75% off on Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gold Edition for $22.49 USD on Steam (Normally 89.99 USD)

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• 

  badam on 07/10/2013 - 13:05

  +5

  Great so just 80% more expensive than in the US.. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/25544/?cc=us
  Which is good as the base game is 130% more expensive http://store.steampowered.com/app/8930/?cc=us

  I love http://www.steamprices.com/ so can check when they want you to rip off. :)

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 07/10/2013 - 13:21

    This is just ridiculous ! Thanks

  • 

    bigtom_999 on 07/10/2013 - 13:21

    +1

    Hmmm can you buy the US Gold edition and apply it to your AUS account? I'll have a better time convincing my friends to buy it for $12 as opposed to $22…

    • 

      adrianwhm on 07/10/2013 - 13:40

      +1

      I have a spare key for Civ V standard. You can buy the gold upgrade for $5. Willing to trade for Magic 2014 ($5 on Steam today).

    • 

      CarbonTwelve on 07/10/2013 - 14:06

      You can try and buy from the US store with a VPN, but Valve threaten (and have in the past) closing your account if you bypass regional pricing.

      • 

        Mighty Poo on 07/10/2013 - 17:31

        Yes this is directly against the SSA.

        However, they only seem to care when you're spreading these games to other accounts and only dish out temporary store bans for first time offenders…

• 

  CarbonTwelve on 07/10/2013 - 13:07

  Hmm, ~$24 AUD for a 3yo game that doesn't even include the latest expansion pack. Not very good value IMO.

  Personally I think I still prefer Civ IV anyway…

  • 

    Mighty Poo on 07/10/2013 - 17:32

    +3

    Nah Civ V with the latest content is a much better game :)

    • 

      CarbonTwelve on 07/10/2013 - 21:00

      To each their own. I got the latest expansion a couple of weeks after release, played it for a couple of hours and then went back to Civ IV.

• 

  jv on 07/10/2013 - 13:15

  When is Civilization VI being released ?

  • 

    ioga on 08/10/2013 - 15:59

    Not for a while methinks. Civ V:BNW was launched quite recent. It is a pretty bulky DLC with some gameplay overhaul it feels like a new game in itself.

• 

  yemmy on 07/10/2013 - 13:21

  how does the steam prices work? i took a look at CIV 5 Gold and at the moment it is AU$22.49 but in pounds it works out to be $12.02.

  Does that mean I should buy it in pounds somehow?

  Sorry for the ignorant question. The link is very useful for comparing prices!

  • 

    brocky2006 on 07/10/2013 - 13:41

    +4

    it means we are paying more for the privilege of being australian

  • 

    SuperMatty on 07/10/2013 - 13:46

    +2

    Steamprices is a price comparison tool, it's not associated with Steam itself. Steam detects what region you're from and "fixes" its prices accordingly. Australia commonly gets a worse deal than US or UK customers, due to REASONS(tm).

    Sometimes you can buy "legit" steam keys for better-than-Australian prices through third parties like Greenman Gaming, GamersGate, Amazon etc - but your mileage may vary, as those storefronts will sometimes also detect your region and mess with the prices they offer you. In my experience, once you've actually obtained a steam key, it will activate on steam regardless of what region you're coming from - I don't think the keys themselves are fixed to any location.

    For example, I've found that Greenman Gaming often has better deals on Steam games than Steam itself, but in some cases they had to give in to pressure from certain publishers to "fix" their prices just like Steam does. Here's a story related to that… http://games.on.net/2013/01/green-man-gaming-takes-one-for-t…

    The whole thing is a crazy web of old-school bricks'n'mortar game shop businesses and their long-standing deals with major publishers, clashing with grey import laws and the completely different landscape of digital-only sales. Super-fun.

    • 

      CarbonTwelve on 07/10/2013 - 14:10

      It's great that GMG have that 30% off coupon, but typically that only brings the price to being level with the US pricing, and you can only use one coupon which means you still lose out compared to other regions who can use prices. Don't take this as me having a go at GMG, it's just that their 'solution' still doesn't really solve the issue.

      • 

        SuperMatty on 07/10/2013 - 14:25

        I agree - I wasn't presenting it as a solution, just as a "here's some further reading" example of the workaround shenanigans that happen as a result of these arbitrary restrictions.

        I'd also note that although this isn't the solution, I give GMG some respect for bothering to do anything at all about it - I suspect a lot of others would have cried "too hard", rolled over and done nothing.

      • 

        CarbonTwelve on 07/10/2013 - 14:35

        Yeah, I realise you weren't presenting it as a solution, and I agree that it's great that GMG are making an effort. It's just still a stupid situation and hopefully the government's efforts regarding regional pricing will extend to games as well.

      • 

        SuperMatty on 07/10/2013 - 15:34

        Yep, the recent-ish IT pricing enquiry had some encouraging recommendations, although of course they're not exactly law…. yet :)

        Nice to see that, in theory at least, they approve of grey imports and bypassing geoblocking - something that geeks and bargain hunters have been doing for a while now, but its legal status was always pretty… err… grey.

        I haven't been keeping up with the story for the last few months so I dunno if it's progressed past the "recommendation" stage. Even so, they add some weight to the argument of what's "reasonable" for an Australian consumer.

        More info for those interested: http://www.choice.com.au/consumer-action/consumer-protection…

      • 

        Alsoar on 07/10/2013 - 17:04

        GMG says they hate price gouging Australians and takes one for the team, yet they'll cancel your order and keep your money if you even dare try to use a vpn or proxy to bypass their regional pricing. http://www.greenmangaming.com/terms-and-conditions/

        Though our parliamentary committee recommends us to find ways to bypass regional restrictions http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-29/geo-blocking-mps-commi…

      • 

        SuperMatty on 07/10/2013 - 18:02

        Yes it sounds harsh, although I expect that all digital vendors have similar language in their terms and conditions. Whether they enforce them is another thing entirely - I don't have any hard data on that. That's one of the problems with this situation - the marketplace for digital goods is a black box that very few people have access to analyse the raw figures.

        What we do know is that vendors like GMG have to please both consumers and the publishers whose games they sell.

        It would not surprise me if many of the major publishers require their vendors to show that they make some effort to deter people from bypassing regional restrictions - just as they require regional price-fixing in the first place. If that means including an extra line in your terms and conditions that you barely ever enforce, so be it.

        I have no evidence for this, but I get the feeling a lot of vendors of digital goods will frequently turn a blind eye to such things as bypassing regional restrictions, as long as the buyer is doing it for "personal use" (as opposed to faking their region and then buying 100 gift copies of something that are clearly intended for passing onward, possibly at some small profit). The average consumer doesn't know much about region bypassing so it's a relatively small number of "problem" customers, and if the vendor is still making a profit out of the sale, in many cases it's probably not worth chasing them up.

        On the other hand, if consumers become more geoblocking-savvy, maybe the vendors will start to care. Of course, these are all educated guesses because none of us actually knows what happens.

        The ABC story you link to is about the same enquiry as the story I linked to. If those recommendations become law, things could change quite a lot. I'm not holding my breath though - these things always seem to take a lot of time. Still, I thought it was an encouraging result.

        In summary: complex situation, not much analytical data, unclear laws. Confusing and frustrating!

  • 

    badam on 07/10/2013 - 14:05

    You have many options check this site http://coflash.com/steam/ to see how many.
    I bought Xcom Enemy Unknown via Gamersgate (a bit early as Amazon then had a whole Xcom bundle promotion for same 10 dollars)
    As an EU citizen I find prices of games a rip off here and EU prices are mostly higher than US as well. But its different as you pay more just because of taxes mostly (usually 35% more compared to US price)

    And yes brocky2006 is right. As long as people are willing to pay high price, companies will ask you the highest they can, that is just how the system works if there is no real competition.

• 

  dirtybird on 07/10/2013 - 14:28

  +1

  Well I ended up grabbing the upgrade, thx.

• 

  Thaal Sinestro on 07/10/2013 - 17:25

  This is a deal since there is a big discount over the base, massively marked up AU price.

  However, it is better to wait until Amazon has Civ5 on sale again. They were selling the latest DLC for $15 US about 2 months ago. If you can wait until after XMas…