"Valve must stop making excuses": Steam under fire for "significant price disparity for PC games," causing regional pricing that's "often 20% to 30% higher than the dollar equivalent" (www.gamesradar.com)
from themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@beehaw.org on 04 Oct 00:54
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54771263

“The problem lies in the data Valve uses to make these suggestions.” According to the YouTuber, Valve hasn’t updated its conversion rates since 2022, when it first introduced the regional pricing system. At that point in time, “the Polish currency was near its weakest” – but Steam is still “using this weak old rate” from three years ago.

#technology

threaded - newest

ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one on 04 Oct 01:00 next collapse

Remember when people said that since Steam is privately held and the largest distribution platform.

BurgerBaron@piefed.social on 04 Oct 01:10 next collapse

I’ve been buying keys from the legit shops like Instant Gaming, Fanatical, and Green Man Gaming for years now because the prices on Steam itself are usually higher more often than not for Canada anyways.

psx_crab@lemmy.zip on 04 Oct 01:14 next collapse

steamdb.info/app/2417610/

Holy shit, it’s really is. I wonder what factor they used to adjust the pricing, it isn’t like this before.

thisisbutaname@discuss.tchncs.de on 04 Oct 03:44 next collapse

I remember someone saying that it makes sense to price games less in lower income areas of the world, otherwise most people wouldn’t be able to afford them

joelfromaus@aussie.zone on 04 Oct 04:32 next collapse

This is what I’ve heard too. $60-70 sounds steep in America (and fair enough) but it’s prohibitively expensive in poorer countries. Honestly, I’ve always been good with the price disparity if it means more people can afford to enjoy games as long as it’s not used by companies for price gouging in the countries where they can charge more.

psx_crab@lemmy.zip on 04 Oct 06:06 collapse

As someone from lower income country, it definitely help a lot, but lately the regional pricing isn’t as enticing as before(capcom used to sell their game in my region for about 40usd, which is somewhat affordable). What i’m not aware is that some other country could have price jacked up as high as 45% and in this case 60%(!), so in combination of my own experience they must’ve change something.

dis_honestfamiliar@lemmy.sdf.org on 04 Oct 04:48 collapse

Fuck Sweden I guess

thingsiplay@beehaw.org on 04 Oct 03:21 next collapse

But Steam is not making the prices, its the decision of the publisher. And we should be thankful that Steam does not have the power to say how publisher price their game all over the world. You don’t want Steam to have this much power. It’s just a platform where publishers are allowed to publish their games, at the price they wish. That’s called free market.

Yes, it comes with some downsides, but you can’t fault Steam for it.

echo@lemmy.tf on 04 Oct 22:48 collapse

This isn’t a new thing, nor is it unique to Steam. Most major platforms price their services differently between markets- it’s in any business’s interest to bring in as much revenue as possible from a market without pricing everyone out. For every country with higher pricing than the US, there are at least as many priced below the dollar.