Back when StarCraft II was released, as a huge strategy game fan, I made it quite clear why I was not going to get StarCraft II in this post. I'm not going to repeat myself much here. Diablo III I'm pretty sure is an excellent game(as was StarCraft II) but priced at RM218(at average) in Malaysia, makes it roughly at USD$70. The game goes for USD$60 in North America. This makes our region... yet again... one of the most expensive retail price for Blizzard games. Asiasoft, the new distributor for Blizzard games in this region is no better than IAH Games who used setting up network infrastructure and back end for the excuse of pricing StarCraft II at a much higher price.
According to this blog post on NGNT, a Singapore retailer, QiSahn.com, has even been blacklisted by Asiasoft for trying to sell Diablo III at SG$65.90.... lower than the suggested retail price... go figure! This issue has since been settled and Qisahn has said it was due to 'miscommunication'. Diablo III is going for SG$89 on Battle.net which is still USD$70 when converted. Which means, just like StarCraft II, I wont be playing Diablo III. Out of principle, Malaysian Gamer will not be buying or reviewing Diablo III but we will cover whatever news related to Diablo III due to community interests. If you plan on buying Diablo III, I would suggest you seek out cheaper retail avenues than to pay the exorbitant price the South East Asian distributors are forcing on consumers. I'll just wait for Torchlight II.
Get a Job, manage you're money well... And you will have no problem purchasing it. For its a reasonable price as for like BF3, COD4, SKYRIM and many more all roughly at that range or price... There are some outlet selling RM218, RM208 and some even as low as RM180.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with your reply, only if COD, BF3, Skyrim and many many more were also priced above 200+ rm.
DeleteHowever it's twice Blizzards SEA distro has priced thier game at 200+ and I believe it won't be the last time. For if theres a high demand on thier game, people wouldn't mind paying an extra 30-60 RM for thier games.
Cause afterall people are idiots and therefore very easily falling into hype.
Getting a job, managing your money well will not change the fact that they inflate the price of the game for the SEA region. I know there are cheaper alternatives and will be getting Torchlight II because I know I'm not being charged more than North America... not because it is cheaper. I'm not buying this because of distributor/publisher shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteAs I wrote, I suggest everyone try to cut out the local distributor and try to buy D3 from cheaper source.
just buy digital version/order from amazon if you don't want to buy from distributor
ReplyDeleteThat is agreeable. Digital version still more than US pricing on sea.battle.net.
Deletehmm.. isn't SEA grouped under the Americas region? and aren't they implementing Global play or whatnot?
DeleteI'm just wondering cause I bought the game here (US) but will be in Malaysia for the summer.
it is global play indeed.
Deletebut in case if you want to play, you have to register a battle.net ID
and my battle.net ID is limited to buy SEA D3 which is SGD90 (roughly RM215+)
while other places selling cheaper than this =(
(the most important thing is I cant buy via battle.net point card and it asks me to use paypal/credit card which I don't have any of them)
I just asked someone who has an Asian version of D3. They can indeed log in to any server from any of the 3 regions. Asia, EU or US. You shouldn't have any issues.
DeleteI skipped Starcraft 2 but I don't think I can resist Diablo 3. If we want to avoid the official SEA distributor, what's the best option currently out there?
ReplyDeleteThe only option is online. Getting a North American version should be an issue since you can log in to any server. Or you can even purchase from those selling the game cheaper. Check LYN forums such as this thread:
ReplyDeletehttps://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1504379/+1680
Online is your best bet.
Www.playasia.com cheap and free shipping! If buy more than usd60 will get usd5 discount coupon!
ReplyDelete