Home Gaming Is MI Digital kicking dogs and stealing from people?

Is MI Digital kicking dogs and stealing from people?

1 min read
49

sad_puppy Late last year, a post on the PS3za forums alerted the general populace to some rather disconcerting price increases. Not only would the Xbox 360 be receiving particularly heavy hardware price increases, but Microsoft AAA titles would shoot up to the convulsion-inducing price of R999.

Many, including LazyGamer, cried foul. After all, other prominent distributors – EA, SK and Megarom – have managed to keep their pricing within the realms of reality.

The South African distributor, MI Digital, cited the usual reasons for the increases – a weakened Rand, increased operational costs, and a higher cost from suppliers. A reason they forgot to mention was greed. It’s come to light, through a post by “warrenfe” on popular consumer watchdog site HelloPeter, that MI may in fact be profiteering. When questioned about the elevated pricing, Microsoft’s Response Management stated that “Microsoft has confirmed that its titles will continue to launch at R699.” Excuse me? R699? That’s a whole – *counts on fingers* – BUNCH less than R999!

If they’re putting such exorbitant mark-up on the games, what about the hardware? A quick scan of their price list reveals that pricing of accessories has increased dramatically too. The already overpriced wireless networking adapter now has an RRP of R1499. That’s an astounding 50% increase over last year’s price. Those of you looking to increase storage space would have paid R1700 for a 120Gb Xbox 360 hard drive last year (if you could find one, that is). This year you’d have to shell out R2499.  You cannot, in good conscience, expect anyone to believe that those sort of increases are justified.

This has apparently already lead to MI Digital revising their pricing, but the questions remain :

“What gives? Were you just increasing pricing to line your pockets? Were you trying to take advantage of people because – as the sole distributors – you could?” and most importantly “Why should I support you, when I could import the same items for half the price?”

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Last Updated: January 15, 2009

49 Comments

  1. SlippyMadFrog

    January 15, 2009 at 08:18

    f*cking wankers! (If true of course)

    Reply

  2. snuffdude

    January 15, 2009 at 08:25

    where can we import those titles from…
    stick it to the man …DEATH TO MI DIGITAL!!!

    Reply

  3. Fox1

    January 15, 2009 at 08:31

    Microsoft needs to step in because things are getting out of hand with MiDigital 😡

    Reply

  4. Geoff

    January 15, 2009 at 08:38

    MS have indeed stepped in, and said that titles should be launching at R699. We’re all just waiting for it to filter through to Mi Digital, and for them to release their revised pricing.

    Reply

  5. Macethy

    January 15, 2009 at 08:38

    Well if the banks and the phone companies are doing it,why not MI Digital.Just import the game or buy second hand or wait for sales.

    Reply

  6. StNick

    January 15, 2009 at 08:53

    I wouldn’t call SK’s pricing within the realms of reality. We PS3 owners are getting screwed on AAA titles as well!

    Reply

  7. Atomic

    January 15, 2009 at 08:54

    MI Digital have lost my support BIGTIME. Other disti’s at least try to develop the local gaming community, not stunt it’s growth.

    I for one will go to all lengths to NOT support MI anymore, even if the prices come down.

    Reply

  8. Kale

    January 15, 2009 at 09:04

    Lazy why not give us a list of the titles MI Digital are responsible for ruining in this country then what we can do is for groups of people who can import these products for others. That way we can get our games for reasonable prices and hopefully sink MI Digital for good.

    Reply

  9. LazySAGamer

    January 15, 2009 at 09:10

    I would rather Mi Digital be hauled across the coals and revise their price list… Mi Digital haven’t been that evil before and I am willing to forgive them for this lapse if they revise the price list

    Reply

  10. Goose ZA

    January 15, 2009 at 09:12

    *grabs pitchfork

    RAH! RAH! RAH!

    *rallies the mob

    Reply

  11. Geoff

    January 15, 2009 at 09:13

    I’m with lazy on this – There’s no need to try and destroy the company. MI have up to now done a fine job distributing the 360 and its 1st party wares. the message here really is that screwing over the public isn’t the way to go about doing business. If a price revision comes, I’ll gladly support them again.

    Reply

  12. janrik

    January 15, 2009 at 09:15

    halo wars. halo odst. alan wake. MGS titles mostly.

    Reply

  13. LazySAGamer

    January 15, 2009 at 09:29

    Metal Gear Solid 😮 .. now everyone is going to think we are anti-PS3 😉

    Reply

  14. darthdad

    January 15, 2009 at 09:33

    Whew! So nothing good then. 😉

    Reply

  15. spl0it

    January 15, 2009 at 09:35

    Those Bastards. I blame the Wii’s R3500 price point.

    Reply

  16. Goose ZA

    January 15, 2009 at 09:37

    ROFL! Touche’ =)

    Reply

  17. Bboy

    January 15, 2009 at 09:39

    Well if you dealt with MI-Digifail for swap out, you’ll know that the people there are on the brink of suicide and absolutely hate the xbox for all the faulty boxes (seriously, the one chick I spoke to admitted to this).

    So, my theory is that they would rather sell fewer at a higher price and so have less xbox customer to deal with and probably only make a little less profit overall. hmm?

    Reply

  18. Lupus

    January 15, 2009 at 09:40

    If you do not complain about it, nothing will get done about it I guess. I didn’t know my comment on Hellopeter would get this far to be honest.

    Reply

  19. Lupus

    January 15, 2009 at 09:41

    Let’s hope MS actually do something about it and MiD do drop the pricing. Now I am thinking I should’ve complained about the price of hardware, as I’ve got to pretty much replace everything now.

    Reply

  20. Bboy

    January 15, 2009 at 09:44

    Although, this assumes that they are smart and have some sort of well thought-out strategy fueled by intellect… I have my doubts that management have cleared matric. :/

    Reply

  21. ShadowOfDawn

    January 15, 2009 at 09:48

    MI Digital = Disgusting greedy bottom feeders.

    Reply

  22. Geoff

    January 15, 2009 at 09:50

    and you deserve some cookies!

    Reply

  23. GamerX

    January 15, 2009 at 09:55

    Since about October last year I’ve been importing games from http://www.amazon.co.uk because UK is PAL as well so no compatibility issues. I’ve saved up to 50% on certain titles. The negative point is that games take about 4 weeks to arrive, but I’m willing to wait. I’ve just placed an order for Street Fighter 4 for 30 pounds. That’s onlr R450. VAT will be cut out as I’m not a UK citizen, but I will pay shipping fees and import duties, so my total cost should be about R500. THAT’S HALF OF R999!

    However, I would still buy from MI Digital, if their prices were the same as importing from Amazon. Remember, they are the ones responsible for bringing XBox 360 to SA and without them, there would be no South African XBox community.

    For this reason, I don’t want to see them go under, but in the same breath I REFUSE TO BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OFF.

    Reply

  24. Wolfy

    January 15, 2009 at 10:41

    Well what can MS do if they refuse to lower theyre prices then??

    Reply

  25. janrik

    January 15, 2009 at 10:43

    Microsoft Games Studio…

    Reply

  26. janrik

    January 15, 2009 at 10:45

    Well, according to a water cooler birdie, MID is in deep financial trouble… maybe why the want to raise the prices?

    They way they do business and treat customers, I’m not surprised.

    Reply

  27. Shodan

    January 15, 2009 at 10:46

    Maybe this is a silly question but i tried to import from amazon and at checkout get an error that they cannot ship this item to your country being SA .. How do you get them here?

    Reply

  28. Goose ZA

    January 15, 2009 at 10:47

    If they refuse then we simply import those titles. MS gets the cash anyway so they won’t care. MiD on the other hand will lose out because retailers will eventually stop ordering their stock and just sell EA and Megarom titles…

    Reply

  29. Wolfy

    January 15, 2009 at 10:52

    Like they say… “Dont bite the hand that feeds you”

    Reply

  30. Jimmytheediblewyrm

    January 15, 2009 at 10:54

    This is a very south african trend… Go lookit any company that are exclusive distibuters of any product in this country, they will milk it for all its worth.

    I myself have also started looking at the import route, i cant justify local prices for games/consoles.

    Reply

  31. Reaver

    January 15, 2009 at 11:16

    They kicked dogs?? The motherfuckers!

    Reply

  32. pfangirl

    January 15, 2009 at 12:15

    They deserve to go under as a company if they pull this kind of bullshit in an period of economic recession… Slashing prices, not inflating them, is the way to go in an era when fewer and fewer people will be able to pay R1 000 for a single game.

    Reply

  33. neoassasin

    January 15, 2009 at 12:24

    Not to sound like a fanboy but, I wanted to get myself a 360 Arcade in December but I underestimated the amount of money the wife was planning to spend on gifts. So now I’m looking at the price of R2500 and if I decided to buy a hard drive later another R2100 so the better option would be the pro but at R3800 I don’t think so cause then there will be no money for any PS3 games. Have you guys also noticed that the Elite is now R5000 and the PS3 160Gb is R5500 so I would think at that price the PS3 is better value for money.

    Reply

  34. LazySAGamer

    January 15, 2009 at 12:29

    At that price the PS3 is better value for money

    Reply

  35. evilgrinningmonkey

    January 15, 2009 at 12:43

    Can I also join the MOB. I have my own Torch…”waves torch in the air”

    Reply

  36. Fudzy

    January 15, 2009 at 13:17

    MI Digital aren’t paying for any banners here, are they?

    Reply

  37. Geoff

    January 15, 2009 at 13:24

    I bloody well hope not…I’d hate to be fired so soon after starting.. 😀

    Reply

  38. Marc

    January 15, 2009 at 14:07

    Was MID responsible for not including codes in the GOW2 collecters packs?

    How hard can it be to import games in bulk? Can MS not revoke their license?

    Reply

  39. Geoff

    January 15, 2009 at 15:12

    1)Nah, I believe that one was MS themselves.

    2)Importing anything in bulk is a huge headache.

    Reply

  40. GamerX

    January 15, 2009 at 15:26

    I don’t have that problem. Check were the games come from though. Sometimes, they’re on the Amazon website, but stocked by an outside supplier who may only ship to the UK. They do sometimes have different outsides subsidiaries whose prices do vary slightly. One of them at least should be shipping to SA.

    Reply

  41. loki

    January 15, 2009 at 15:31

    Go to eBay.co.za, I think you should use external sources and just refuse to support people that do not wanna play nice in a globalised free market economy. 😉

    Reply

  42. Macethy

    January 15, 2009 at 19:08

    If you go to kalahari.net you will see Gears 2 and Fable 2 selling for over 900 bucks already! 😮 😡

    Reply

  43. Fox1

    January 15, 2009 at 19:57

    hahahahahahahahaha 😉

    Reply

  44. Fox1

    January 15, 2009 at 20:00

    Gears 2 is going for R699 at Incredible Connection 😉

    Reply

  45. Arabian Knight

    January 15, 2009 at 20:05

    I hope they go bankrupt! I will never again purchase a game from SA unless it’s pre-played.

    Reply

  46. Wolfy

    January 16, 2009 at 07:48

    I see…

    Reply

  47. Wolfy

    January 16, 2009 at 07:49

    then thye should do what other businesses are doing. Retrench

    Reply

  48. EchoZA

    January 17, 2009 at 18:05

    I had my 1st dealings with MI last week, sent in a December 2007 ARCADE for warranty, they send me a 2005/6 CORE with not HDMI and my PSU would not plug in, after explaining (in plain Engrish 🙂 ) that if I had bought a bMW 328i and then took it back for warranty claim and I was given a 318i would that be the same? Their reasoning, well the ARCADE supperceeded the CORE, so the CORE is the same as the ARCAD??? It took 2 days, but eventually they sent me a 2008 ARCADE with HDMI!

    Reply

  49. EchoZA

    January 17, 2009 at 18:09

    even better!!! today I went to MUSICA’s “GAME SALE” (JOKE!) all they had on sale was STRONHOLD and CALL OF DUTY 4 (both @ R100 each) what a joke, calling that a “GAME SALE”

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Sony isn’t too happy with all of the anniversary PlayStation 4 console profiteering

The special anniversary edition of the PS4 is being sold online for a tidy profit by scalp…