Fri, May 06, 2011 | 00:15 BST

Australia: The Witcher 2 to be pricejacked, Fair Price package extended

GOG.com has announced an imminent Australian price increase of over AUD $20 for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – so put your pre-orders in now.

Pre-orders for The Witcher 2 are currently priced at AUD $42.27, but will rise to AUD $62.99 at 1:00 AM EST Saturday May 7 (that’s 3:00 PM GMT, Friday May 6). Once the game launches on May 17, the ten percent pre-order bonus will end, leaving a final price of AUD $69.99.

The price increase has been put down to “licensing issues”. We’ve asked what that means.

Pre-orders made now will not be charged until release date, and the price at time of ordering will be honoured.

GOG.com is taking a conciliatory stance, not only by making the change as public as possible to allow users time to order early, but also by extending the European Fair Price package to Australian customers.

The Fair Price package will compensate those who buy the game at the new price of AUD $69.99 with $26 of store credit on GOG.com – the balance of the US pricing plus the Australian pricejack.

No word yet on Steam’s plans. Boxed special editions of The Witcher 2 will also be available at retail.

5 comments

Dralen
06/05/11, 12:24 am

“The price increase has been put down to “licensing issues””

That old chestnut.

TheWulf
06/05/11, 12:44 am

Yikes. The VAT in the UK bothers me on occasion, but then I remember how horribly unfair things are for anyone in AUS. Ouch! They really need to get that sorted, somehow, or perhaps a site could be setup for people to get games via other people. Though there’s the chance you might get ripped off there, but if you have some trustworthy people to gift you a game, then it could save you some money.

Someone with the resources to setup a site like that should give it a go. I’d do what I could to help out, and it’s not like I’ve never been involved in anything like this before, hence the idea.

darksied
06/05/11, 12:58 am

Can someone explain to me why Australian prices for games are so insanely expensive?

Hunam
06/05/11, 1:08 am

Because AUS overtly tax anything they deem unhealthy.

NeoSquall
06/05/11, 1:13 pm

@4 Are they taxing air and water coming from Japan? /troll