Seriously, EBGames here in Australia has sunk to its lowest ever.

Back years ago, the first two expansions for The Sims 2, University and Night Life, were set at $40. When Open For Business was released however, the price was increased to $50, a 25% increase that ended up in EBGames and EAGames pockets. I was annoyed that they jacked the price up and had to wait till they started bringing the cost down to an acceptable business level. It was only till recently when I went to EBGames that I was shocked in horror at how expensive World Adventures is...

They want $60 for World Adventures!?!? That's another 20% increase in EBGames and EAGames pockets!

The sad news is that now many other new PC titles are now being jacked up over $100 at EBGames, now coming on par with how expensive new PS3 and 360 titles. Sorry EBgames, but your prices stink and your sleezy business pratices have offically drove another customer away from your stores (especially with "someone" at one of your stores being absolutely rude towards me!).

I think I'll be doing my business at Game Traders from now on, at least I payed only $96 for Dragon Age Origins brand new (Game Traders card discount) compared to the $108 pricetag over at EBGames.

God I'd hate to live in Australia right now lol
I have preordered WA for £25.00 off Game with free postage

EBgames was so much better 10 years ago, when my dad knew the guys that owned it, they only had like 3 shops, he could get discounts, but now EBgames is so damn expensive.

WA at EB in Canada will cost $39.99 CAD which is $37.13 USD

WA at EB in the US will cost $39.99 USD which is $43.06 CAD

Which means that we in Canada save $3.07 CAD or $2.86 USD...not a big difference but still savings.

Also TS2 EPs used to cost $29.99 in CAD and USD...so north americans pay 30% more for TS3 EPs.

Heck the first TS2 EPs went for more like $34.99 CAD and USD...so the prices even went down for us

Wait a minute...60 Australian dollars = 59.18 Canadian dollars which means Australians have to pay 48% more-ish than North Americans

EB is charging different prices all over

Yea, that is $55 USD, so it is about $15 more than here in the U.S, that is pretty crazy and rather unfortunate. They seem to think people have loads of cash to spend, when its complete opposite at the moment. Honestly, I was surprised we are getting it at $39.99 USD, I thought it was going to end up $49.99 USD with the way prices are getting hiked on electronics and software recently where I am.

40 gawd damned dollars for an expansion pack????? That's twice as much as any EP ever released for the Sims!!!! How dare they double the price, I have just lost a lot of respect for them

You should get them at Big-W they always have the price at $40. Which for those who dont know in Australian currency is pretty normal.

Or of course there is always GAME, their prices are usually much more considerate than EBGames and of course they have customer loyalty.

EDIT
Oh wait according to GAME's website the RRP for WA is $60, so you could probably expect that from other retailers. $60 seems a bit much but i can see why the price increased, i'll still buy it anyways.

Oh yeah? Well good for you.

I, in my side of the planet, am content with the price, because it's a really, really cheap price for a game. TS2: AL was 182qrs when it was released here and this is going to be 150qrs, and for the next installment... so yeah, it's just... weird-ish.

EB's dropped a whole $2 off the price in Australia. I kinda preordered WA 2 months ago, so EB Games it is. I don't know why everyone seems to hate them - in Bathurst (where I obviously live) they're all really nice and friendly. And there's the big annual sale that goes for like 3 or 4 months leading up until the start of the new tax year.

Same here. I've got three/four (two in one mall) local EBGames and they are always having sales and discounts. On the other hand so is GAME.

It's cheaper other places, it is just insane how they think they can hike up the price like that. I used to shop there, but I definitely wont for this game anyway.

I used to shop GameStop and EB all the time, but they no longer sell PC games at all in stores here, they completely removed them. You can only get a PC game in store here if you special order it and that comes with an extra fee to cover it. They never really do any kind of promotions or discounts or sales for anything either at my local shops, so we also stopped getting our console games there. There is a place here called The Tradepost, and they have new and used games for half the price of GameStop and EB, so we get our console games there now. So far with The Sims 3, all of my purchases have been of the digital variety, through Direct2Drive. Which is how I will also be getting the EP.

Walmart.com has the price at $39.96 witch is not that big of deal considering most full games are $50.00 when they first come out.

I think $40 US is ridiculous for an expansion pack that's not a standalone game. I will probably wait and see if it goes on sale for about $30, which I expect it will in a few weeks, closer to Christmas. If it doesn't, it doesn't, but I don't feel I have to get it on release day. I'm pretty busy playing Dragon Age, anyway!

I dont know where your from. But here in AU the RRP for The Sims 3 was $100. So $40/$50 for an EP seems quite reasonable in my opinion.

I mentioned US dollars and am in the US. The original TS3 game was $50, so I think $40 for the expansion pack is too much.

Considering most games have a track record of $30 tops for EP's.....

Then incorporate the harsh economic times. You should know though that a majority of the price increase does not go to the producer yet is actually for increased cost to manufacture and transport the product.

Well, IMO, the price difference when you equal out US and AU dollars is daylight robbery to begin with.
To make my point, I'll convert our currency into US dollars.

TS3 basegame was $100AUD for standard edition and $120AUD for the collectors one.
World Adventures has a RRP of $60AUD.

$100AUD = $93.34USD.
That's $43.34USD more for us than for you.

$120AUD = $112.00USD.
That's $42.00USD more for us than for you.

$60AUD = $56.00USD.
That's $16.00USD more for us than for you.


...and yet you're all complaining it's too much. $40USD is only $42AUD. I PAYED THAT MUCH FOR TS2 UNI.

[/rant]

Ah that would be the transportation cost coming into play. Im sure you already know the situation but i will spell it out for those who do not know about AU.

Australia was a relatively small population compared to the amount of land we occupy. Basically we have a small amount of people spread across a wide distance. How does this relate to game prices? When the product ships, relatively small amounts of shipment are transported vastly, this is of course costly.

Then of course the product could be manufactured overseas, then there is the added cost of getting it into the country to start with. TS3 doesn't seem to want to tell me where it was manufactured so i cannot guarantee it was or was not manufactured in AU. Although considering that the customer support contains AU, NZ and South Africa as well as the sim points amount in both AU and NZ i would guess that if manufactured in AU it was not shipped to only AU at the most.