Black Raven Dragoons

[Tirian]

... that I just stopped by the local equivalent of GameStop, and Skyrim here is selling legally for 599 rubles ($19.04).

[Grimblast]

Always interesting to see the price of such games else where. I am curious how Bethesda makes a profit from it given what they charge in the US. Oh wait, that's how they make up for it.

[Zancarius]

They can't charge an unreasonable price overseas, particularly in Russia, because they'd lose out to the pirates. I'm sure they justify it by figuring that it's better to make a sale, even at a much lower price point, than it is to make no sale at all.

Though, game prices here in the US have been inflated for years, even before the screams of piracy. Massive studio overhead is a lot of it, but I can't really see how they justify charging $60 for a digital copy of a game that's also $60 at your local brick and mortar store when it costs peanuts to distribute...

[Tirian]

Correct on all counts sir. And you know, I pretty much don't buy pirated software here, because legal retail is so reasonable

[Zancarius]

Yeah, no reason to.

In a strange twist of irony, this is why piracy is good for the consumer: It forces retail prices down and (sometimes) forces companies to provide more value added features. Although, that latter point is iffy; Russian companies produce software with some of the most draconian DRM imaginable while US/European companies tend to strip DRM out of products sold in Russia/China. Weird world we live in...

Though, I do consider lack of DRM value added as you'd agree. Horray for pirates!