The Australian government is moving to impose a goods and services tax on “intangibles” such as Netflix by 10% after a review in 2012 found that about $1 billion in revenue is lost due to overseas retailers.
What this could mean for Australian gamers, who already pay more for games in general, is now they may have to pay even more for Steam games. Steam does not currently show Australian currency prices and how exactly the tax will be applied is still being discussed.
Some Australians are speaking out about it on PC Gamer forums. A post from user NekoYukai states that they already pay $100 USD for a game Americans pay $60 USD. She goes on to say that for those who want to stop pirating they are going about it wrong.
We already pay close to $100 AUD for games which Americans pay close to $60 USD thanks to exchange rates and our overheads which the Government must get their hands on. Now, we will be forced to pay even more money to the Government. Why bother, the money isn’t even going to be spent on infrastructure which can be used to download the games at a decent rate… let alone play them. For people who want to stop us Pirating they’re doing a really… really… really bad job…
So it seems before the tax is even approved in the budget Australian gamers are already outspoken about it.
To all those Australian Gamers out there, we feel for you.
