I bought FF12's regular edition on launch day. It was $60, but that's Canada. New games are always priced $10 more than in the US (excepted for the DS, where it's $5 more). So yeah, if Atlas paid 60US for it he got ripped off.
Anyways, almost 100 dollars for a game is crazyness. Maybe it will work in Japan, but if they do that in North America that's plain suicide.