and decrease EU to a value that would make it more equal, and at the same time keep about the same level of profit.

As this discussion has been going on for a while, even before the Q&A session, it is obvious that some people are not happy about the difference. People feel like they are subsidising the US players, and after a while some will leave.

[Gaveup]

^ To that if they raised the North American monthly fee over $15 I don't see many renewing. As it is it's hard to justify the $15 a month over three accounts... did FC ever offer any discounts for keeping multiple accounts open?
In either case as Masta said as well, something will change or nothing will change; as it is spending $45 a month will most likely be the part to change to spending $0 on Funcom a month... but that has nothing to do with the financials of it really. I can say if I was playing from a EU country I wouldn't have kept three accounts open so long.

[Hunni]

I know. But they can increase US and decrease EU to a value that would make it more equal, and at the same time keep about the same level of profit.

Life isn't fair. Stop the QQ. Don't point at other people saying they should be forced to pay more because you do.

As this discussion has been going on for a while, even before the Q&A session, it is obvious that some people are not happy about the difference. People feel like they are subsidising the US players, and after a while some will leave.

People feel? I'm not sure how many people you're speaking for, but I feel the majority of the people that were going to leave because of the price difference have probably jumped ship. After all, it's been 10 years.

This is something that Means has no control over. After all these years of complaints about the inequity of the exchange rates, it's not going to be solved here.