Why are Video games cheaper in $ than they are in €?

[Shoat]

So, I have always been wondering: Why are prices for Video games never ... fair?

Ever since I found out that Americans only pay 15$/month for WoW (we pay 13€, which is ~17$) I have noticed that the same crap is the case with all video games.


As an example for most freshly released games:

Starcraft II US: 49$
Starcraft II EU: 42€ (~56$)

Both sold by the same guys (Amazon) to exclude "different retailers, bro" as a possible cause of the difference.

This is also the case for games not made by US developers, so it can't be just export/import costs. Japanese games and even games made by european developers have roughly the same differences in price between $ and € you see in the example.



So yeah. Why are prices not calculated directly so that it'd be fair? Why can't we pay 38€ (=49$) for our games?

Is there any reasonable explanation for that?

[Nicola]

i'm pretty sure it has to do something with the $:€ ratio changing every day.

[Shakawaka]

i'm pretty sure it has to do something with the $:€ ratio changing every day.

pretty much this

[Deleted]

Different kinds of taxes ...
In Germany video game imports are duty-free but you have to pay the VAT of 19%

49$ * 1.19 = 58,31$