Is the Indian Pricing of the PS Vita fair?

India is on the global gaming roadmap these days. We are getting the PS Vita fairly close to our international gaming brethren. Sadly, the prices quoted would either have you pay through your nose for a grey market piece, or through your anus for an official one.

Lets just get down to the point. The PS Vita is retailing on Amazon at $299 for the Wi-Fi 3G Edition, and $249 for the Wi-Fi version. According to Google’s currency converter 249 U.S. dollars = Rs. 12,204. However according to Game4U, the official retailers of PS Vita, the Wi-Fi Version is retailing for a whopping Rs. 20,000. That’s about 8,000 bucks more than what you ought to pay. This is a conversion with the dollar being at approx 50 bucks today.

 

It gets weirder. Again, using Google’s magicness, 299 U.S. dollars = Rs. 14,655.4259. The PS Vita is retailing for about, gulp, Rs. 24,990.

I am very happy that retailers Game4U have bought the PS Vita down, and I am extremely happy they are selling it at 10 rupees below Rs. 25,000. I appreciate the discount. However, the numbers are before you. That's about 8000-10000 bucks more than what you ought to pay.

India is a big country with a large population of gaming enthusiasts. There will be people who will buy this. I understand there are margins to every product, which is reasonable. However, is this large a margin fair? At the $299/249 pricepoint, the Vita is an extremely sweet deal, however at nearly double the price, will gamers go for it? Isn't it standard console business strategy to make the hardware affordable, and make a bit of money off the games? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Do you think this is fair or unfair pricing?