Steam made a significant change in Turkey or Argentina a few years ago in order to meet the needs of a wider audience and take into account economic inequalities. for example, by offering Argentine pesos as a payment option. The aim of this measure was to make the games more accessible to Argentinians given the economic difficulties, rather than relying on the US dollar as the payment standard.
For a long time, this pricing strategy has made video games more affordable in ArgentinaThis is a godsend for some French gamers who use VPNs to purchase games in local currency. Steam had tried to counter this strategy, but Europe had stated that it could not prevent a game from being activated depending on the country in which the platform was purchased.
Prices are rising on Steam in some countries
Unfortunately, as PCGamer reported, this inclusive pricing policy for gamers was suddenly discontinued, leading to surprising price increases. Valve eventually backtracked by switching its storefront in those countries from local currency pricing to US dollar pricing.
In extreme cases, games like Stardew Valley have seen a staggering 2900% price increase. Such exorbitant increases are unsustainable for residents of the countries in question, making video games an unattainable luxury. The base version of Civilization VI is the most extreme example of this; It increased by 4298% to $60.even though it only costs the equivalent US$1.36 in local currency before the policy change.
Worse still, reports show Argentinian players also face high taxes on their purchases. Some Twitter users shared shocking screenshots of sales taxes, further increasing the financial burden imposed by Steam’s price revision.
The value of the Argentine peso fell from $0.00991 in November 2021 to $0.00281 two years later, a 71% decline. Meanwhile, the Turkish lira decreased from $0.0742 to $0.0347 in the same period; This means a decrease of over 53%. As a result, game developers who want to protect their profit margins They constantly adjust their prices to keep up with fluctuations.
In his name, The Japanese yen has lost nearly a third of its value against the dollar in the past two years. This essentially means that games sold in Japan that previously maintained a yen price are now generating one-third less dollar revenue than before. So publishers are probably wondering whether they should adjust the prices of games, even if it means making them inaccessible for some players.
While we wait for a solution, players in other countries can rejoice because Valve has made some welcome changes to Steam. The platform is now fully compatible with PS4 and PS5 controllers, and Steam has even made it easier to discover new games that can be played with DualSense and DualShock.
