Living in Canada, near a border crossing to the US, I've always had to deal with the exchange rate. I've never really had it impact me in a personal way because I buy most everything here in Canada. But now that I'm regularily buying content on Xbox Live it has. I'm talking about Microsoft points.
Seeing as most of the gaming press comes from San Francisco (yes I'm generalizing) all prices for downloadable content is quoted in USD. For example: GTA IV The Lost and Damned has been pinned at costing 1600 points or $20. For me this costs more than that. 2000 points costs me $29.00 or $32.48 with taxes. So instead of it costing me 1.25 cents per point like it does for all the Yankees on Xbox Live, I'm stuck paying 1.45 cents per point. Why would they need such a price increase? It's not like they have to pay the extra shipping to send the content up here, it's digital content sitting on the microsoft servers. I know full retail games are usually the exact same price up here in The Great White North as they are in America.
I actually have an example of prices on Killzone 2 that favours Canadians. On amazon.ca Killzone 2 costs only $53.99 CDN, while it cost $59.99 USD on amazon.com. I know that being in Canada means I get a small on retail discs most of the time because a $59.99 game in the US is usually the same price here. So it all comes down to points costing more only on Microsofts console. I just bought Flower on PSN which only cost me $9.99 CDN plus taxes of course, which is the same it costs in USD from what I've heard and read on the interwebs. I'd really like an answer from Microsoft in some way so I've actually forwarded a link to this blog to Major Nelson & E. Here's hoping I get an answer, even if they are just gonna give me a broken record response. PEACE OUT!