the corporate level and slugging the shops with a higher price and franchise fees when they sell it, in turn double dipping. Many shops have gone broke because of this. I would have thought with imports, the profitibality of the stores would be strong and we would be seeing them in large numbers compete aginst the likes of EB. Once again greedy corporate level management. No wonder the poor guys carry toys , t-shirts, figures etc to keep their head above water. I spoke to the ACCC about this a couple of weeks back; they advised parallel importing with CDs was sorted out years ago, but that ruling didn't cover this one - so it'll have to go to court to get sorted out first. They did confirm, however, that the publishers are doing the wrong thing. However they advised the ACCC won't act on it, someone else will have to take it to court. (First of all, the Facebook connect button in the comments section has gone crazy and won't let me comment; there's no box even though I'm logged in) An interesting article, and you managed to get some intriguing answers (or parts of the answer) even though just about nobody will comment on the true factors behind the price disparity. I definitely agree that the price rises probably aren't in large part the fault of retailers or even publishers (if it's true that Australia isn't a very profitable market). Then again, a $50 difference in new console