I tried to figure out, why the costs for buying offers differ that much. I couldn’t find any logical or comprehensible reason, exept making more many.
I think SG has to explain why they are acting this way and align the prices worldwide.
Why should I pay nearly 25 Euros more than an USD payer?
I brought to screenshots taken form oanda.com which show the difference.
It feels like I have to be punished for beeing an Euro payer , so SG please change this quickly, cause it isn’t fair!
Most of Europe has 19-25% Value-Added Tax. Norway in particular has 25%, so we get to pay 25% more than Americans, who don’t pay sales tax on Internet purchases.
Yes that’s a tax result.
First most (all, not sure) countries in Europe collect taxes on in app purchases.
Also most/many,( I think something about 40) states in USA collect taxes.
But why you get such a high difference is because in Europe those taxes are already included in the price, you pay what you see.
In the United States its normally a price without tax, so in some states (without tax) you will only pay what you can see here, but for most the price rises up. I think the rate is lower than in most European countries so they probably still pay less but the difference is not that huge.
That’s also on “real” goods so, if you buy something in a shop or go eating in a restaurant in Europe in most countries you will see the price you will pay, whereas in most(all?) states in the USA you will get a price without tax and see the real price when you pay the bill.
Well, my experience is totally different to yours. I started playing over 2.5 years ago. I quickly worked out that deals were based on the value of the $USD compared to local currency valuation. So in my case, the USD/AUD exchange rate has been virtually static in that time and there have been zero fluctuations, imbalances or anything on pricing. Maybe look into your local taxation system and currency valuation? Clearly this impacts on countries with high inflation rates, but Europe?
Here you can see the states were Google collect some taxes, that’s 47 (if I didn’t miscounted) so for nearly every American the price you can see in the game is not the price they in reality have to pay.
Still seems to be a bit high even if you deduct the VAT.
I don’t know where OP lives but if the prices he listed are correct then that’s 30% higher then US. Seems to be a nice margin higher then the VAT accounts for.
Maybe to keep prices stable and not to regulate with varying exchanged rates. But does look like somebody (google) is pocketing a nice bit extra?
It’s 37% for Apple. They are being sued for this hefty cut currently. Didn’t go into the details. Waiting for the outcome.
Apple uses in house exchange rates, and generally revises only when a country’s currency has devalued significantly, in the event of hyperinflation or some other reason. Otherwise the exchange rate tends to stay static, even if the home currency has strengthened against USD.
With time, some countries would appear to be more expensive compared to others.
Pack prices for most games are pretty standard. Apple & Google probably has some type of pricing template, in each home currency.
Google is less sticky about Dev using their exchange rates. Dev has more leeway. However, Apple is very sticky and does not allow exceptions. Some Game Dev do adjust Google pricing to match that of Apple, but not all do this; hence the difference in pricing between Apple & Google.
This is a sticky issue currently, leading to some games being offered only in Google.
Someone did post price difference in VN Dong earlier, after EP exited Vietnam; probably due to the difference between Apple & Google pack pricing policies.
We actually do pay sales tax on internet purchases if you are purchasing an item and the company you are buying it from has a location in the state that you reside in. They are slowly but surely going to tax us regardless of the state boundaries.
Yes, that would happen if tax applies in that jurisdiction.
I can check for Malaysia and Singapore for sure. Cos I am from Singapore and there’s currently no tax on pixel “international” purchases; company must be SG resident to have VAT applied to their SG sales.
There’s no VAT in MY currently.
So it’s a straight-forward comparison between prices. Last check with a buddy: SG players paid about 30% more than MY players. The only logical explanation would be “frozen forex translation rates”.
Bank forex charges do apply on each and every EP txn that I commit too. Based on their in-house service rates. It didnt used to apply and I only noticed this recently, maybe last few months. Usually less than S$2 per txn, depending on txn value.
Interesting. Our GST (VAT) is just built into the listed price (by law) so we don’t get to see it ever as an added tax on an invoice. The listed price is the price we pay.
Tourist to our wonderful home are eligible for rebates on departure. We give you cash when you leave but then you are not local consumers.
, so SG please change this quickly, cause it isn’t fair!
It suckes very hard paying so much more than players from other continents! 
