Why the price difference in EUR vs USD?

yeah,that really sucks.anet why you make EU suffer? it is NCsoft not ANET.

send your bitch to the right place

Perhaps the fact that people in the UK have to pay more tax on bought items? Things in the US have always been cheaper than the same item in the UK, at least the times that I've been over there. That is what I hear too. The taxes are higher on a lot of items in the U.K.

He better be glad that he doesn't live in Australia. I hear that the game stores there price gouge customers.

Could you possibly find anything else to complain about?

Games are priced according to the precident for the region in which they are sold.

This thread should be locked. It's not a game as such - it's 3 weapons, a useless trial and some demo time before the game goes live. And, when bought from the official store, it's virtual - so no manufacturing costs. So when you say precident, I'm going to assume you mean what's commonly referred to as "Rip-off Britain".

I bought it on a whim, but I almost certainly won't be buying the game from the store (I'm expecting the download to cost £24.99-£3.49, which is still a few quid more than 3 other retailers are offering the boxed version for). If Anet prove me wrong and manage to match the price offered by Amazon, Play or Gameplay (even if the price only matches with the pre-order discount), then I'll eat humble pie, but I doubt it. The store is a tool to gouge us with and nothing else.

Oh, and sure - close the thread now I've had *my* say. P.S. Does anyone else hate it when posters think they can demand this?

Could you possibly find anything else to complain about?
Games are priced according to the precident for the region in which they are sold.
This thread should be locked. "Region" where I'm looking to buy this:
the online store - ingame - WWW

Prices according to region is for a download just silly: same download no matter where you are on this planet; no shipping, vat, ...
FYI: I recently bought an extra char slot via the online store.
Guess what: Tax= 0.00 EUR

That's why I buy my stuff in the US or Russia and let it ship to the Netherlands.

Nightfall for half the price of the online store.
I dont see why they can't make the online store cheaper. We get no box and they don't have to sell cheap to retailers and distributers that leech their money. Retailers make 25% profit. I guess distributers get another 15% share. So we should get it 40% cheaper in the online store then the game shop at the street. I'm guessing they purposely don't want to undercut retailers. Games still largely depend on brick-and-mortar sellers with physical boxes, for the most part. I'd guess the percentage of folks that are willing to buy a game online is still pretty low, especially considering they sell Collector's editions, and given Europe's general avoidance of credit cards (unlike the US, where's it's almost a given that everyone has one and uses it regularly).

Obviously, they could sell it quite a bit cheaper, but then stores might decide it's not worth ordering boxes.

Oh, and sure - close the thread now I've had *my* say. P.S. Does anyone else hate it when posters think they can demand this? When you're dealing with a thread that involves people demanding that Anet (or NCsoft) change how they're making their money, I think asking for a thread lock is fair game.

When you're dealing with a thread that involves people demanding that Anet (or NCsoft) change how they're making their money, I think asking for a thread lock is fair game. We're not asking that, we just have problems with two things:

1) The online store being equally or even more expensive then the local shops, while we get no physical items.

2) The Europeans having to pay much more then the Americans due to them not abiding by the Euro-Dollar or Euro-Pound exchange rates.

Zero rated tax in the online store, Last time I used the store I was charged £0.00 in tax. It's simply not a valid excuse.

To have two or more pricing structures for an electronically delivered product based on geographical location is plainly not acceptable, unless of course you live in one of the 'cheaper' zones. No, it's called Price Discrimination. Take Economics some time, it's a fairly basic principle that allows monopoly powers to increase their profit. Ever wonder why some people pay different prices for EXACTLY the same seat on a plane?
Secondly, it depends on the products elasticity of demand. How much of a difference will 3.61 to 4.99 make for many people? Quite frankly, not a whole lot. For the final prices, will 5 euros make a huge difference? If they decided to jack the price on the US side by 5 USD, I'd still be inclined to buy the product. The demand for the game is most likely inelastic for most of the range that it's in, give or take 5 dollars. NC probably sees this and is willing to make money off it.
Thirdly, I don't know how easy it is to obtain a hard copy in stores in Europe. I useually see people complaining on forums (mostly form Australia) about the lack of hard copies (and EB's monopoly on the game in Australia...). If it IS more difficult to find stores that carry a hard copy, the higher price could be reflected in the convenience of not having to leave your house or search for a retailer. For me? There's a retailed about 15-20 minutes away that I know will have a copy when it comes out. With such a close tie, if the price in the store were higher, I would just go out and get a copy for cheaper...which is one of my theories as to why the EU pricing is higher.

As far as I'm concerned, if people want the game and want to use the online store, a marginal price difference will NOT deter them.

Think about it this way. If the Five EUR is really upsetting you, just don't buy coffee, or chocolate, or something else in your habit for a week. That's what I do when saving up (no trips to Starbucks for me...).