i_rock098 Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 Why blame only Ubisoft? Many corporates from multiple industries have taken advantage of our cheap labor however it is good for the Indian economy. As for regional pricing for games, use the same logic for IPhones. Well to be honest all should be blamed for not following regional pricing but atleast jap publishers can claim ignorance that they have no idea about the Indian purchasing power which Ubisoft can't claim because they have a studio here employing people and they very well know the purchasing power of people here. Also iphone concept cannot be directly applied to a software. Unlike an iphone a game does not have any incremental cost. I.e selling one additional iphone 11 will cost apple 200$ BOM + shipping + import taxes rates limiting how cheap they can sell the product to atleast cover this cost. In software one additional copy the license does not cost anything atleast digitally (maybe the cost of the download server). Hence it actually is very well possible for them to do regional pricing if they wish to. Sent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playstationdude Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 (edited) 8 minutes ago, i_rock098 said: Well to be honest all should be blamed for not following regional pricing but atleast jap publishers can claim ignorance that they have no idea about the Indian purchasing power which Ubisoft can't claim because they have a studio here employing people and they very well know the purchasing power of people here. Also iphone concept cannot be directly applied to a software. Unlike an iphone a game does not have any incremental cost. I.e selling one additional iphone 11 will cost apple 200$ BOM + shipping + import taxes rates limiting how cheap they can sell the product to atleast cover this cost. In software one additional copy the license does not cost anything atleast digitally (maybe the cost of the download server). Hence it actually is very well possible for them to do regional pricing if they wish to. Sent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk They dont do regional pricing because people abroad will start buying games from the Indian store which will end up hurting the revenue. Regional pricing was possible if we had region locking on consoles, which we don't anymore. Also Indian sales figures are insignificant. Edited September 12, 2020 by playstationdude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylanjosh Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 (edited) 47 minutes ago, i_rock098 said: Hey guys, i wanted your opinions on one thing that has been bugging me a lot since this announcement. What are your thoughts on Ubisoft using cheap Indian labour to create games. (they pay their game testers 16k per month, devs get 40-50k per month) but they don't give regional pricing on their games and expect Indians to spend European prices on their games. Do you think this is fair/ethical? Yep its unethical. It's exploitation - imo they should be paying higher salaries. Yes its allowed, and its legal, and its being done a lot, and its been done for a long time. That doesn't make it ethical. Edited September 12, 2020 by dylanjosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylanjosh Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 2 minutes ago, playstationdude said: They dont do regional pricing because people abroad will start buying games from the Indian store which will end up hurting the revenue. Regional pricing was possible if we had region locking on consoles, which we don't anymore. Also Indian sales figures are insignificant. What abt physical media? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mysteryman Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 2 minutes ago, i_rock098 said: Well to be honest all should be blamed for not following regional pricing but atleast jap publishers can claim ignorance that they have no idea about the Indian purchasing power which Ubisoft can't claim because they have a studio here employing people and they very well know the purchasing power of people here. Also iphone concept cannot be directly applied to a software. Unlike an iphone a game does not have any incremental cost. I.e selling one additional iphone 11 will cost apple 200$ BOM + shipping + import taxes rates limiting how cheap they can sell the product to atleast cover this cost. In software one additional copy the license does not cost anything atleast digitally (maybe the cost of the download server). Hence it actually is very well possible for them to do regional pricing if they wish to. Sent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk They can do regional pricing but that would cause a resale problem like buying games here and selling abroad or people buying games in the Indian store via VPN like with Argentina Steam. As we know, no one cares about the purchasing power of Indians for luxury products or basically any product made abroad. Since gaming is a niche market in India, they go for a higher premium or price skimming strategy as their target is the upper middle class and higher who are not bothered with the extra premium. Same applies for the fast food chains like McDonalds Or Dunkin Donuts where prices are actually higher than the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarbonCore Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 I thought Ubisoft had regional pricing? I haven't bought sh*t from Uplay for a long time but back then they sold games for like 1500rs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playstationdude Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 1 minute ago, dylanjosh said: What abt physical media? Games are not stamped in India, they are imported. Hence would cost them the same to get a copy here as it would to get it anywhere else. Plus our local duties upto 40%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roun90 Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 (edited) 19 minutes ago, i_rock098 said: Well to be honest all should be blamed for not following regional pricing but atleast jap publishers can claim ignorance that they have no idea about the Indian purchasing power which Ubisoft can't claim because they have a studio here employing people and they very well know the purchasing power of people here. Also iphone concept cannot be directly applied to a software. Unlike an iphone a game does not have any incremental cost. I.e selling one additional iphone 11 will cost apple 200$ BOM + shipping + import taxes rates limiting how cheap they can sell the product to atleast cover this cost. In software one additional copy the license does not cost anything atleast digitally (maybe the cost of the download server). Hence it actually is very well possible for them to do regional pricing if they wish to. Sent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk Look, Business 101 = Minimize the cost as much as possible and Maximize the Revenue as much as possible. That gives the maximum profits. That's why companies even work in the first place. So long as companies are not exploiting (Sweatshops), or breaking the laws, this is a win-win situation. Company gets products cheaply made, and employees get jobs and salaries as per the country's income level. If any company has to pay home country, e.g. US or EU level salary, they will keep the jobs in US and EU, and not provide work elsewhere. Your lower salary model, does not even make sense, because cost of living in US and EU is much higher than here, so companies have to provide higher salary. For example, in UK, cost of 1 vegetable - which lasts for 1 or max 2 time meals (Raw Fresh Veg, not hotel food) is 1 - 2 pounds. That's 100-200 Rs. And this was 7 years ago. Now with inflation and covid, it will be even more. That's not the case here. Now, as for regional pricing - it's not relevant here at all. Regional Pricing has nothing to do with costs. The only reason companies provide regional pricing is - hoping that gaming culture can be promoted in the country, and hope that sales increases for their next games. This is just a strategy. Another strategy is, price as high as anywhere else or even more - and derive the higher revenue only from those who purchase it. Cos can even give up on markets in such a strategy. Companies are not your Friends. Their final, ultimate aim is not to increase customers, satisfy customers, do good PR, provide value or anything else - whatever BS they may spew. They are not charities. Their only aim is to get maximum profits - and that's it. Pricing etc. are all just one part of the strategy and nothing else. They do not have 1 band or % of profits above which they will not take. They will take whatever maximum possible they can make. Hence, whether to give regional price, paying employees are all just part of a strategy and not co-related to each other at all - other than maximizing profit calculations. Edited September 12, 2020 by roun90 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_rock098 Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 They dont do regional pricing because people abroad will start buying games from the Indian store which will end up hurting the revenue. Regional pricing was possible if we had region locking on consoles, which we don't anymore. Also Indian sales figures are insignificant.For digital games this should not be that difficult to solve in terms of forcing the lower price to be only available on Indian cards and limiting the number of times a single card can buy that game. This is just some rudimentary methods that I can think at the top of my head. I am sure a company of their size making software can figure out a better method for uplay if they want. Yep its unethical. It's exploitation - imo they should be paying higher salaries. Yes its allowed, and its legal, and its being done a lot, and its been done for a long time. That doesn't make it ethical. Exactly why I feel its extremely unethical. The 16k salary is peanuts especially for someone living in Mumbai or Pune where the office are. Their own employees can't afford their games which i dont think is true for any game studio in any country. They can do regional pricing but that would cause a resale problem like buying games here and selling abroad or people buying games in the Indian store via VPN like with Argentina Steam. As we know, no one cares about the purchasing power of Indians for luxury products or basically any product made abroad. Since gaming is a niche market in India, they go for a higher premium or price skimming strategy as their target is the upper middle class and higher who are not bothered with the extra premium. Same applies for the fast food chains like McDonalds Or Dunkin Donuts where prices are actually higher than the US. Like I mentioned above for digital sales there are methods to prevent people outside the region buying the games and I am pretty sure they can develop a method to prevent it on uplay.As for the second part everyone knows game development is absolutely sh*t here in India. If they can take a risk in trying to grow it by having an Indian studio develop the game to grow the development scene why can't the same be done for the gaming scene. The game development scene in India will only grow if companies give opportunity for Indian studios to make games like Ubisoft have. Similarly the game buying scene will only grow if you price them affordable for people to actually purchase it. If you keep saying saying no one cares, it's niche etc how will it grow in the first place? Sent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playstationdude Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 (edited) If you're not happy with the salary , dont join them? There are plenty of IT companies that offer better salaries to freshers. It all boils down to a passion for game development. Similar to what underpaid mangakas and animators go through in Japan. They have no obligation to make it cheaper here just because being developed here. Edited September 12, 2020 by playstationdude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 Ubisoft games have regional pricing on EPIC store. Not on UPLAY because that only has EU and NA pricing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_rock098 Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 I thought Ubisoft had regional pricing? I haven't bought sh*t from Uplay for a long time but back then they sold games for like 1500rs.Watch dogs legion gold edition is 8.7khttps://store.ubi.com/ie/game?pid=5cec2d8639798c0870c07699&dwvar_5cec2d8639798c0870c07699_Platform=pcdl&edition=Gold%20Edition&source=detailSent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 1 minute ago, playstationdude said: If you're not happy with the salary , dont join them? There are plenty of IT companies that offer better salaries to freshers. It all boils down to a passion for game development. Similar to what underpaid mangakas and animators go through in Japan. This. Working in gaming industry comes with a lot of passion and really $$$ job at entry level. You need years of experience to get higher and better. Also, every industry uses Indian labor. I don't think it is cheap labor as it in within Indian salary range. Are you getting paid $80-120K/yearly in India? If not, why you expect a foreign company to pay you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mysteryman Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 1 minute ago, Joe Cool said: Ubisoft games have regional pricing on EPIC store. Not on UPLAY because that only has EU and NA pricing. And steam too offer regional pricing. The only catch is that you need an expensive and high end PC to play them. Maybe not this game but the games we know of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 2 minutes ago, i_rock098 said: Watch dogs legion gold edition is 8.7khttps://store.ubi.com/ie/game?pid=5cec2d8639798c0870c07699&dwvar_5cec2d8639798c0870c07699_Platform=pcdl&edition=Gold%20Edition&source=detail Get from EPIC store. You get UPLAY version + regional pricing + coupon works too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 Just now, Mysteryman said: And steam too offer regional pricing. The only catch is that you need an expensive and high end PC to play them. Maybe not this game but the games we know of. Ubisoft games are all CPU heavy. It don't matter what rig you have you will bottleneck anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_rock098 Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 Get from EPIC store. You get UPLAY version + regional pricing + coupon works too. Even the epic store version is quite expensive at 74$ for the gold edition. Like all other ubi games will wait for it to fall to 1k before buying.Also buying from epic means Epic+Uplay+Denuvo+Vmprotect my CPU will cry tears of blood. Sent from my ASUS_I001DE using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STICK3Rboy Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 4 minutes ago, i_rock098 said: Also buying from epic means Epic+Uplay+Denuvo+Vmprotect my CPU will cry tears of blood. You can run the game directly from uplay once you've bought it from EGS. You don't need to run the epic client. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 (edited) $74 vs $120 is still very good though. 40% less. EPIC version doesn't require epic client. Some weird arse store. I don't remember buying Ultimate edition shtie. Too much crap filled stuff and DLCs are barely any good these days. Just get base game if interested and wait for DLC sale. Or full game sale. UPLAY also has sub service. $15 get all the games for a month. Edited September 12, 2020 by Joe Cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right Posted September 12, 2020 Report Share Posted September 12, 2020 1 hour ago, i_rock098 said: Hey guys, i wanted your opinions on one thing that has been bugging me a lot since this announcement. What are your thoughts on Ubisoft using cheap Indian labour to create games. (they pay their game testers 16k per month, devs get 40-50k per month) but they don't give regional pricing on their games and expect Indians to spend European prices on their games. Do you think this is fair/ethical? If they pay the same salary they pay to devs in say Canada, they probably won't run the studio here. And for any MNC in that matter, India and Vietnam will remain cost-centers. They come here to get a lot of side-work/maintenance work done here for cheap, so they don't need to get super expensive resources for it in the US. While coming to the games if you are paying 60$ for their game, you are still getting the same product for which US guys the same monies. Regional pricing is a privilege and not a right, it is important to experiment with for the company so the region slowly picks the consumption, but if the company doesn't see the future potential, they may not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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