€60 for Prototype? ActiVision, Are You Kidding Me?
May 29th, 2009
The highly anticipated multi-platform title Prototype opened up for pre-orders via Steam yesterday and publisher ActiVision has, in all its wisdom, set the price at €59.99 for mainland Europe. A whopping €60 for a digitally distributed PC game? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke? With current exchange rates €60 equals $84, and it’s roughly twice as much as a hard copy of the game, if you buy it at the right store.
We know that game publishers earn a lot more money per sale via digital distribution than they do in retail, this because they effectively remove manufacturing costs and the cut taken by middlemen like distribution centres and stores. At the same time publishers who offer sales via download can’t undercut retail prices, if they did then no stores would bother stocking the games. We know this, but no matter how you calculate the pricing and take various additional taxes into account there is no excuse for trying to sell a PC game for €60.
The current Steam price table looks like this:
| Euros | US Dollars | Pounds | |
| Steam UK Store | € 40.08 | $ 55.88 | £ 34.99 |
| Steam EU Store | € 59.99 | $ 83.64 | £ 52.38 |
| Steam US Store | € 35.86 | $ 49.99 | £ 31.30 |
| Steam AU Store | € 42.56 | $ 60.00 | £ 37.16 |
In times when the PC platform is struggling with piracy you would expect publishers to at least try and keep their prices as fair as possible, not go out of their way to screw customers. I sincerely hope that no Europeans purchase this game via Steam. There are so many other options and we shouldn’t let the greedy buggers over at ActiVision rip us off.
-Daniel Lindberg
Tags: Activision, PC, Prototype, Ripoff, Steam
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May 29th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Are you kidding me? That’s like an extra €20 for NOT getting a case, a dvd, a cover and a manual. Its either Activision can’t do math, or they are greedy bastards and should be boycotted, I for one will not be buying this game. The only thing I use Steam for now is weekend deals and setting up games of Left 4 Dead and TF2.
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May 29th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
thats a load of bs, i defy anyone who says this game is worth buying at that kind of price, i could buy a hard copy new special edition console game for just a little bit more…. why would anyone pay that price when its not even a hard copy!?
im just glad that i live in the UK, the EU price is diabolical
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June 11th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Freaking Euros. Thanks for converting it to real money.
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June 15th, 2009 at 3:21 am
i live in the uk its really not a lot hahaha
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