I want to make a couple of suggestions here, and I thought a new thread was warranted to discuss possible solutions. It really is rubbish price gouging, and certainly leaves me thinking very seriously about any purchases.

What I want to know from CCP is -- what can you do about it? I get that Sony sets the prices, not you, but you are not without power. Here are a couple of options, and I am wondering if they are within your power to protect your customers:
1. Alternative purchase method -- can you make these various items available for purchase via your own Dust 514 website, and directly credit those items to our character? You seem to have this facility already, such as for the suits given with the fanfest HD purchase.
2. Offer more in the pack -- since we're being charged 50% more, can you give those AU and NZ players 50% more goods with their purchase than the similarly named US packs? Perhaps you could boost the AUR + boosters in the packs to represent the intended value?

The Australian dollar is very close to parity with the US dollar, yet we pay 50% more. That's not an insignificant markup. This is the kind of thing that your chosen partner, Sony, does. Is the excuse taxes? Higher minimum wage? Bandwidth costs? Something else? Your company has managed to sell EVE Online as a digital good and service for years to Australians without needing to do these things. I don't believe for a second that there is any excuse from Sony other than "because we can".

What can you do to court and protect an important group of your players, customers, and community?

As in my original post, I offered two possible ways that CCP could resolve this issue, on the assumption that it is not within their power to request Sony fix its prices. If it turns out Sony can request Sony fix its prices, then great! That's the perfect solution. But if not, let's focus on what CCP can do.

After all, CCP likes us, and we like CCP -- so I would like to see what our friend CCP can do to fix this problem.

And on a related note, CCP should care about this for financial reasons too. Presumably CCP has chosen the prices it did, because it thinks these are the sorts of prices that will maximise their profits -- that is, the right balance between cost per purchase, and projected number of purchases. It seems pretty clear from this thread that by charging us up to 50% more they are NOT striking that balance, and are in fact upsetting and angering potential paying customers.

Add to this the evidence (is it true? I haven't checked) that Australia has a high piracy rate, and it's pretty clear that overcharging us isn't going to increase revenue. As for me, if some company has the balls to try and overcharge me, then in almost every case they just won't get my money. I'll either pay the normal price through alternative means, or I won't buy their product at all. Dust, I've made an exception, because I love the EVE universe, but I can guarantee you that I will be purchasing much less than I would if they charged the normal price. I considered treating my Dust character like a normal subscription. Set aside roughly that amount a month, and that's my contribution. But I won't be doing that with these prices. I'll get my character to a point, and then just enjoy the free game. Conclusion? Lost revenue for CCP.

After all, an equivalent "subscription" (dual boosters) for a Dust character works out to roughly the price of about two EVE accounts for me.

Thread has been appropriately pimped and people are being poked accordingly.

Hopefully there will be a devpost as a result but we haven't heard anything back yet. Will keep you posted.

Thread has been appropriately pimped and people are being poked accordingly.

Hopefully there will be a devpost as a result but we haven't heard anything back yet. Will keep you posted.

So does that mean that CCP gets the same amount of money from an American sale as they do from an Australian one? Sony just pockets the rest?

However and most unfortunately Sony is responsible for price adjustment and international transactions involving multiple country zone purchases and thus set the adjusted prices based on taxes, tariffs, laws, and culture(which I think takes the largest of the blame). This has been always unfair to the AU, but then again Eve Online is not free to download in Germany either.

1. Alternative purchase method -- can you make these various items available for purchase via your own Dust 514 website, and directly credit those items to our character? You seem to have this facility already, such as for the suits given with the fanfest HD purchase.
2. Offer more in the pack -- since we're being charged 50% more, can you give those AU and NZ players 50% more goods with their purchase than the similarly named US packs? Perhaps you could boost the AUR + boosters in the packs to represent the intended value?

Thanks for the update. This is not, however, news to us. We know Sony is overcharging us, just because they can. And we suspected (which you now confirm) that CCP doesn't have a hand in overcharging us.

So the question is more along the lines of "What can CCP do to help us?", rather than "Why is there this price discrepancy?". And I see you hint at this in your message, but I just wanted to make it clear.

In the OP I offered these as two options, but with some creativity there may be more:


Neither of these rely on the difficult task of changing the unethical and insulting business practices of Sony. I think I'm getting sufficiently annoyed at the whole situation that I'm going to stick with what has always been my policy in the past -- if a company dares to overcharge Australians, then I will dare to not open my wallet for them at that price. If no alternative purchase method is available at the more reasonable price, they just won't get anything from me. Unfortunately, that means lost income for CCP as well. But that's just part of the problem with CCP choosing Sony as its sole partner, and not (yet?) offering alternatives.

For this reason, I only ever use my US account. Screw the AU store, their inflated prices and limited content.

However and most unfortunately Sony is responsible for price adjustment and international transactions involving multiple country zone purchases and thus set the adjusted prices based on taxes, tariffs, laws, and culture(which I think takes the largest of the blame). This has been always unfair to the AU, but then again Eve Online is not free to download in Germany either.

The Committee found Australians paid 42 per cent more, on average, for Adobe software such as Photoshop.

Microsoft products were 66 per cent more on average, while specialised 3D animation software was more than 50 per cent more expensive.

In addition, hardware, music, games and e-books all cost more in Australia than they do in places such as the United States.

Microsoft, Apple and Adobe each gave evidence to the committee as to why their goods were more expensive in Australia than other markets, but declined to comment on the committee's findings.

The committee's chairman, Nick Champion, said geo-blocking was unfair when used to segregate global markets in order to make bigger profits, and pointed to "significant impacts" on Australian consumers and businesses.

Just getting three of the tech industry's heavyweights to the parliamentary inquiry was a feat in itself. Adobe, Apple and Microsoft were all invited to attend the inquiry's earlier public hearings voluntarily.
In the end it took a summons to compel the companies to appear. Each had a different reason to explain the pricing disparities.

Recommendation 5
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government amend the Copyright ActGÇÖs section 10(1) anti-circumvention provisions to clarify and secure consumersGÇÖ rights to circumvent technological protection measures that control geographic market segmentation.

Recommendation 9
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government consider enacting a ban on geoblocking as an option of last resort, should persistent market failure exist in spite of the changes to the Competition and Consumer Act and the Copyright Act recommended in this report.

Recommendation 10
That the Australian Government investigate the feasibility of amending the Competition and Consumer Act so that contracts or terms of service which seek to enforce geoblocking are considered void.

In the meantime, just in case there was any doubt that this is anything other than greed,"A federal parliamentary committee has recommended that consumers find ways to lawfully evade technology that allows IT companies to charge up to twice as much for their products in Australia."

Some snippets:







And in the link is a link to 10 recommendations, which include:


Now, I ask you: if a company has the gall to charge me more purely because I'm from a different country, why should I give them any respect? I can tell you that I will give them no respect, and that will translate into money lost. Is this really the sort of behaviour that CCP wants to be complicit with?