Complaint about pre-order costs. Europeans are paying 33% more than americans.

[Kaluro]

Hello Rift community,

I'd like to file an official complaint about the pre-order costs.
In advance I'd like to ask all americans that will just troll this topic or to call me a whiner, to stay out. Thanks.

If you look at the pre-order page:

https://www.riftgame.com/en/products/

It's
$59.99 For americans
€59.99 For europeans
£ 39.99 for British

Now, what seems off here?
Currencies have their own values and costs are adjusted accordingly.
If you look at the GBP, it's nicely 39.99, as it's worth more than the dollar. Nicely scaled down.
Now you look at the euro; and they didnt even bother scaling it down, even though the euro is worth so much more than the dollar.
Why bother scaling one currency down accordingly, but not the other?

Lets look:
$59.99 = €44
€59.99 = $80

Us europeans, are effectively paying 80!!! USD for a single game.
80/(59.99/100)= 133% .. we are paying 33% or 1/3rd of the price MORE for the game than americans...

£39.99 = $63.4561

See the british pounds? that HAS been nicely scaled down to accomodate currency value differences. They only pay 3 dollar more, compared to a staggering 30!! dollar us europeans pay extra.

So I would like to ask to scale the costs down for europeans to meet the currency value differences, as this is just awkward and unfair.

Thank you for reading this.

~kaluro

p.s. imagine how us europeans are probably going to end up paying 33% extra for gametime as well.
p.p.s. We got an answer from Trion:

I can understand that you are unhappy with the price difference shown on the website but the current price for Rift in Euros has been set to be competitive with other major titles in the region and is not intended to be exactly equivalent with US prices. I apologize for any confusion in this matter.

This is pure lies though. Other games are around 40-45 euro for collectors editions and around 35 euro for regular games. All the games I have purchased over the past year or two, have never exceeded 45 euro. The regular games have all been 35 euro. I am from the Netherlands and I always got my games at webshops, no retailer involved.

Yeah if you go to a local store, of course you're gonna pay 50 euro for a game, but a digital copy of the game =/= a retail box.
I'd honestly be surprised if anyone ever paid more than ~35 euro for their games over the past years. Or more than 45 for collectors editions, here in europe.

Can we get a decent answer Trion?

[Over My Head]

/signed

I pre-ordered anyway, but I also found the prices to be quite unreasonable compared to each other.

[Kaluro]

The most awkward part is that they disciminate between currencies.
They adjusted the GBP prices accordingly, but not the Euro.

I am confused as to why they would actively discriminate the euro.

[Odaman]

Our currency sucks, trion has to make up for it somehow. I've heard the excuse that the VAT attributes to the euros having to pay so much, but as an american I wouldn't know. It sucks regardless.

[HeadHunter]

are you getting your salary as €? so there is no problem. EU VAT also higher then US VAT that is why.

[BlowFish]

On the bright side they are not imposing restrictions on where you buy or in what currency. Vote with your wallet! Agree though, poor show.

[Zolotaya]

I am going to quote another that put it better then I can.

Taxes. In America there is no national sales tax. Many states do have sales tax and they are added on AFTER the sales price. So, if you buy in California you pay the list price PLUS 8%. In Europe we have HUGE sales tax (VAT) and by law its bundled into the sales price so our prices include 20 to 25% VAT. Our EU governments also demand that the seller collects an import fee (also bundled in). I'm not saying either system is right or wrong but... America has low taxes and low services. In EU we have high taxes and lots of services.

[Aseir]

are you getting your salary as €? so there is no problem. EU VAT also higher then US VAT that is why.

EU VAT is 25% at most.

Fail argument. :P

Of course there are translation costs (french/german), but it IS possible to pay the US price as a european.

[Schall]

People have been complaining about this in video game sales for a long time. It's not just Trion.

I would say that comparisons in currency value do not determine prices of products internationally in anything.

The only way a purchase in Euros gets a discount like that is when a product valued in the other nations currency is imported. Because the product is valued in Euros (European publisher) this does not occur. The European publisher instead prices based on the video game market in Europe.

If Euro players had to purchase the game from America (like if the game were unavailable in Europe), then a currency exchange would occur, giving them the desired result. But they don't, there's a Euro publisher.

It's just facts of life.

[Khrux]

Didn't community reps comment on this already about VAT being applicable for Europeans? Still doesn't make sense to me but I've preorder so **** all I do about it now anyway.

Monthly subs are another matter tho!

[ZootCadillac]

It's the same thing with every game and product launch every year. Complaints that Europe pays more.
In a sense we do but everything that costs you more in the EU costs someone more to make.
Production, distribution, wages, taxes etc. All these costs are higher for the company in a different market.
The company are charged higher taxes in the EU for their sales. In order to make the same profit per unit in the EU as they do from US sales they simply have to charge more because a bigger chunk goes in taxes and production/distribution costs.
Couple that with a weak dollar meaning deflation in the EU and consumer spending then causing higher pricing means that the EU prices can't compare like-for-like on the exchange.
two different markets require two different pricing structures.
This applies just as much to digital products as retail boxed units.
It's never been any different and has been the same since western economies have been based upon monetarism.
If you want things to cost the same then you are going to need a single economic market and global currency.


That's not happening in your lifetime

[Zenith]

Just avoid the digital edition, and wait for the box, the digital editions are always a rip off. The retail box will be almost £10 cheaper!

[GhundiPI]

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with VAT laws. The US Direct2Drive version of Rift charges you around $80 when trying to order with an EU D2D account, while the UK version of D2D keeps the price at £39.99. Do not ask me about the price differences between the £ and €, just make use of it and order from D2D UK, which will cost you around €48.

As for subscription costs, those are very much in line with the industry standard. And since it is very likely that the € will drop a lot more against the $ in the near future, the Founder's pricing plans are actually quite interesting.

[Roastage]

This is probably the 50th thread in the last 24 hours on the subject and the pricing has been up for weeks. Use the search button please.

There are also alot of work arounds if the few extra Euros are really going to hurt you. With all the complaining its a wonder people spending Euros have the extra funds to cover the sub fee.

[Aseir]

Didn't community reps comment on this already about VAT being applicable for Europeans? Still doesn't make sense to me but I've preorder so **** all I do about it now anyway.

Monthly subs are another matter tho!

I don't recall VAT in my country being over 30%

In fact, I recall VAT in my country to be 20%