I suspect piracy will become increasingly popular in these countries

  • Terramaris@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    At first when I saw the title, I thought this was done to stop people who VPN swap stores. The article however paints a different picture: Developers do not want Lira or Pesos since they are too unstable. Doesn’t make sense to price a game at X Argentine Peso if next month X is now 30% less valuable. If you have too much inflation, no one wants your currency. Even the Argentine government or presidential candidates said something along the lines of wanting to swap to the USD too.

    • adr1an@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      There’s a running candidate that said that, but that’s the same candidate that said so many crazy shit and lies. So, you can take it with a grain of salt. Even if that candidate won the upcoming elections, I hope that dissolving Argentina’s central bank is not going to happen because of many reasons, but also because the country has a parliament… They shouldn’t allow it.

    • Alisu [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Which wouldn’t help much, because then they would depend on the dollar, the properties of which are developed for the US economy, not Argentina’s. But for steam? Whatever, charge in dollars, it’s easier.

  • Deanne@iusearchlinux.fyi
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    1 year ago

    turkish here, piracy is already a big thing for any kind of media/games here, but steam almost ended piracy for gaming. i’ve not pirated a game since like 4 years, but i suspect i’ll go back to it after this change, i’d like to support the devs but i just can’t afford it,sorry.

    • iso@lemy.lol
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      1 year ago

      Same. I guess we will both install the game and also listen some cool music 😄

    • wahming@monyet.cc
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      1 year ago

      The prices are still regionalised, they’re just in USD/Euro instead of the equivalent local currency

  • Lupec@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    As someone from a developing country, I’m painfully aware of how most big publishers choose to ignore recommended prices and just go with a straight USD conversion most of the time so I can only hope this doesn’t screw them even further.

    I really wish it was viable for Valve to enforce a ceiling on suggested prices or something along those lines, it’s about the only way I see that ever changing. Well, that, or everyone just becoming a full-time sailor, I suppose!

    • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      Forgive my ignorance, but what does it do to your experience practically speaking? Are the prices going up? Is it difficult to purchase things in USD because of having to convert currency?

      • RachelRodent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        The game prices are scaled to our “purchasing power” to some extent before the change, meaning they’re still expensive but steam is making the games more affordable for us to some extent, the change to USD means the scaling is not up to steam, there is recommended prices and if companies abide to those some games might even get cheaper but big studios tend to not do that meaning we almost get games at the price of a cheaper gaming PC before our economy went to shit.

  • Lojcs@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I hope they don’t expect people to actually pay in usd and instead offer the conversion themselves. Because I can’t imagine people maintaining usd credit cards just to purchase games from steam.

    Otherwise, this could be a positive change as publishers can now set prices without the “what if the currency loses half its value tomorrow” insurance margin.

    Edit: steamdb has a chart of the new regional pricing. It’s 50% higher than the current one for tl and 150% higher for peso.

    • XTornado@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I mean… If the currency is that unstable… I would expect people doing that and having accounts with dollars or euros, saving money in a currency that moves more than a rollercoaster it’s not great.

      • Lojcs@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        They have savings accounts in dollars or pinned to the dollar, not spending accounts. But looking it up it seems tl credit cards can pay in usd + maybe a conversion fee so I guess it wouldn’t be such a deal breaker

  • jherazob@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It’s understandable why they did this, but now on all those countries game piracy will start anew, people won’t buy legally if they can’t afford it

    • wahming@monyet.cc
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      1 year ago

      The prices are still regionalised, they’re just in USD instead of the equivalent local currency

  • catsup@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Please login to Steamworks to add your USD pricing for your game(s) in the new LATAM-USD and MENA-USD pricing section of the Price Management Tool before November 20th, 2023. If you do not add a USD price to these columns for your game before November 20th, we will default to the standard USD pricing you already have in Steamworks.

    Los precios de steam se están por ir a la recontra mierda.

  • some pirate@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Wow fuck them

    6000 is the cost of a aaa game on sale = 5 usd, 80 dollars is almost half of a salary, no more original games I guess

      • 131sean131@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah idk why people are salt at steam. It should be fuck my government for not being able to run a economy and currency.

    • CosmicGrizzly@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We are implementing this with two new pricing regions: LATAM-USD (which includes Argentina) and MENA-USD (which includes Turkey)

      The prices will be denominated in USD. But unique to the region. Unless the developer is lazy and doesn’t set a price for the newly created regions.

        • CosmicGrizzly@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Depends on what price the developer chooses and how stable the exchange rate between USD & the local currency is. If the currency gets weaker and weaker compared to the dollar, then the real price that locals are paying will go up.

          And, I’m pretty sure that local inflation rates are the primary driver of this change. So, yeah, games will likely get more expensive as inflation continues & developers don’t constantly update the USD list price.

    • 520@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Not Steam’s fault. They got fucked by the EU for having regional pricing.

    • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yk I’ve always wodnered what starting a charity to donate computers to countries with the worst steam pricing would do for piracy

  • Gorgeous_Sloth@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Meh idk. Heard everyone say piracy was going to increase after Netflix increased its prices. Well guess what, it may have a little (but I quite doubt it), but clearly not enough as it’s doing it again. They know what they’re doing.

    • 520@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This isn’t a small increase in price, not for the Turkish. They’re already struggling to get by.

  • simon574@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    This doesn’t necessarily increase prices, if anything it makes it easier for publishers to offer games in these regions.

  • FortifiedAttack [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Relatively speaking, games already were practically free in those countries to begin with, so it’s not like piracy would make a difference to the vendors.

    • mounderfod@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      You have completely misunderstood the premise of regional pricing. Games were “practically free” in these countries because the average income is much lower than in e.g the US or Western Europe. The augmentation in pricing means that many Turks and Argentinians can no longer afford AAA games.

      • wahming@monyet.cc
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        1 year ago

        What augmentation in pricing? Steam is only changing the currency of the transaction. The devs will set the regional price for Steam to use, like they’ve been doing all along. Assuming they continue using the recommended regional price, the overall price shouldn’t change except for conversion fees.

        • mounderfod@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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          1 year ago

          The recommended regional pricing that steam has provided for these regions works out as more expensive than when the local currency was used

      • FortifiedAttack [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I was involved with an Indie game that was priced at roughly $15. It literally sold for 10 cents in those regions with Steam’s recommended pricing, mainly due to the accelerating inflation, and within hours of release, 20% of the sales came from these regions because of people abusing VPN. The pricing was quickly adjusted before that percentage could grow any larger.

        When people can just get a freshly released game at a 99.5% discount, you might as well not sell the game at all in those regions.