Is Australia Really the Lucky Country? Price Discrimination in Digital Distribution

Digital content services have become a major source of information and entertainment for people, and the Internet has provided a means by which businesses and consumers can easily and efficiently distribute it. A large amount of this content is copyrighted or tied to a service, and sold commercially through multiple electronic and physical distribution channels. The modern day ‘gamer’ is expected to have a broadband connection and be able to access various digital distribution platforms to acquire such content. Due to price information dispersion and web resources dedicated to consumer awareness, differential pricing of PC game digital content delivery has recently become a controversial topic. This study collected and analysed price data across six geographical regions for over 1000 software titles in order to determine whether there was regional price discrimination. The results showed strong support for the price discrimination proposition. Future studies will focus on the causes and effects of such pricing and how pricing strategies can better manage the relationship between consumer and publisher.