di_duncan 24 Posted June 22, 2020 I'd have to agree with @Silentstalker here. The RU market, especially for digital goods/services, has always seen a lower price for nearly everything. The simple reason as to why is because the average Russian income is significantly less than those of Western (and even many Asian) countries. Consequently, game developers/publishers often sell their games at lower prices to encourage greater sales. This is a common microeconomic principle called price discrimination. I won't explain the concept in detail, but look at it this way: Cyberpunk 2077 will release with a price tag of $59.99 (USD) at launch. Median american household income is ~$61,937 per year (2018), while median Russian household income is ~$17831 per year. Therefor should CD Projekt Red decide to sell the game at this same price in both countries, it would constitute ~1.16% of an American family's monthly budget whereas in Russia it would be ~4.04%. This massive difference in relative cost would result in significantly fewer sales in Russia should this be the case. Ultimately, game (and many other product) price(s) are lower across the board on nearly every single launcher, storefront and/or marketplace in poorer/less developed countries (check steamdb) in order to increase sales and subsequently cultivating fanfare/fanbase. I hope this addresses your grievances as to why: On 6/18/2020 at 9:44 AM, Zemosu said: the price tag is not the same for everybody TL;DR: The price tag isn't the same for everybody. It never was and it never will. Inequality exists, sometimes for a reason. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Komitadjie 13 Posted June 22, 2020 I think the largest complaint is that in most cases, you don't see that happening on the same server. Like, WoT or whatever, the prices vary by server, so everyone on your server playing with you paid the same price. With the global server, half the people paid half what you did, for the same tanks, on the same game, just because of where they registered their account. Plus a real trade system, etc. It was less frustrating before the server merge and everyone playing in the same place. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dfnce 28 Posted June 22, 2020 When it comes to pay Western prices in countries like Poland, obviously everything is fair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemosu 1 Posted June 22, 2020 11 hours ago, di_duncan said: I'd have to agree with @Silentstalker here. The RU market, especially for digital goods/services, has always seen a lower price for nearly everything. The simple reason as to why is because the average Russian income is significantly less than those of Western (and even many Asian) countries. Consequently, game developers/publishers often sell their games at lower prices to encourage greater sales. This is a common microeconomic principle called price discrimination. I won't explain the concept in detail, but look at it this way: Cyberpunk 2077 will release with a price tag of $59.99 (USD) at launch. Median american household income is ~$61,937 per year (2018), while median Russian household income is ~$17831 per year. Therefor should CD Projekt Red decide to sell the game at this same price in both countries, it would constitute ~1.16% of an American family's monthly budget whereas in Russia it would be ~4.04%. This massive difference in relative cost would result in significantly fewer sales in Russia should this be the case. Ultimately, game (and many other product) price(s) are lower across the board on nearly every single launcher, storefront and/or marketplace in poorer/less developed countries (check steamdb) in order to increase sales and subsequently cultivating fanfare/fanbase. I hope this addresses your grievances as to why: TL;DR: The price tag isn't the same for everybody. It never was and it never will. Inequality exists, sometimes for a reason. You are just doing a knee jerk generalization of the issue without having even read the points I raised. This is just a post counter fodder. 10 hours ago, dfnce said: When it comes to pay Western prices in countries like Poland, obviously everything is fair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage They treat the whole European Union as a single economy and then they have the nerve to tell me I don't know much about economy. The ignorance and hypocrisy these days is off the chart. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MaxSimBT 0 Posted June 23, 2020 I am russian. I will not buy the game more than 20-30 euros. I will buy a spinning, price of 800-1000 euros. This is our mentality. No politics, no economics.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
di_duncan 24 Posted June 23, 2020 15 hours ago, Zemosu said: You are just doing a knee jerk generalization of the issue without having even read the points I raised. This is just a post counter fodder. I've read your previous posts and gripes. My response was an objective explanation as to why prices vary across the globe. Most of your grievances are addressed under the pricing strategy of price discrimination. It would be wise of you to research and/or study said phenomena and its examples first before disregarding my point(s) entirely. My response was not a "knee jerk generalization", nor is it "post counter fodder" (whatever that means :P); it is merely an aspect within microeconomics. On 6/22/2020 at 1:21 AM, dfnce said: When it comes to pay Western prices in countries like Poland, obviously everything is fair. 15 hours ago, Zemosu said: They treat the whole European Union as a single economy and then they have the nerve to tell me I don't know much about economy. The ignorance and hypocrisy these days is off the chart. They don't (or at least shouldn't) treat the European Union (EU) as a single economy, but they do recognize it uses a single currency. Price discrimination is especially difficult when applied to [obviously] unequal nations using a common (multinational) currency. Of course, I would never defend price discrimination (or any pricing strategy for that matter) to be perfect, but where it's applicable, it's likely the best we have (in a similar sense to Churchill's thoughts on democracy or even the economic/political policy of capitalism). Unfortunately, it is not fair. But this is a common trait among different games (and products). WoT premiums are sold for different prices across the world as well (with inter-EU prices remaining the same between countries no less). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Komitadjie 13 Posted June 23, 2020 Keeping in mind that most other games (look at WoT for an example there) have other servers as well, and pricing more typically follows server. You won't have somebody pay RU server prices, to play on the NA server, for example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemosu 1 Posted June 23, 2020 10 hours ago, di_duncan said: I've read your previous posts and gripes. My response was an objective explanation as to why prices vary across the globe. Most of your grievances are addressed under the pricing strategy of price discrimination. It would be wise of you to research and/or study said phenomena and its examples first before disregarding my point(s) entirely. My response was not a "knee jerk generalization", nor is it "post counter fodder" (whatever that means :P); it is merely an aspect within microeconomics. They don't (or at least shouldn't) treat the European Union (EU) as a single economy, but they do recognize it uses a single currency. Price discrimination is especially difficult when applied to [obviously] unequal nations using a common (multinational) currency. Of course, I would never defend price discrimination (or any pricing strategy for that matter) to be perfect, but where it's applicable, it's likely the best we have (in a similar sense to Churchill's thoughts on democracy or even the economic/political policy of capitalism). Unfortunately, it is not fair. But this is a common trait among different games (and products). WoT premiums are sold for different prices across the world as well (with inter-EU prices remaining the same between countries no less). 3 hours ago, Komitadjie said: Keeping in mind that most other games (look at WoT for an example there) have other servers as well, and pricing more typically follows server. You won't have somebody pay RU server prices, to play on the NA server, for example. this 1.Games sold at different prices for different regions are not activate able outside their region. 2. Games with different region pricing don;t share the same server. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
di_duncan 24 Posted June 23, 2020 3 hours ago, Komitadjie said: Keeping in mind that most other games (look at WoT for an example there) have other servers as well, and pricing more typically follows server. You won't have somebody pay RU server prices, to play on the NA server, for example. 2 minutes ago, Zemosu said: this 1.Games sold at different prices for different regions are not activate able outside their region. 2. Games with different region pricing don;t share the same server. While this is now often the case, most "cheap game key" sites (G2A, Kinguin, etc.) used to profit immensely from "global" keys purchased from Russia. While region locks, secure account-based activations, and even more stringent [converted] prices are becoming more and more common, there is still a large and very profitable grey-market for game keys (primarily stolen physical copies and/or keys derived primarily from South American sources). Furthermore, there are more than a few games which share servers (or at least server infrastructure) but who also see regional price variation. Take CS:GO for example. There is a reason why many EU players complain about awful/toxic/unsportsmanlike Russians. The game is incredibly popular in both Eastern and Western Europe, but players are queued together regardless of differences in nationality, ethnicity, linguistics, price payed, etc. The survival of AW can largely be attributed to the RU region. The unequal pricing is a side effect of the server merge, which served a major part in stabilizing player populations. Don't get me wrong, if AW offered the same RU pricing here in NA, I wouldn't complain (I'd probably rejoice). However, in the current state of the game, I'm fine with being charged more, simply because I would like to support this game for as long as possible and because I can largely afford it (Of course I cannot say the same for others). While I can understand your grievances in this respect, it's already been mentioned by SS that there is nothing stopping you from creating a RU account and enjoying lower prices. So if this is a deal/game-breaking issue for you, there is a [legal] loophole which you are free to exploit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EbenezerScrooge 5 Posted April 22, 2021 On 6/14/2020 at 4:25 PM, Silentstalker said: *sigh* You know that bread, milk and pretty much everything else costs less in Russia than it does here? And no, it's not "just pixels." This might come as a shock to you, but operating the game in the west costs much more than operating it in Russia. You can open a Russian account, nothing really prevents you from doing that, but you will lose English support (I personally solve 3-4 "weird cases" per day, for example, but as soon as I see the account is Russian, I refer the person to RU Discord). That's how things are in this world - everything comes with a price tag. Hahah this was the biggest joke of the year so far You mean support for permanently banned paying customers from EU ? You are banning people for their opinions only and I was reading this countless times while waiting for a viable map in game chat. What kind of support are you providing when even if the customer is right your support answer is “sorry this game is in beta” stop spreading lies Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeyKey1 119 Posted April 22, 2021 46 minutes ago, EbenezerScrooge said: Hahah this was the biggest joke of the year so far You mean support for permanently banned paying customers from EU ? You are banning people for their opinions only and I was reading this countless times while waiting for a viable map in game chat. What kind of support are you providing when even if the customer is right your support answer is “sorry this game is in beta” stop spreading lies There's no reason to resurrect a thread if you don't have any valuable information to provide. Neither is this the place to discuss any bans or sanctions by AW officials. Quote Spoiler Share this post Link to post Share on other sites