Ripping off the EU Player...

[Khaletohep]

I am pretty sure it is legal to charge eu players more...

I agree.

What does how "well off" the players are have to do with the prices of a video game? It's not a government program targeted to have an equilibrium price across all countries.

It's not about a government welfare program, it's about a company earning money.

If you're offering services to a target group mainly consisting of 50 year old 1st world doctors, you can charge higher prices than if you're providing the very same service to 20 year old 3rd world farmers.

Smart companies realize that - that's why DVDs have region codes, so that movie companies can charge higher prices in the U. S. and Europe than in e. g. China.

What I'm wondering: Why is, transferred to the aforementioned example, the US player more akin to the 3rd world farmer than the 1st world doctor? That's consistent with some other pricing structures, but it's weird nonetheless.

[Bvis]

I won't pretend to know why the EU price is what it is, but as far as the US goes you have to look at the market and competition. $15 a month is the standard rate for sub based MMOs and has been for years. If Funcom tried to charge more for AoC than WoW/SWTOR/Rift/etc. charge then it could result in a further loss of subscriptions - especially if you compare the rate the competitors put out content and try to justify the return on the sub fee. I wouldn't say that $180 per year to continue playing a game you bought for $50 is really comparable to third world pricing, more that the price in Euros is maybe too high.

[Hopsing]

Eu-Players have a discount for the higher ping.

[Zoeri]

In Norwegian currency:

$15 is NOK 90
€12.99 is NOK 105

It is more expensive to pay €12.99 than it is to pay $15.

But I don't give a ****. Have subbed this game for €85 a year for five years now and I would not be a millionaire if I rather paid in US Dollars... No idea what the offers for US residents are for 3 month, 6 month and 1 year subscriptions are though, but guessing that it is $100 for 1 year.

[Khaletohep]

The OECD gives us some numbers about disposable income across the world, already taking into account different costs of living:

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/income/

I won't pretend to know why the EU price is what it is, but as far as the US goes you have to look at the market and competition. $15 a month is the standard rate for sub based MMOs and has been for years.

A valid point. However, Funcom didn't seem to care about that concept in Europe - here, Funcom charged and still charges more a month than other MMO providers do (back in the day, it was about 13 €/month for WoW and 15€/month for AoC).

Eu-Players have a discount for the higher ping.

EU prices are higher, not lower.

[Hopsing]

EU prices are higher, not lower.

Forgot "should"...so sorry.

[Argantes]

speaking about subs, RUS/PL (that means Steam Tier 2 countries that were lucky to have their own server, unlike mine) accounts actually used to have lower sub, but afaik this was "adjusted" (= increased) with the RUS/PL server merges into the "EU" ones

also as it´s been already said, with the whole FC AoC business (on all levels) being placed in US now, there is no reason to have higher prices of EU subs because of EU VAT, other taxes or whatever (they don´t pay jack of that raised money to country where I live in) .. not even counting in some discount for descreased quality of provided service now

[twinklez3]

Charging anything more than 0 is a rip off. There are other amazing free mmos on the market and those that stick to the sub model have regular content updates. Funcom seems to think we're all dumb.

Err... they may have a point.

[skeloss]

You might be surprised, but RU/PL costs only about 7 USD/month. I know it because I have russian account.

[kalston]

You might be surprised, but RU/PL costs only about 7 USD/month. I know it because I have russian account.

Huum I thought this had been changed but maybe they changed it back or something? And are you sure this is the price when you buy just ONE month? (since you get discounts when you buy more)

But still the OPs point stands, servers are in the US (=decreased quality of product for Eu players compared to before), offices in the US, no reason to have us pay more.

As far as the 1€=$1 thing is concerned I avoid it by buying my games, blu rays etc in the UK where they cost the same as in the US. Works best with digital products (no shipping costs) but shipping costs aren't even that expensive especially when you buy several products at once. Even bought products directly from the US a couple of times but I think there's a chance that you will have taxes to pay when you do that (never happened to me though, $300 for my headphones vs 300€ all the way haha)