Why does the UK have such bad video game deals?

[Lyon21]

Hey Everyone

Is it just me or is anyone else think the deals in UK are crap compared to our friends over the pond. Dont get me wrong if you look hard enough (search every website and check every store) you can find some good deals. I dont have a 360 so thought I would get one for Xmas so found a deal on Gamestation website 360 Arcade system and any 3 games £249.99 (got Call of Duty 4 special edition, Halo special edition and Mass Effect) now that to me is a bloody good deal. I also just got Elite Beat Agents for DS in Gamestation store for £14.99 Brand New and love the game. Even though it is Christmas and places like Amazon, Play and Gamestation are offering good deals (and some rubbsih ones to Ratatouille from £9.99 and Spiderman 3 from £7.99) I have a feeling as soon as Christmas is over we'r not going to see any good deals for ages.

What does everyone else think?

We need more UK DEALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[McBacon]

There's always January Sales.

But I agree, looking over the "Black Friday" deals that our American friends got is a painful excercise.

[Lyon21]

Yeah some of those deals on Black Friday are such great value. I saw a deal on Amazon.com the other day for Time Crisis 4 with the New light Gun for $49.99 and it was for only a limited number of stock and you could see the % that where still left to buy. UK retailers and websites should be looking at deals like this and creating their own. Lets hope with the start of the 2008 soon we will get some decent video game deals. Nice find on Kane & Lynch game pretty good deal for the 360

[L.G.S]

We're never going to get the good deals because of the awful conversion of our currency, taxes and the rest. That's what's stopping me getting a PS3 atm :(

[dracula]

We're never going to get the good deals because of the awful conversion of our currency, taxes and the rest. That's what's stopping me getting a PS3 atm :(

I would think that the conversion of money would really be fantastic for you. The US dollar is really really weak right now and will be in free fall with the hyper inflation caused by the passing of the president's tax rebate law. Also the federal reserve board lowered interest rates, so importing game from the USA will get really really cheap for you-

you would need a few things to play the USA games: either a modded console with the 50/60 hz switch, or you can get a usa console with USA monitor and step up/step down coverter for the voltage conversion.

Then just buy games off of ebay. that would be about a third of the cost of buying retail games at UK prices.

I realize that getting the hardware could get expensive with all of the customs duties, but if you mod your current console to play USA/NTSC games. That would save you a ton of money, especially with the inevitable currency crash of the USA dollar.

Just my 2 cents(i am in the USA)

[John]

I live in the UK and I buy a lot of my games from the US, it saves me a fortune. Here are a few notes on how I do things:

- The biggest mistake people make is ordering games and having them shipped directly from the seller. You'll get hit with high delivery costs and import tax. There are plenty of US based services that'll provide you with a US address to send items to, then they'll forward packages onto you along with a commercial invoice declaring wholesale value.
- Be region savvy.Xbox 360 - a lot of games are region-free nowadays, check them on a case-by-case basis.
PS3 - all games are region-free (not always the case with Blu-ray movies, but a lot of them are).
Wii - all games are region locked.
DS - all games are region-free.
PSP - all games are region-free.
- Sometimes it pays to invest in a console from another region if you're going to be importing a lot of games. (I personally have an NTSC PS3 for movies and an NTSC Xbox 360 for region locked games like Rock Band.) Contrary to popular belief the PS3 doesn't need a transformer, it runs on 240V just fine. The Xbox 360 will need a transformer, and it's often power supply specific. (The chances are you can't use a UK 360 PSU with a US 360.)
- Once you're importing games and making big savings, you can make more money back by selling sought after games on eBay. You'll nearly always make a profit.