Something fishy going on with prices.
Blizzard Gear Store NA has Small World of Warcraft Board Game for $59.99USD.
Blizzard Gear Store AU has Small World of Warcraft Board Game for $109.00AUD.
But converting AUD ($109) to USD is $79.07.
I can get the board game shipped from the US gear store for $93.44 USD ($128.81 AUD) but to buy it from the AU gear store and get it shipped will be $159.95AUD.
Is Activition / Blizzard targeting Australians with higher prices on purpose ?
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That’s the question! I doubt they are doing anything that would result in a legal situation and I’ve never run a company at all let alone a company the size of Blizz so there may be more to the pricing than meets the eye 
Maybe something changed recently outside the realm of WoW gaming that we don’t know about.
Like my favorite case company CaseLabs went out of business a while back because the cost of aluminum went up. I’m sure Blizz isn’t concerned about the cost of metals but what if there was something else? It doesn’t seem reasonable to me to say “Blizz bad” when I don’t know the entire story
I fully understand the arguments about “but muh exchange rate”, but if that really was an issue then they would go back to only offering a USD price for the service, then we could adjust accordingly and “muh exchange rate” would be dealt with by the banks.
Now on to the big reason would be the optics, Activision Blizzard had record profits in 2020, they have only last year or the year before just increased the services by a HUGE amount and the exchange rate, while low, hasn’t really changed in the last 5 years dramatically and they decide now is the time that they need to ‘increase the cost’, in the middle of a global pandemic (I guess they are “striking while the iron is hot”, which is even further reason for the poor optics). I can bet you should the dollar go up they won’t be doing any “adjustments”.
On top of that they have been adding more and more stuff to a micro transaction store in a game with an ever increasing monthly sub, that I have to pay a 3 yearly update for (which they had plans to increase the expansion cycle) and it just feels like the soul of the game is gone and all that is left is a nickle-and-dime activision machine that doesn’t give a care about its customers and only care about the money.
Regarding OCE being a ‘second class citizen’, almost on a daily basis I am in a position where these issues are a pertinent issue; there is constant lag all over the place (and sometimes is zone specific), the calendar issue is SUPER confusing and how have they not fixed it by now, although the other issues listed don’t really bother me that much.
The thing is, and this is the reason I think most people are complaining (and is valid despite many claiming otherwise), is that the value proposition is just getting less and less as the price goes up (along with yes, everything else) so it comes down to, do I really want to spend 20 bucks a month on a game where I only spend a few hours a week playing? at $16.50 it was reasonable, at $20 I just don’t find it reasonable (I said the same thing about the services increase, I generally don’t purchase services now unless they are on sale for that reason) and so that’s why once my newly renewed 6 month sub expires, i’m going to cancel my sub likely indefinitely (I was already umming and ahhhing over whether I even wanted to keep playing, this just pushed it over the edge).
At the end of the day, if people aren’t happy with the decision, they will vote with their feet, no matter how “reasonable” the decision.
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Its changed twice now over those 15 years amd the complaint is that the Aussie was the only one hit by the change in the whole oce region. Countries like NZ, Ind, PI have an even lower $ conversion rate and remain unaffected
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You should be more cynical about this. Using AUS as a test bed to see what happens when they increase the price of sub. I would expect a time maybe next summer for the sub to go up for everyone as they claim costs and letting us know that it hasnt been raised in 16 years and how good a value we had.
As a canadian, I sympathize. but I got over my outrage ??? years ago when the price went up for us too.
For reference I think I pay $18.50 or something for 1 month if i don’t get a bulk deal. Wow tokens are $25
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It’s not justified because currency conversion is a thing.
I kind of feel for other countries, though, cuz the US sub price has gotten cheaper due to inflation.
NZ pays more then AUS even after the increase pretty sure wow costs 20 NZ Dollars per month which comes out to 18.92 AUD
What if I told you the subscription doesn’t make the most of this game’s income?
You know, what’s considered moral changes when things evolve. The baker needs to charge a lot to stay in business with wal-mart around the corner. Bobby kotick is a billionaire and many blizzard employees don’t make enough to support having kids.
Lets not pretend like the multiboxer ban was a major part of their sub income. It is a blimp on the radar at best…
Yeah. I mean. Something obviously changed. Blizzard used to charge people what was reasonable for their country I guess? but that flipped on it’s head and now we’re charged whatever the conversion is for what american’s are charged.
Whats even more interesting to me is that different regions of the game had different payment plans.
For example the old chinese payment plan you could buy minutes of gametime. $5 was 2700 minutes for example.
Netflix also raising prices, large corporations do one thing, make money.
It could be a test, but frankly if companies want to use the cover of the pandemic to raise prices then they can lower them back down again later when pandemic is over…oh wait, yeah silly me.
It’s not much money, but when all the companies have risen prices, all of us will be paying as these corporations will not resist the urge to play victim to Covid.
Given that they’re not adjustin’ New Zealand tae match…yeah it is. Do it across tha board evenly or donnae do it at all.
They had price increases not too long ago in Latin America countries and previously the Aussies got hit with a small increase if I recall correctly. New Zealand pays different also.
Mounts that you don’t have to buy and a terrible xmog aren’t really tipping the scales
I mean, it works out with the exchange rate.
14.99 USD = ~$20 Aussie $
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yes, schadenfreude is awesome
I think that is what happened and caused the price to go up. I am just embarrassed that I didn’t know that their currency was called dollars. I assumed they used pounds.
I think people forget Acti/Blizz is a private company, and if they REALLY wanted to, our sub would be $20-$30 overnight. What determine fair price?
We don’t NEED WoW to live, non of this is necessary. Some people forget it’s just a hobby.
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can’t speak for other states but I’ve seen a dollar increase on my sub because of tax. was 15 now its 16