In North America, the 80 USD price for Grand Theft Auto VI is highly accessible, requiring only 3.8 hours of labor for the average worker in the United States and 5.2 hours in Canada. While Mexico presents a more significant barrier with a 36.0-hour requirement, the region as a whole remains the primary target for the publisher’s current economic model, where digital-only distribution functions without imposing a prohibitive burden on the median income.

Central America faces a stark economic divide, where the cost of the game exacerbates existing inequalities. In relatively stable economies like Costa Rica (21.8 hours) and Panama (25.6 hours), the purchase remains manageable; however, across much of the isthmus, the burden intensifies, culminating in Nicaragua, where a staggering 102.0 hours of labor are required. This creates a deeply exclusionary environment where the lack of a physical resale market forces lower-income populations to sacrifice substantial portions of their monthly earnings or opt out of the legal market entirely.

South America presents a landscape of extreme financial disparities, ranging from the relative stability of Uruguay (16.9 hours) and Chile (27.4 hours) to the severe structural crises in nations like Bolivia (63.9 hours) and Surinam (218.1 hours). Within this context, the situation in Cuba stands as a unique, tragic anomaly; due to the systemic collapse of the currency and the reliance on an informal black market, a worker would theoretically need to dedicate 1562.6 hours of labor to afford the game.

Author: u/maven.mapping

Partner: u/the.world.in.maps

  • agegamon@beehaw.org
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    10 hours ago

    Not that this graph needs to be taken that seriously, but it should really cite the source for those hourly wage averages. For the US at least that looks too optimistic, guessing its true for other nations as well. Assuming the top 1% are eliminated to avoid deeply poisoning the data, I’d guess that the average hourly would be under 20usd/hr and the hours-to-80-USD number will wind up well over 4.

    • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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      14 hours ago

      Fits into the theme of the community. Flashy looking graphics that convey little information confusingly.

  • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    14 hours ago

    % of people who will be pirating it rather than paying because it is an infinitely replicable digital good once completed

  • MonkeBizNES@lemmy.cafe
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    23 hours ago

    And this is why we need regional pricing that adjusts for things like gdp/capita or average income

    • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      18 hours ago

      Countries with the lowest medians don’t have the hardware required to play games like these

  • bigfish@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 hours ago

    And this is why “nearshore” offshoring exists. Business take advantage of timezone-adjacent remote staff but with dramatically lower wages.

    • morto@piefed.social
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      21 hours ago

      Due to the economic embargo, anything priced in dollars will be very expensive. They operate internally detached from the dollar price

    • NewDark@lemmy.today
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      22 hours ago

      The economically choked off and isolated country doesn’t make a lot of money? surprised Pikachu face

  • farmgineer@nord.pub
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    23 hours ago

    Japan: ¥9,800 / ¥12,280 for standard / ultimate playstation version (since no PC and XBox is basically not a thing in Japan).

    So an average minimum wage of 1,121 / hour -> ~897 after taxes/pension/etc (assuming 20% of gross). Just under 11 hours for the regular, 13.7 for ultimate.

    Going by median instead, it’s roughly 1529 / hour net so a bit under 6.5 hours and a bit over 8 respectively.

  • scutiger@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    digital-only distribution functions without imposing a prohibitive burden on the median income

    How does that make any sense? The price is the same whether physical or digital