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Steam And Netflix Prices Set To Rise 10% In Australia

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Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey has confirmed plans to charge a 10% tax on digital goods sold from outside the country will go ahead when he releases the new budget tomorrow. The tax will be part of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a 10% tax applied to all purchases in Australia (which makes those purchases 10% more expensive). Hockey said he expects the tax to bring in $350 million AUD over the next four years. The new tax will apply to digital downloads purchased from overseas sellers, including video games, music, and movies.

Dubbed the “Netflix Tax” in commemoration of the recent launch of Netflix in Australia, the application of GST to digital goods has been talked about for a long time, but never implemented. The absence of the tax on digital goods up until now has made buying online things like video games much cheaper than buying them at retail, which has led to lobby groups arguing that local stores have been unfairly disadvantaged against international sellers because they have to charge 10% more for the same product. It will also level the playing field for Australian online retailers, which have also had to charge extra for the tax. Local TV and movie streaming services like Stan and Presto will now be on a level playing field with Netflix, which is based in the US.

“It is plainly unfair that a supplier of digital products in Australia has to charge GST and an off-shore supplier does not.” Hockey said, via the ABC. “What we’re doing is going to digital providers overseas and saying ‘can you apply the GST to the products you provide into Australia?’. They are agreeable to it. It’s not their profits [being taxed]. It’s a tax collected and they remit it back to the country where that occurs.

“When the GST legislation was originally drafted, it did not anticipate the massive growth in the supply of digital goods like movie downloads, games and e-books from overseas.”

It’s unlikely the tax will apply to all online sellers operating in Australia, however. Apparently, the changes will target 30 companies, and there have been no indications that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is equipped to make all online retailers that serve Australian customers charge for tax. So if you’re worried about Steam prices, you can rest assured. There are a myriad of online stores that resell Steam keys, and from what we know of the ATO, it’ll be a surprise if it even knows those stores exist.

Rhiannon likes video games and she likes writing, so she decided to combine them. As well as writing about video games, she also belts out the occasional science fiction or fantasy story, edits videos, and eats strawberry oreos. In that order.

Gaming

Want Diablo 4 immortality? Hardcore Level 100 Before Most Others

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The devilish launch of Diablo 4 is days away (less for Ultimate Edition buyers). Blizzard has promised the ultimate reward for the first 1000 players to accomplish level 100 on Hardcore Mode: a statue of in-game antagonist Lillith.

Diablo 4’s Hardcore Mode is a character-creation-only difficulty adjuster. It automatically deletes characters when they die, making things infinitely harder regardless of World Tier. But 100? That’s several playthroughs on increasingly difficult World Tiers with new adversaries in harsher setups and about 150 hours of flawlessly rapid gameplay.

Honoring the dying.

Being remembered with those brave souls lost on the journey is the ultimate gamer boast. Do you dare?

 

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Layers of Fear PS5, PS4 Trophy List Promises a Spooky Platinum

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Bloober Team’s survival horror game Layers of Fear is terrifying. The Trophy List on Exophase just appeared, and players will have to go crazy to obtain Platinum.

With a Silver Trophy like “a new way” requiring players to “live through the third conversation” (and a few of Bronzes for surviving the previous two) and another called “face your fears” appearing when you “see your enemy and fail”, we might chase this one with the lights on.

Do you like Layers of Fear’s whole trophy list? Do you want the Plat?

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One of Sony’s Most Viewed PS Showcases

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The PlayStation Showcase, which divided fans and prompted our full-throated Reaction, was a ratings winner. Gamesight’s number crunchers found that PlayStation fans were drawn in by the appeal alone, even though many of the titles we wanted to see didn’t show up.

It’s possible certain Showcase games were withheld. Summer Game Fest may bring something? Watched the big spectacle live?

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