People always complain about the price of gaming. This has been the case for years, but it’s especially true when you compare the price of consoles in the US to those in the UK. Having lived in both countries, I can attest to the fact that American gamers look at British pricing and shake their heads; sad that their english-speaking brethren pay so much for their favorite hobby.
Is this really the case, though? Sure, it’s simple to do a quick conversion and translate British pounds into American dollars, but this doesn’t tell the whole story. When considering cost, there are so many other factors to consider: wages, cost of living, taxes, and cost of transportation, to name just a few. I’d like to spend a few minutes pointing out a major fallacy in the so-called price of British gaming argument.
Okay, so we’ll start with the biggest console launch of the year: The Nintendo Wii U. In the US, the Deluxe Set retails for $350, and in the UK it retails for £300. Anyone with a computer in front of them can work out that £300 works out to $482 - a massive mark-up on the American price! It’s not that simple, though. For a start, the US price doesn’t figure in sales tax, unlike the UK price, which bumps up the cost by a sizeable amount. It’s tough to get a solid figure on US sales tax, as it varies by state and fluctuates, but a conservative figure is 7%.
It would be tough to include every factor, so I’m going to keep this simple. Let’s assume that two minimum wage workers are saving up to buy some gaming stuff, one in the US and one in the UK. In the US, the average minimum wage is $7.25 and in the UK it’s £6.19 (this is for people over 21, but the ESA lists the average age of a gamer as 30, so I think this figure is fair).
Alright, so the Nintendo Wii U in the US, including an average 7% sales tax, costs $374.50, meaning that a minimum wage worker would have to work around 51.5 hours to pay for it. In the UK, the system (including sales tax) costs £300, so the same minimum wage worker would only have to work around 48 hours to pay it off. As you can see, those in the UK are working less to pay for their new console.
But maybe this is an anomaly. Let’s look at a couple more prices.
The PlayStation Vita, which could be a big seller this holiday season, retails for $250 in the US, or $267.50 after average sales tax. That’s the Wi-fi-only model, by the way. This means that an American minimum wage worker would have to put in about 37 hours to acquire their new system. In the UK, where the same model retails for £220, the worker would only have to clock about 35.5 hours. It’s not a huge difference, but still illustrates the point.
Maybe console prices are unusual, though. What about the cost of games?
Well, game prices are pretty standard, so I’ll just take one recent example: Bethesda’s new game, Dishonored. In the US, this game retails for $60, or $64.20 after average sales tax. Our American minimum wage worker is slaving away for around 9 hours to pay for his stealthy, steampunk fix. However, at £45, his alter ego in the UK is only putting in around 7 hours for the same thing.
This is by no means a definitive study on the cost of gaming around the world, but should show you that simply converting prices from one currency to another doesn’t paint the whole picture. Release dates may be pushed back, games may be cancelled, patches may be needed, but overall, the physical cost of our favorite pastime isn’t that bad.
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