reason why Australia would differ significantly (in terms of buyer sentiment) from similar markets overseas. Good theory if you completely ignore the fact some games on Steam have the same price if not higher than retailers here. Its not Steams doing, trying to charge you $89 USD for a game its the game companies themselves, and this has become all the more so apparent in the past few months as we've come into parity with the USD. The true gamers know all the legal avenues to acquire games for what our fellow US counterparts pay, with better parity and more stores and better trade, there's less strangle hold on the average gamer by the bricks and mortar stores than there used to be. Now its only a matter of time before some of these stores start crying foul and start pushing for better "trade" legislation Ok... so lets try and understand why a game on Steam is North America costs 49.99 US ( Fallout Vegas is a prime example, Civ V is another ) but 89.99 from here in Australia. They don't pay any duty/taxes or anything of the sort?!?! As a great Aussie Poli once said: PLEASE EXPLAIN? Because publishers also want to sell their games through large physical retailers. If they allow Steam to undercut Australian retailers too much, the retailers won't bother to stock the game, and all non-Steam purchases will cease. The publishers feel it's better to require Steam to charge more (increasing profits) than to