If you do have a Wii, it is worth noting that you can switch the country before buying points and you’ll be charged at that country’s price. You can then switch back to British without losing the points. Sadly though, a PAL Wii can only be set to PAL countries (which excludes Japan and the USA of course). Since Britain is one of the most expensive, switching to just about any other country will save you money though.

I’m assuming the PS3 online shop is a walled garden though (i.e. Sony are the only game in town)?

I’ve no real idea of pricing differences on Wii - you download games using pre-paid “points”, which effectively hides any differences from the user.

What I think we need is an EU-US trade agreement, like we have within the EU, to stop this price-gouging. How about a law that stops companies blocking international online sales?

By the way, will Amazon.com ship a US copy of Flash to Europe?

I wonder which country works out the cheapest? By default, I automatically assumed it would be the States.

I wonder if there is a higher cost due to your purchases having to support fully the adobe infrastructure that is in that country(fewer units sold equals higher price for each unit). Those people’s salaries and benefits do not adjust based on the conversion rate. If the euro goes up it’s more expensive for adobe corporate.

yes, as internet users, breathing it every day making the comparison of prices on the geographical level really does not match our culture of having similar things accessible anywhere and anyhow you connect.

that’s sad to say but that non-geographical “software” (web application, RIA, etc.) we take for granted on the internet, when put within country boundaries just fall into goods and products law of that same country; different taxes, different legal laws, etc.

Except educating government of those countries about those differences (or simply kicking them in the arse real hard), very few can be done for the actual situation, internet is global and immaterial, not goods and products as defined by the law of each countries.

And really, how much I understand how this can apply to a boxed product you could get in a shop, as soon as the material boxing vanish to be a series of bits, I just can not wrap my head around the difference of prices for those same identical bits.

And to those who would tell me that a software you can download is just a convenience so you can get the application right way instead of waiting that shipping box, I would answer what about software which have no boxes, which will always be an immaterial download over the internet ?

sorry for the long post, but it bring me to that point, and an important one imho

ok, for now we’re stuck, Photoshop cost more in the UK than in the US, or PS3 mini-games to stay on topic, ok fine, but what about the slimed down version of Photoshop working as a RIA that you could only use/rent/buy online and would never be able to buy as a box in a store ?

I’m really curious how this gonna evolve with time, for small stuff you can live without as a minigame or find workaround to obtain a fair price, sure the problem is not that big, but for application you can not really download and can only use over the internet, if the same logic is applied the rip off will be really much much more painfull :(.

When will this madness end, huh?

I tell you what, though. When my current personal project matures, I’m gonna be charging the states more than 100% more for copies of it

In the end I bought a new licence for Photoshop Elements. Adobe loose out on my goodwill; a few hundred dollars of revenue; and I tell this story to everyone I meet.

Mike