Us Australians are always paying more for video games. It makes financial sense to order it from elsewhere. Halo 4 is obviously no exception. So it doesn’t always feel great going to the midnight launches when you know you’re being ripped off.
Halo is the only game I really splash out on, i.e. I buy the collector’s edition. It’s worth it in my view. Right now I’m in the process of deciding whether or not to get the Tritton Warhead 7.1 Xbox 360 Wireless Headset. It looks boss and I’m due for a new pair. But I went to check the price of it and sure enough, it is incredibly overpriced. So overpriced that not even a diehard fan such as myself can rationalise it.
Sure enough, $200 difference! Australia’s dollar has been floating around par with the US dollar for the good part of two years now thanks to China buying a lot of our metal and getting us through the GFC almost unscathed.
But that’s not the real reason why it’s expensive. It’s because of import restrictions. A great article was written by Kotaku in relation to this issue faced by Australians.
So anyway there’s the economics lesson. Is anyone else annoyed by prices? I’m seriously considering just getting the cheaper headset or just getting some Turtle Beaches maybe. I don’t particularly want to order from the US. I doubt there are many Americans here who would throw down $510 (AU$499 is US$510). I don’t think the guy at EB will be too pleased if I attempt a price match by quoting an American price on the night of November 5
That sucks. It’s like… I wouldn’t even think twice if it was $299. But it’s a limited price. My friend and I might be ordering two from the US. It’s around $50 postage I think.
My wife ordered mine for my birthday. Have to say i’m pretty stoked. i don’t think id have even thought about getting them if they were as much ad they are where you are from that’s just absurd. Id just wait and find another headset that better suites you for a more fare price.
> My wife ordered mine for my birthday. Have to say i’m pretty stoked. i don’t think id have even thought about getting them if they were as much ad they are where you are from that’s just absurd. Id just wait and find another headset that better suites you for a more fare price.
> I checked that out too. How ridiculous is it?!? $500 for a headset is out of this world.
>
> Sure, it is a LEGIT headset, but there’s a definite limit to how much it should be, especially considering the American prices.
Exactly my point. The quality is so high and really not arguable at all. They’ve blown me away in fact. Yet despite that, I cannot rationalise its purchase. It’s on par with the Halo 4 console + controller / LE / MS headset.
Just another time we Australians get screwed over in the gaming world. I refuse to buy anything from within Australia if i can get it online. It’s so much cheaper.
It’d be nice to be able to support Australian companies (even if they are owned by overseas businesses), but they just make it so hard for us! I can’t believe that the headset alone is the same price as the Halo 4 LE console package.
Stuff at EB is more expensive than other stores. Go to JB or something, they have the Tritton Warhead for $400, but still i agree with your point, Us Aussies pay mroe for everything. Its stupid.
To be frank, I wouldn’t buy into the whole 7.1 surround headset thing; the headset itself just uses a couple stereo speakers in differing positions to create a sense of surround sound. For the price you’re gonna pay you’d be better off getting a dedicated stereo headset like an Astro A40 or a Sennheiser model and using a mixamp to give yourself a much better and more legitimate surround sound.
http://www.gamestate.co/au/ - that’s the official Australian reseller of Astro headsets. It’s where I bought my A40’s and they’re incredibly good. $300 is what you’ll pay for the headset and mixamp combo and they can be used on the Xbox, PS3 and PC.
As for Sennheiser/Razer/etc models, I’d look at reviews etc online. If you do end up buying the $500 H4 headset, make sure you can at least use it cross-platform, so make sure it’s got audio jacks or PC compatibility; it’s really not worth buying a $500 headset that you’re only limited to using on 1 console.
