Why are there Pricing Differences for Wizard101 in Other Countries?

I received a nice email the other day from Diana Lotus, and I thought I'd share it here:

Hello Friendly Necromancer!

My name's Ewa and I'm 42. I'm from Poland. I play Wizard101 with my children on U.S.A server for 3 years. We love that game! Since December 2011 there is a polish Wizard (Gameforge), so i thought that we will play that one. I write to you, because i wanted to show you the prizes. People sometimes write, that things for crowns on US server are too expensive, but these are just shocking! (I'm attaching some screens).



I had to stay on american Wizard, cause we can't play when everything costs so much (for example 6000 crowns costs 10 euro). I don't get why the game makers get less money than someone who's just translating. Maybe KI can do something with that, or you know something about it? We're looking forward to hear from you.
Greets, Ewa (Diana Lotus).

P.S. I hope you will understand my English, sorry for the mistakes :)

Thanks for the note, Diana! I really have limited experience in this area. I know that a lot of bloggers are very interested in the UK version of Wizard101, but I tend to turn a blind eye to the other versions of Wizard101 because I just don't have time for it. However, I found your question and screenshots compelling, so thank you for reaching out to me! Don't worry about your English. I understood what you were saying. :)

I asked my contacts at KingsIsle this question and received two different responses. They both were very to the point.

The first response was, "GameForge is responsible for determining pricing."

The second response was, "Jeśli jesteś graczem z Polski, możesz się również zwrócić do naszego partnera Gameforge: http://www.wizard101.pl. Odpowiedzialny jest on za europejskie serwery w różnych wersjach językowych Wizard101, między innymi również za polską wersję." Which, when run through a translator at http://www.poltran.com/ basically says . . . GameForge is responsible for determining pricing . . .

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Let's see if we can do some math here.

Um, currently the exchange rate between Euro and US dollars is €1 = $1.32.

So (roughly) €10 = $13.20, which nets you 6,000 Korony (That's Polish for Crowns).

A $10 USA pre-paid card can be redeemed for 1 month of Prepaid time or 5,000 Crowns (and a pet).

$1 = 500 crowns on the USA servers.
$1 = 455 Korony on the Polish servers.

So right off the bat we have a difference in exchange rates. Next, just going off the pictures that Diana sent me:

Polish Dragon's Hoard Pack is 750 Korony vs. 399 Crowns.
Polish Wyvern's Hoard Pack is 990 Korony vs. 399 Crowns.

So, wow, yeah, those are quite a markup aren't they? Interesting. I'm really not sure I would be able to get any details on the Gameforge/KingsIsle contract of agreement for porting Wizard101 over to these different localizations, but obviously both companies are taking their cut of the profits.

I think it's important to note that when it comes to Hoard packs, we are truly talking vanity items. There isn't anything in those packs that you absolutely NEED to have a good time playing Wizard101. I think it does kind of say that a Wyvern or a Bone Dragon mount on the Polish server is a rarer and more valuable sight though! If that means anything. /shrug

If it was me and the English text and voice-overs weren't too cumbersome, I'd be playing the US version as well. I think you've made a good choice. On the other hand, perhaps these alternate foreign versions of Wizard101 would make great learning tools for parents who wanted to teach their children a second language or perhaps reconnect their children to their original heritage? I love when people use games to enhance learning. I think it's a very smart way to approach teaching. GAMIFY as they say. :)

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For me personally the awesome thing about this whole correspondence was that I went ahead and downloaded the Polish version of Wizard101! :) Check out my WWW named Śmierci wizard (Necromancer):


I have no idea what that means . . . I just liked the WWW vibe going on there. I also dug how I got to start out with a free 7-day mount! WOOT!


WOOT! Dark Pixies are HOT!


Fortunately the voice-overs are all still in English, so I could understand what was going on, and I've played the game enough that I could play it blindfolded and still know what's going on as well, but the same magic was there. At least there's that!

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Thanks for the email, Diana! I don't know if anything will come of it, but at least I'm more informed of our wizards over in Poland. :)

Happy dueling!