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Gamers on the continent have faced paying up to 42 per cent more for their copies of Grand Theft Auto V than those buying it in the UK.
That’s according to Idealo, which found that pre-order prices for the game across Europe suggest UK gamers have actually got it pretty good.
Going by the 34.99 price offered on both Xbox 360 and PS3 by Amazon, the site found that consumers in Austria, for instance, faced a 42 per cent higher price on PS3 and 34 per cent on 360. That translates to 49.57 and 46.98 respectively.
Looking just at the PS3 version, German prices are 37 per cent higher, Italian 29 per cent, Polish 25 per cent and French 17 per cent.
Whilst it is generally the case that English-language versions of games tend to be cheaper due to the costs associated with translating games into a local language, interestingly there were also marked differences in the prices even within the Eurozone,” the report reads.
German and French prices had an almost 20 per cent price difference – this even though they use the same currency and their rates of VAT are virtually identical (19 per cent and 19.6 per cent respectively). For comparison, the VAT is marginally higher in the UK at 20 per cent.
The relatively strong Euro to Pound exchange rate may account for some of this difference but it does appear that gamers on the continent are paying more. For those gamers on the continent happy to play the English-language version, however, noticeable savings are possible by purchasing in the UK.”
