56 replies to this topic

[Lily from animove]

Spheroid, on 21 December 2015 - 08:58 AM, said:

If they priced in Canadian dollars there is NOTHING that would prevent U.S. players from contacting a player in Windsor or Niagara Falls and having them buy a mech package and then gifting it to the U.S. player.

PGI's American income stream would be lessened by people setting up intermediary gifting arrangements as side businesses.

funnily, this is what you now can do via steam with a russian buddy, (at least for the steam related packs) and this is hella cheap.

Edited by Lily from animove, 21 December 2015 - 10:52 AM.

[Khobai]

Quote

Why? They make more money this way. It's a business.

because theyre not making money off canadians. they wont pay 50% more.

whats better? making nothing off canadians or making something off canadians? something is better than nothing.

thats the whole concept behind price segmentation.

Edited by Khobai, 21 December 2015 - 11:08 AM.

[Sylonce]

Khobai, on 21 December 2015 - 11:01 AM, said:

because theyre not making money off canadians. they wont pay 50% more.

I dunno about other Canadians, but 0.72 USD per CAD, it's getting increasingly hard to justify buying packs from here on.

For PGI, I suppose it just means less Canadian customers.

[Mawai]

Sylonce, on 21 December 2015 - 11:09 AM, said:

I dunno about other Canadians, but 0.72 USD per CAD, it's getting increasingly hard to justify buying packs from here on.

For PGI, I suppose it just means less Canadian customers.

Who knows ... maybe part of the reason for the shift to $20/$40 single mech bundles is to offer content at more affordable price points. The $120 packs now cost about CA$170 on a credit card. The US$80 are about CA$115 while the US$60 are about $85.

On the other hand, some of the steam pricing is partially in local currency so you might see some items cheaper on steam at least during a sale ... though I have to admit the 2 mech sample packs seemed to be very expensively priced compared to the recent US$20 mech packs.

[Voq]

Khobai, on 21 December 2015 - 11:01 AM, said:

because theyre not making money off canadians. they wont pay 50% more.

whats better? making nothing off canadians or making something off canadians? something is better than nothing.

thats the whole concept behind price segmentation.

Exactly this.
I'm guessing most of the people who are supportive of us paying in USD are unfamiliar with how our imported goods tend to work.
If you buy a physical good, like a book, or phone, we don't pay the 30% more. They do charge us more, but only by a small margin. But they know some profit is better then none, and don't want to lose the market.
Coke and Pepsi do this too. They find ways to sell their product in much weaker economies because they still make something.

I often buy packs, even though I know it's kind of silly to pay for digital stompy robots. But, the currency difference has made it too clear that it's a silly use of my money.
Until our currency goes up (not happening any time soon) or they modify their pricing, I won't be paying.
Not being stubborn, just the way it is.
It's up to them if they want slightly less, or none at all.

[Sylonce]

Mawai, on 21 December 2015 - 11:15 AM, said:

Who knows ... maybe part of the reason for the shift to $20/$40 single mech bundles is to offer content at more affordable price points. The $120 packs now cost about CA$170 on a credit card. The US$80 are about CA$115 while the US$60 are about $85.

On the other hand, some of the steam pricing is partially in local currency so you might see some items cheaper on steam at least during a sale ... though I have to admit the 2 mech sample packs seemed to be very expensively priced compared to the recent US$20 mech packs.

Yes, perhaps you have a point. The $20 packs are not too bad (about $28 CDN). When I bought the Marauder, the first $20 was actually quite a good deal for 3 'mechs, considering an al-la-carte Clan mech still costs $55 USD ($77 Canadian!).

This said, a lot of packs are out of my reach (or at least hard to justify). Oh well, it's their business, and we each decide what we do with our own wallets.

[Grimlox]

Sylonce, on 21 December 2015 - 11:26 AM, said:

Yes, perhaps you have a point. The $20 packs are not too bad (about $28 CDN). When I bought the Marauder, the first $20 was actually quite a good deal for 3 'mechs, considering an al-la-carte Clan mech still costs $55 USD ($77 Canadian!).

This said, a lot of packs are out of my reach (or at least hard to justify). Oh well, it's their business, and we each decide what we do with our own wallets.

Ya I bought the 20$ archer pack plus hero and it came out to just over $50 CDN. That's getting up there for sure. Wonder what this pack would have cost on steam with localized currency?

[Soultraxx]

Cavale, on 21 December 2015 - 07:32 AM, said:

And gas is $4.50 a gallon CAD.

And a house where PGI is will run you a million. Legit million. For a small house.

I wish the fuel in the UK was as cheap.

We pay the equivalent of about US$10 per gallon

However, the exchange rate is in our favour so the Mech packs are pretty cheap

Edited by Soultraxx, 21 December 2015 - 11:55 AM.

[CDLord HHGD]

How is PGI supposed to fix the fact that Canadian money values differently than US money, or Mexican money, or any other money?

If they make it $80 Canadian, then it's be $60 US and you'd still be complaining....

[Roadkill]

Khobai, on 21 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

pgi should really offer some kindve payment system specifically for canadians so they can buy stuff in canadian dollars and not get screwed by the exchange rate.

A Canadian dollar is not a US dollar is not an Australian dollar. They are different currencies. No one is "getting screwed" by the exchange rate, any more than you're "getting screwed" when you buy something from the UK and have to use pounds.

A Canadian dollar isn't worth a US dollar. That's why you have to spend "more" Canadian dollars to buy the same thing.

Reminds me of an old joke: do you know why Canada has the twonie? So they can have a coin that's actually worth a dollar!

[Grimlox]

cdlord, on 21 December 2015 - 11:57 AM, said:

How is PGI supposed to fix the fact that Canadian money values differently than US money, or Mexican money, or any other money?

If they make it $80 Canadian, then it's be $60 US and you'd still be complaining....

Only reason we bring it up is the fact that PGI is a Canadian company paying all their business overhead and wages in CDN dollars. Our dollar has gone down almost over 25% but they sure as heck haven't starting paying 25% more in rent or given a 25%+ wage increase to their staff. In reality their mech pack prices should be going down for everyone if they are charging USD so that Americans get a discount and Canadians pay what we always have.

As it is PGI is just pocketing a bunch of extra profit from Americans who are probably unaware and from Canadians who are painfully aware.

Roadkill, on 21 December 2015 - 12:05 PM, said:

A Canadian dollar is not a US dollar is not an Australian dollar. They are different currencies. No one is "getting screwed" by the exchange rate, any more than you're "getting screwed" when you buy something from the UK and have to use pounds.

A Canadian dollar isn't worth a US dollar. That's why you have to spend "more" Canadian dollars to buy the same thing.

Reminds me of an old joke: do you know why Canada has the twonie? So they can have a coin that's actually worth a dollar!

See my reply above

[Felbombling]

PGI won't throw us a bone. I'm sure we're a small percentage of the player base, and making a change for us would have players from every other country asking, "But what about me?!"

[CDLord HHGD]

Grimlox, on 21 December 2015 - 12:09 PM, said:

Only reason we bring it up is the fact that PGI is a Canadian company paying all their business overhead and wages in CDN dollars. Our dollar has gone down almost over 25% but they sure as heck haven't starting paying 25% more in rent or given a 25%+ wage increase to their staff. In reality their mech pack prices should be going down for everyone if they are charging USD so that Americans get a discount and Canadians pay what we always have.

As it is PGI is just pocketing a bunch of extra profit from Americans who are probably unaware and from Canadians who are painfully aware.




See my reply above

Well, to say that things should be cheaper because the value of hte dollar drops would be nice, but just isn't reality. Heck, during the 2008 recession, our prices for goods went up. Physical items gain value when the fake money used to buy them loses value (and unless you pay for things with gold coins, it is essentially play money).

[Khobai]

Quote

A Canadian dollar is not a US dollar is not an Australian dollar. They are different currencies. No one is "getting screwed" by the exchange rate

clearly you dont understand how exchange rates work then if you dont think anyone is getting screwed

[Roadkill]

Grimlox, on 21 December 2015 - 12:09 PM, said:

See my reply above

Doesn't change anything. PGI sells their goods in US dollars. If your native currency isn't US dollars, you abide by the exchange rate.

It's pretty simple.

Khobai, on 21 December 2015 - 12:57 PM, said:

clearly you dont understand how exchange rates work then if you dont think anyone is getting screwed

I know how they work and make use of them frequently. The people who don't understand are the ones who think that just because PGI is a Canadian company that they should be selling their goods in Canadian dollars.

Forget that PGI is based in Vancouver. MWO is sold in US dollars because the US is their primary market. If they were going to use another currency, it would likely be the Euro not the Canadian dollar.

[Grimlox]

cdlord, on 21 December 2015 - 12:32 PM, said:

Well, to say that things should be cheaper because the value of hte dollar drops would be nice, but just isn't reality. Heck, during the 2008 recession, our prices for goods went up. Physical items gain value when the fake money used to buy them loses value (and unless you pay for things with gold coins, it is essentially play money).

Sure but what is PGI's overhead for creating mech packages? All their staff used to create the actual mech from art, design, QA, advertising in game etc. (likely paid in roughly the same amount of CDN dollars today as it was 2 years ago), office space/parking/supplies (all located in Canada as far as I know and would not have changed with the dollar reducing in value), licensing fees (this might be paid in USD but is I'm guessing a very small part of the overall cost to get the mech to your PC.

So when the CDN dollar was close to that of the USD and it cost X CDN to produce (vast majority of costs in CDN) then all but a fraction of that cost has remained exactly the same yet when they charge in USD there's about a 28% increase in CDN profit for paying all these CDN bills that haven't changed.

I would totally agree with you if the bulk of PGI's bills were paid out of the country or if PGI overhead costs were increased by 28% when the CDN dollar reduced by that much but that is not the reality at all. Generally developers get more efficient at producing content and therefore reduce their costs but what's happened is PGI has quietly increased the of their packages to all customers as the CDN dollar has dropped.

[Roadkill]

Grimlox, on 21 December 2015 - 01:13 PM, said:

Sure but what is PGI's overhead for creating mech packages? All their staff used to create the actual mech from art, design, QA, advertising in game etc. (likely paid in roughly the same amount of CDN dollars today as it was 2 years ago), office space/parking/supplies (all located in Canada as far as I know and would not have changed with the dollar reducing in value), licensing fees (this might be paid in USD but is I'm guessing a very small part of the overall cost to get the mech to your PC.

I live in Seattle, so I'm reasonably familiar with costs in Vancouver. And from my point of view - even using the strong US dollar - Vancouver is crazy expensive. PGI isn't based in Vancouver instead of somewhere in the US in order to save money on the FX. They're based in Vancouver because that's where their principals live.

[DAYLEET]

Sylonce, on 21 December 2015 - 11:09 AM, said:

I dunno about other Canadians, but 0.72 USD per CAD, it's getting increasingly hard to justify buying packs from here on.

For PGI, I suppose it just means less Canadian customers.

And here's the thing, even though it's at 0.72 they charge you as if it was 0.50. Try it.

[Grimlox]

Roadkill, on 21 December 2015 - 01:11 PM, said:

Doesn't change anything. PGI sells their goods in US dollars. If your native currency isn't US dollars, you abide by the exchange rate.

It's pretty simple.

I completely understand how exchange rates work. The point stands though that PGI is making 20-25%+ more profit on it's sales because the USD they are taking in are worth that much more than the CDN dollars used to pay the vast majority of their bills. They are getting away with it because their american customers are oblivious or don't care and because their canadian customers are a small enough sales market that losing some of those sales doesn't begin to offset the increased profit from the US sales.

Awesome for PGI to quietly be increasing their profits so significantly but they might be able to make even more money if they treated it like other commodities. For example lumber sales from Canada to US increase when our dollar devalues because that huge US market has more buying power and Canadian lumber industry can increase sales while they still pay all their bills in CDN dollars. PGI could do the same. Imagine if the Origin IIC full package was $60USD instead of $80USD. They would increase their volume of sales significantly while still earning as much profit per package sole in CDN dollars as they always did to pay their CDN bills. Even if they adjusted it halfway to account for any potential USD bills they have that would still be good for everyone. As it is they opted to just quietly pocket the profit increase instead. Probably a missed opportunity to grow their playerbase and profits if you ask me.

[Sylonce]

DAYLEET, on 21 December 2015 - 01:21 PM, said:

And here's the thing, even though it's at 0.72 they charge you as if it was 0.50. Try it.

Holy jesus, ouch! You are right! Just for giggles, I clicked buy on an $80 pack, went to the paypal store, and it asked for $120 cad...

on the current exchange rate, it should only be $111.74