By now I think you're fully aware of the ongoing price discrimination that occurs on Origin, Steam and UPlay. It's the sole reason I made this site! When Borderlands 2 GOTY goes for $79.99 USD here in Australia, it makes me want to throw up a little in my mouth.
Whilst the differences in Steam prices from country to country is well documented, I thought I would have a look at the Origins stores, apply the same exercise and compare their prices.
Using the Hola Plugin (it's amazing) I had a look over the Australia, US, UK, and Mexican stores. I took a look at the games on the front of the pages for all the stores, what should be easily taken as being the most popular and recent releases, as well as including deals, and compared. There are a lot of other stores as well!
All prices are converted to USD using the latest rates.
[one_fourth]Game[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]AU Origin[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]US Origin[/one_fourth] [one_fourth_last]MEX Origin[/one_fourth_last]
[one_fourth]FIFA 15[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$80[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]69.99[/one_fourth] [one_fourth_last]$44.99[/one_fourth_last]
[one_fourth]Dragon Age 3[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$80[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$59.99[/one_fourth] [one_fourth_last]$39.99[/one_fourth_last]
[one_fourth]The Sims 4[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$71.25[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$59.99[/one_fourth] [one_fourth_last]$34.99[/one_fourth_last]
[one_fourth]Titanfall [/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$24.90[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$19.99[/one_fourth] [one_fourth_last]$13.59[/one_fourth_last]
[one_fourth]Watch Dogs[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$80[/one_fourth] [one_fourth]$89.99[/one_fourth] [one_fourth_last]$39.99[/one_fourth_last]
As expected, the prices differences are insane. Us poor Aussies get screwed again. To add salt to the wounds, a new Ultimate Edition Fifa 15 CD Key, is even cheaper than even the cheapest store we track!
What we also need to be aware of is that a deal on the US Origin store might not be a deal on the other stores as well.
Early last year, literally weeks after the game was released, SimCity went for a lazy $27AUD on the Indian store. That deal was not available on the other stores, and it was only for a day or so. You had to be quick.
Can you buy from these stores? Yes you can. As always, there is an element of risk, and is probabaly against Origins Terms & Services agreement. Let us know in the comments if you have ever had an issue. We would be interested to know.