I mean, I don't disagree. I think it's obvious that Riot is trying to recoup profits by this move. What I'm arguing is that it doesn't make a company literally the devil to increase prices to regain profits. We're talking about a private company; their whole point is to make profits.
"But PocketPresents, people using EUR have been paying more than people using USD since FOREVER. If Riot is giving less RP now that the EUR is down, why didn't they give more RP back when the EUR was strong? That's just greedy!"
Since the beginning of 2010, the exchange rate peaked at 1.48 USD/EUR in May 2011. It's now at the lowest it's been in over 10 years, at about 1.09 USD/EUR. Let's compare the lowest price point of RP, just to be fair. For the smallest purchase right now, you get exactly 130 RP/$ and 160 RP/€. Converting to USD, it's 130 RP/$ in NA and (160/1.09) ≈ 147 RP/$ in EU right now. Back at the peak of 1.48 USD/EUR, it was (160/1.48) ≈ 108 RP/$ in EU (this is assuming that the prices haven't changed before; I'm not sure about that). The break-even point is (160/130) ≈ 1.23 USD/EUR. At this exchange rate, EU and NA users would be paying the same for RP. For the vast majority of time since the inception of League, the EUR has been stronger than that. However, like I said, Riot is a company: they aren't thinking about consumer price as much as they are thinking about their profits. In Europe, they are based in Ireland and have to include a 23% VAT into their RP sales. This ends up being about (1/1.23) ≈ 18.7% of the price of the purchase, leaving only 81.3% of the purchase price going to Riot (as opposed to, as far as I can tell, 100% in NA). Using those numbers, Riot earns:
$.77 per 100 RP in NA $.75 per 100 RP in EU (May 2011 @ EUR high) $.68 per 100 RP in EU (Now)
I think this shows really well how the price points were fixed in the first place. When League was created, the cost of RP in NA and EU (minus the government-collected tax in EU) was almost exactly the same. Since then, net income per purchase has only gone down for Riot in Europe.
"But people in Europe make a lot less than Americans! Americans all make $10,000 per month, people in Europe only make €400! My złoty doesn't go nearly as far as your dollar! You gotta account for that, look at the PPP!"
Yeah, that's a good point. It sucks that some currencies don't go as far as others, even after comparing exchange rates. The problem is, Riot isn't using złotys or pesos or liras or euros when it comes to paying their costs. They're using USD. They said as much in the post explaining why the costs are increasing. So when Riot is making their income, they're not trying to make €400 to pay that guy in Greece. They're trying to make $10,000 to pay that cushy cartoonist who makes all those neat new champion trailers. It's the same concept as buying products manufactured in the US; you're not going to get them cheaper in Europe just because your money won't go as far there. The producer has to think about their profits.
"But what about GBP users? The UK is getting screwed!!!"
Well, yeah, if GBP prices go up as much as EUR prices, they ARE getting screwed. But the state of things right now go back to that VAT. I bet that, if you go back to the creation of League, look at the exchange rates, and take taxes into account, Riot was profiting from GBP at about the same rate as the EUR. Doing the math:
400 RP / £2.25 ≈ 178 RP/£
1.65 USD/GBP during September 2009
178 / 1.65 ≈ 108 RP/$
(1/108 * 100 RP * .813) ≈ $.75 per 100 RP
What do you know? That's almost exactly the same as the USD and the EUR at that time. The GBP has gotten weaker since then; the only difference is that the EUR has gotten even weaker.