Civilization 5 Gets Steamworks, Deluxe Edition; Aussies Get Screwed on Pricing

Post by trog @ 11:13am 07/05/10 | 47 Comments

2K have announced that the upcoming Civilization 5 will be getting the full Steamworks, uh, works - "auto-updating, Steam Achievements, downloadable content, multiplayer matchmaking and more". Not only that, there will be a separate "Deluxe Edition" available exclusively on Steam with some special content:

Gamers who pre-order any version of Sid Meier’s Civilization V from Steam will receive the downloadable bonus content, Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia, for free when the game is available. The map pack will let players experience the traditional Western and Middle Eastern “Cradle of Civilization.” The pack will include the Fertile Crescent with the Nile River valley to the west and extending east down the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the Persian Gulf. Leaders will be able to explore new terrain, cultures and conquests.

The Steam page for Civ5 indicates that for Australians, pricing will be USD$79.95 for the regular version and USD$89.95 for the deluxe edition.

Americans will get the two versions for USD$49.99 and USD$59.99 respectively. So once again it looks like we're getting screwed on pricing with a USD$30 Australia tax thrown on top.

We have contacted 2K for comment on the massive pricing difference so we'll update if we get more information. It should be noted that the pricing is set by the publisher (in this case, 2K) and not Steam.

civilization 5 steam

Latest Comments

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darkjedi
Posted 11:31am 07/5/10

Here's a handy comparison of the pricing:

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trog
Posted 11:35am 07/5/10

dj, did you make that image? mind if I use it?

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Hogfather
Posted 11:37am 07/5/10

F*** em, I have enough game in my Steam account + Blizzard to keep me going until this is a 10-20USD Steam bundle.

Their nose must really hate face!

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darkjedi
Posted 11:44am 07/5/10

Oops. Beaten by trog.. Ah well.

In response, I'd like to offer the following:

"F*** you 2k".

That is all.

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darkjedi
Posted 11:48am 07/5/10

I did make it trog.. You're more than welcome to use it.

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pimento
Posted 12:12pm 07/5/10

Well, that's a good way to make sure no one here buys it.. or to make everyone get around the price hike anyway. I'll put my tick in the not buying it box anyway.

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Josh
Posted 12:16pm 07/5/10

Lets us know what 2k says.

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CHUB
Posted 12:23pm 07/5/10

Would have happily dropped $50 on a new Civ game, I still play Alpha C. a fair bit.

I won't get price gouged though... there's more quality games then I even finish for me to ignore s*** like this.

Suck a f*** for regional pricing, THIS is what promotes piracy.

last edited by CHUB at 12:23:18 07/May/10

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natslovR
Posted 12:26pm 07/5/10

I have bought every civilization game and addon for pc so far (and even iPhone) within days of them being released, sometimes even preorder, but being price f***ed like that means I won't be paying for this one.

It makes me feel way dirtier than mugging an old lady for it as she leaves EB, so that's what I'll do.

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taggs
Posted 12:26pm 07/5/10

vpn + cc=us thingy will still work on steam store, right?

i'll end up buying the deluxe version no matter what cause i'm a sucker for civ games but if i can save myself 30USD i'll be much happier :D

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konstie
Posted 12:34pm 07/5/10

in the Rockstar thread I think someone got their purchase refunded when they tried the VPN method

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BoneyD
Posted 12:36pm 07/5/10

There's gotta be some agency we can go to with this, surely. Would the ACCC take complaints on the subject? I know Steam is hosted overseas, but all of these publishers work within Australian borders as well.

I should point out that ALL of the other digital distributers are moving to block off Australians from making purchases. Direct2Drive used to sell to us, GamersGate is now doing region blocking on EA titles, Impulse... etc, etc.

It's not that we're being charged more because of the long shipping distances, conversion rates, which i'd be happy to accept (to a degree). They have the same overheads delivering digital content to their US/UK customers as to us. Quite simply, they're bilking Australians because they know we can't do anything about it and our dollar is worth a lot.

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CHUB
Posted 12:39pm 07/5/10

in the Rockstar thread I think someone got their purchase refunded when they tried the VPN method

LOL? Why?

It would go like this.

1. Buy US Civ 5
=$50 profit
2. Refunded US Civ 5
=$0 profit
3.a) Forget about Civ 5 altogether and go buy any of the other awesome games for $50
b) Pirate Civ 5
=$0 profit

WIN!

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Trauma
Posted 01:54pm 07/5/10

Cheaper still in the UK as a pre-purchase. store.steampowered.com/?cc=uk

£29.99 & £39.99 for regular and deluxe respectively, exchange rate puts them at $49.80 & $66.60 AUD respectively. Pre-purchase saves £10 & also includes Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia.

$49.99USD & $59.99USD comes too $56.00AUD & $67.30AUD

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th4w
Posted 02:31pm 07/5/10

JOIN THE FIGHT
--------------------

http://blogs.watoday.com.au/digital-life/screenplay/higherlogo.html

http://blogs.theage.com.au/digital-life/screenplay/2010/04/19/afewyearsago.html

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hardcore
Posted 02:54pm 07/5/10

Also if you haven't already add yourself to the "Rest of World" public steam group.

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trog
Posted 03:09pm 07/5/10

We did a quick little infographicz that shows all the price differences: http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/2896195

Plz digg and share it if you can - we're going to be using this particular game to really start hammering on publishers about their price differences. This is a good one as we have a few months of lead time to work on them before the game is released, so there's a lot of opportunity to make people aware of the price difference BEFORE they shell out their money for the game.

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Osmodius
Posted 03:23pm 07/5/10

So, guess who's gonna not be buying Civ5?! :D

*Hint*: Me.

Though they have a while to pull their s*** together.

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Trauma
Posted 03:43pm 07/5/10

Nice Trog. Made a Digg account just for this.

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Conan
Posted 04:13pm 07/5/10

What wankers. Digital distro could and should have been a great way for dev's to bypass the publishers which in turn would mean more money for them and us. It's just being used as a tool for c**** to be c****. Let's take a dump on these guys, wtf are they gonna do about it! Haha!

Civ4 had some nice additions but the combat went way backwards. Combat has always been the poorly done part throughout the series, I think Civ3 had the best but it was still s***.

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Draxonic
Posted 06:48pm 07/5/10

Well, it'll be a case of them getting screwed rather than me, because this means that I simply won't buy it.

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Thermal Ions
Posted 07:21pm 07/5/10

No sale. 2K seems to be about the worst at price gouging Australians lately. Do the retail game outlets in Australia really have that much pull with Publishers to force this sort of action or is it genuine gouging by Publishers?

Good luck on getting a response Trog. My most recent attempts at contacting their support was a query around Borderlands DLC availability after they'd pulled the main game from Steam. Took months to get a real person response (not quite the 72 hours their auto responder indicated). After further delay they then eventually told me that they "don't know if the DLC would be available in Australia". Of course by that time BL had been restored (at the Aussie premium taxed price) and the DLC had been released (also at their hiked prices) on Steam.

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shera
Posted 08:23pm 07/5/10

Dugg, Tweeted, shared on FB.

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Storm
Posted 09:10pm 07/5/10

Like I keep saying, the local publishers are doing this to appease the local bricks and mortar games retailers.

So if you really want to make a difference, send a letter to the ACCC highlighting this, and citing abuse of market power by the said EB's.

If the ACCC actually investigates and finds said parties guilty, they'll have to get used to the oh-so-flattering hue of orange overalls.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:24pm 07/5/10

O well, I was most likely going to buy this. However the prices have totally turned me against that.

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Osmodius
Posted 12:35am 08/5/10

And companies wonder why people pirate.

Stop screwing over your customers, and they might f*****g support you.

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Hogfather
Posted 12:06pm 09/5/10

Dugg and FB'd. Will not buy, stop the Australia Tax!

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DarthGuybrush
Posted 09:23pm 09/5/10

Well Civ IV was cheap at US$10 so bargain. As far as V don't buy it.

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Target
Posted 10:02am 12/5/10

Also screw having a gameplay-changing deluxe edition (an extra civ and leader). Way to fracture your userbase.

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Dazhel
Posted 10:07am 12/5/10

The awesome beaches tax getting hiked this far up deserved a special mention in the Federal budget I reckon.

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mrbign
Posted 12:03pm 15/9/10

Import! CD-WOW have it for $52 shipped. They're not always quick but they're almost always cheap.
Steam is a real disappointment when big companies force the same overcharging as retail. I love Steam but when it's being used as a rape tool it's not so cool. 2K must be run by d***wolves, it's the only logical conclusion (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/11/).

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Vash
Posted 12:16pm 15/9/10

So, does making a second steam account in a U.S name and gifting it to your main account still work? Or does it go off where your credit card is located?

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taggs
Posted 12:30pm 15/9/10

i'm a little ashamed to admit this but i couldn't help myself and crossed the picket line. i've already pre-ordered the deluxe edition on steam; it's pre-loading now.

i'm such a dirty scab :(

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deadlyf
Posted 12:35pm 15/9/10

I've been using one of those Steam Key selling sites for purchases of price gouged games. Got Mafia 2 from G2Play for $55.

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TiT
Posted 12:49pm 15/9/10

I've been using one of those Steam Key selling sites for purchases of price gouged games. Got Mafia 2 from G2Play for $55.

So how does that work. you put your cd key into steam and it reconize it?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:58pm 15/9/10

we're going to be using this particular game to really start hammering on publishers about their price differences.

How has that gone?

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Jabroney
Posted 12:58pm 15/9/10

just did a quick search on G2play, does this mean we can get it here for $48AUD and workable with steam?? any catch?

linky to g2play

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Obes
Posted 01:21pm 15/9/10

2k are one of the d***wad publishers that I no longer buy from.

They can regionalize my left nut.

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Dazhel
Posted 03:17pm 15/9/10

If they put it in a different region to your right nut that sounds painful Obes.

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Nakor
Posted 07:12am 24/9/10

just did a quick search on G2play, does this mean we can get it here for $48AUD and workable with steam?? any catch?

linky to g2play

yeah...you cant do that from Aus

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Denny
Posted 09:04am 24/9/10

$40 AUD

http://www.ozgameshop.com/pc-games/sid-meiers-civilization-v-5-game-pc

Problem Solved.

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Nerfosaurus
Posted 09:11am 24/9/10

As I understand it all versions of this game tie into steam, so that copy should be just the same as any other. Though if anybody could confirm that it would be great.

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natslovR
Posted 11:00am 24/9/10

wrong thread

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Mist17
Posted 03:46pm 27/9/10

bloody hell

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Aussie Ottiger
Posted 12:21pm 28/9/10

guys buy the game for $40 here

http://www.ozgameshop.com/pc-games/sid-meiers-civilization-v-5-game-pc

they import game boxes from UK.

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Nerfosaurus
Posted 01:05pm 28/9/10

Think it's already been established that the boxes are region locked.

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chilliman
Posted 03:23pm 03/10/10

doesn't the article state that the price difference is due to the publisher 2K and not Steam? why all the anger at Steam over this when in THIS case it's not their fault?

Commenting has been locked for this item.

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