People who know me may be a bit surprised, but I actually am Stardocks's side here. I think it is hard to avoid regional pricing at all, publishers operate in different markets, and obviously costs in different markets will be different. Obviously this is not true for a webshop, but publishers have to make a price policy for a certain market and that means an on-line distributor like Stardock has to comply with that policy. And let's not say the EU is an easy market with 23 official languages and the laws of 27 countries to respect.

Of course, 1 EUR=1,42 USD, costs in Europe will not be 42% higher than in the U.S., that is plain nonsense. Publishers that are using that kind of price policies are not trying to reflect different costs, they are trying to maximize the money their customers are going to pay. That practise should be frowned upon. There is a very easy way to work around that: buy internationally, and I think that is what we consumers should do.

Well, for a fact well over 90% of the steam titles are heavier priced even before tax than the US store even when the distribution costs are roughly the same in europe so its not by chance there are 90 percent more Euro complaints about the unfair pricing, i can just imagine how it would been if it were the other way around...

If it now starta at impulse its really just 3 options remaining:

1 - Get ripped off, and try not to feel riped off.

2 - Buy the product retail for a lower pricetag with physical media, manual ect but you get the risk of lossing media, insane grade drm ect.

3 - Pirate the title, get no drm, no rippoff, convinient delivery ect. I dont like piracy but if the publishers pick the path to conduct the unfair tradepractices who sais people with remain "fair" by purchasing the titles at the unfair rates ?

Thats my 2 cents. If the software industry wants to encourage piracy of their product they sure found the best way sadly

Rippoff or getting rippedoff... works both ways!

Go for it....enjoy the typical 'crack.exe' that's used to generate a reg key.  If you also have a decent antivirus tool [one not also cracked] it'll tell you what that file actually is....

There ARE only 2 options....the third will see you removed from this site. Stardock is a Software/Game developer whose staff/employees are all real people with real families, etc and the public's product purchases are their livelihood.

Deny them that and you void any rights and privileges to interact on a site also owned and paid for by them [Stardock].

And read #14. It shows there's more to disparate pricing than the greed you claim to be the case.

Just suck it in where it comes to differences in pricing and speed and timing of availability.  It is outside of your control...as it is out of the distribution engines such as Steam and Impulse.

Lobby your Government....sit in on the next International Free Trade Agreement/discussions....research property law and marketing/distribution...

...but don't blame the entities obliged to work within the legislation.

I've said what I wanted too, even been threated with the ban-hammer (very adult of you i must say, errr critisism! *ban it ban it*) but this pissed me off.

Don't you dare try and claim that you are just following the law, you arn't...you're following a contractual obligation YOU signed up to when negotiating with the publisher of various games.

I'll sing Stardocks praises as great developers (see Gal Civ, Elemental), great publishers (see Sins)...but your retail practices fall short.

Eeeh, if you pirate, and don't buy the game after trying it, you weren't going to buy it anyways.  And by suggesting that people do that, on a developer/publisher's site, well, why should they even bother to listen to you?

Sure, maybe you can find the physical media at a cheaper price.  By all means, go for it.  But keep in mind that Impulse, and Steam, provide you with a viable option.  There are many games out there that I look at and go, "Eeeh, no thanks."  But then the game comes on sale for five dollars or ten dollars on Impulse, or Steam, and I think, "Hmmm, well, for ten bucks, it might be worth a shot."

And Stardock is proof that DRM is pointless, and only punishes their customers.  Frankly, the high prices are often due to protectionism and idiocy on a government's part, than anything else.  Or the greed of a large corporation who thinks we think more highly of them than we actually do *cough*EA I'm lookin' at you*cough*.

So yeah, put the blame where blame is due.  Me, I wholeheartedly support Stardock's (and Valve's) push to limit and remove DRM, offer lower prices and a HIGHER selection of games.

When one enters into a contractual agreement, well, there are laws in place to ensure one follows said agreement, aren't there?

Without the agreements, they wouldn't be able to offer the games they do.  Get over it.

Well, speaking for me, I'd rather offer something at a high price than not offer it at all, when offering it isn't costing me anything.  Yes, it makes some people unhappy, but if I'm not the one who set the prices why in the world would I care?

Some Europeans will buy it, some won't, no skin off my back.

Go bitch at the publisher en-masse if you want something to change.  Whining on message boards is like throwing a rock at a mob of people and hoping it hits the right one (and the right one is even there.)  You're not bloody likely to change anything by complaining at people who really have no say in the matter.

You can't have it both ways....either distributors follow their contacted limitations or they don't distribute.  That in itself is legally binding.

There is some twee assumption that online distribution works in a vacuum.  It does not.  It coexists with alternate distribution, not even necessarily of the same product ut of similar/related ones.  The determination of whatever price-point is appropriate for each market is dependent on co-existing distribution and alternate pricing agreements with others including retailers/distributors NOT engaged in off-site but online distribution.

There IS NO 'falling short' of retail practises other than an unreasonable impression on your part that differences in pricing must be intentionally unfair and discriminatory.

Well on this we shall have to disagree. I'd rather not get raped than get raped with lube.

But I really don't care if you want to blame the giant pink elephant floating around the sun for your current policies. The simple fact is you're providing an identical product through an identical method and as such the cost should be identical...anything else is simply unfair and you are a party to that.

I'm sure most of you at Stardock (and subsequently the fanboys) will assume i'm saying this out of spite, but its quite the opposite. The largest group on Steam for example relates to this specific problem (dollar:euro conversion) with over 20,000 members. Just please don't forget that it doesnt matter how many games you have to sell if no-one will buy them from you.

It makes more sense to focus on ensuring a market share of consumers by fight on behalf of the consumer (as you did with your "gamers bill of rights"), winning their trust and respect and thus increasing your profits as a result than it does selling a million different games to a miniscule audience.

I am one of those people who left Steam because of this practice...there are a LOT more of us and i've no doubt we'll happily leave Impulse if you keep it up too (not that we want too, 'cause you're better )

Now i've read over this a few times to make sure it makes sense, but i'm drunk so just incase I didn't get the point across...you're cool Stardock, but please stop fucking me over just because i'm from Europe.

I tend to avoid posting when I'm drunk....my typing prowess suffers big time...

Stardock has absolutely no interest in 'fucking anyone over' from Europe, or anywhere else.

I say once more.  This is not a matter of looking at International Monetary Exchange rates...doing the Math and deducing someone is being cheated/screwed/fucked or disadvantaged.

Simple solution is to check with each and every Game/Software manufacturer/label/distributor...and compare ALL price-points from Country to Country.

Better still....look at EVERY product that is available in more than one country/market .... then look at local specific import legislation/s regarding taxes/tariffs, etc.

In essentialy EVERY situation price-points will not be identical.

Stardock/Impulse is not responsible for the differences in the local pricing of the Toyota Yaris [a world market car] either.

It doesn't make sense to pick fights with the publishers you're relying on to sell games from, actually.  I'm pretty sure Impulse wouldn't have half the games they have if Stardock suddenly decided to start throwing their lack of weight around and fight for a cause they have no vested interest in to begin with.  And then, suddenly they wouldn't be able to sell the games to the American market either, because nobody would want to deal with them!

This conversation is reminding me of that magazine I used to read where the readers started mouthing off to the advertisers.  That was hilarious.

10 years of MUDing while drunk...i can happily pump out 75wpm with the screen all a blur.

I'll drop the issue though before the fanboys eat me up. I still consider it morally and (in the long term) financially incorrect of you to pursue this course of action. Bit of a cutting off your nose despite your face move.

But aslong as you make/publish great games at a FAIR price...i'll still buy them. Maybe you could buy out everyone else eventually and make them all ok.

Remember kids, buy Stardock...not EA.

I'll buy both.  Only company I hate dealing with is Ubisoft, who has no sense whatsoever when it comes to the PC market.