After years of silence on the matter, Valve has recently updated regional pricing recommendations on Steam with a new system. Many, including us, theorized that the prices for games in regions that have been victims of long-outdated or otherwise incorrect pricing would drop. Unfortunately, for many titles, this was not the case. In fact, things may have only gotten worse.
It is now up to developers/publishers to choose between one of three different conversion methods, but the most expensive one, the multi-variable conversion, has become the default. As a result, several games ended up with an increased price in many regions simply by changing it in adherence to the new update. For example, in the Polish Złoty currency, the price of the popular game Raft from the publisher Redbeet Interactive has increased from 71.99 zł to 84.99 zł—an 18.06% increase.
This is, of course, not the case for all games; many past titles from non-AAA publishers saw a significant decrease in prices after developers changed the conversion method to one of the other two exchange rates. Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, from the publisher MicroProse Software, used to cost 205.08 zł, but now costs 93.99 zł—a 54.17% decrease in price.
For upcoming releases, only time will tell whether developers take care to pick an exchange rate more favorable to customers or the default, more expensive one, especially AAA developers and publishers, where the problem was often particularly egregious due to higher prices. Polish gamers have been attempting to bring attention to the high currency exchange rate and game prices on Steam for years now via the #PolishOurPrices initiative. Prices in zł are often among the top three or top five most expensive in the world for new releases.
Unfortunately for Poland and many other regions, this change turned out not to be the end of their woes, as Valve continues to uphold exchange rates that have long been a source of complaints. For more news on this and more gaming price changes, such as Sony’s recent console price increase, stay tuned to GameObserver!
