Steam's Polish suggested regional pricing

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fakenzz 26 Mar, 2024 @ 4:22pm

Steam's Polish suggested regional pricing

Hello.

Are there plans for Steam to update localized pricing suggestions anytime soon?

I remember that Steam did it last year and its outdated and hurtful. I assume most developers use Steam's region pricesheet suggestion without making any major changes because pricing in PLN is currently abysmal for most games and hurting Polish customers.

Please look at this: https://steamdb.info/app/2054970/ or https://steamdb.info/app/2420110/ and set your currency to PLN to see what Im talking about.

TLDR screenshot of Dragon Dogma 2 prices: https://i.imgur.com/G49QFaE.png

This is just example from two AAA games released this month. There are tons of other examples with releases 2022< and even more extreme ones.

Why Polish customers have to pay more than initial price in USD not to mention Euro while we are in EU with similiar taxes?

Wasnt regional pricing suggestions supposed initially to help poorer countries?
Yet here we are in Poland paying more than most of the world like we were more rich than USA or wealthy EU countries..

Like I said earlier, I'm fully aware that it is publisher who is making the last call about pricing but most ignorant devs/publishers dont do research and currency conversion on their own and just depend on Steam's suggestions..

Anybody who made it this far reading that wall of text, especially if one's country is not affected, I really appreciate it

~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDIT 11.05.2024

WHAT CAN WE DO TLDR:

How to let Valve know about the inflated conversion rate?
- By returning games bought on Steam, citing overpricing relative to the rest of the world as the reason.
- Through Steam Technical Support: https://steamhost.cn/help_steampowered_com
- By contacting Steam's Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/Steam
- As a last resort, you can send cultured emails to Gabe Newell: https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/contact?contact-person=Gabe%20Newell

Credits: comment from https://lowcygier.pl/aktualnosci/ceny-gier-na-polskim-steamie-naleza-do-najwyzszych-na-swiecie-co-mozemy-z-tym-zrobic/

Last edited by fakenzz; 11 May, 2024 @ 6:08am

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Showing 1-15 of 176 comments

HikariLight 26 Mar, 2024 @ 4:33pm

Devs set the prices, not Steam.
Just like with Argentina and Turkey, the devs will not take pennies on the dollar.
So if your currency has a poor global market value, they will not give you special treatment for prices.
Video games are a luxury, not a human right.
So if you can't afford them do to a poor economy, that is not the devs problem.

Satoru 26 Mar, 2024 @ 4:43pm

Originally posted by fakenzz:
Hello.

Are there plans for Steam to update localized pricing suggestions anytime soon?
it

https://steamdb.info/sub/734193/

Steam's suggested prices are here

If a developer/publisher doesn't want to follow steam's suggested pricing that's not a steam problem.

fakenzz 26 Mar, 2024 @ 4:43pm

Originally posted by HikariLight:
Devs set the prices, not Steam.
Just like with Argentina and Turkey, the devs will not take pennies on the dollar.
So if your currency has a poor global market value, they will not give you special treatment for prices.
Video games are a luxury, not a human right.
So if you can't afford them do to a poor economy, that is not the devs problem.

Originally posted by fakenzz:

Like I said earlier, I'm fully aware that it is publisher who is making the last call about pricing but most ignorant devs/publishers dont do research and currency conversion on their own and just depend on Steam's suggestions..

I dont know what are you trying to do here, I already covered this topic.
"Video games are a luxury, not a human right." - wtf? Are you just trying to farm clown awards with your weird and unnecessary moralizing? I really dont get it lol

Rin 26 Mar, 2024 @ 5:40pm

PLN is considered a poor currency with no real-world applications. Even so, you are paying less than the average €€€ citizen like Slovakia which has similar if not lower wages. In other words your purchasing power is low.
https://steamdb.info/app/1091500/

Last edited by Rin; 26 Mar, 2024 @ 5:50pm

fakenzz 2 Apr, 2024 @ 3:48am

bump

toxicnet 13 Apr, 2024 @ 10:02am

The regional prices for Poland were supposed to make the games cheaper for Polish players because they were previously forced to pay prices in Euros (I think it was the Euro, I'm not sure, maybe it was the dollar), but Steam decided to update the regional prices while the dollar was at its peak in Poland when $1 was around 5 PLN, today the $ is 4 PLN and is where it usually stands the regional prices should be adjusted to that, most developers are not adjusting regional prices for their games using the recommended prices instead making Poles pay the second highest game prices next to Switzerland, while overall being much poorer Poles pay more for the same games than Americans, Norwegians, Brits, Eurozone and every other country except Switzerland, while the Polish purchasing power is much lower than most of these nations.

Mad Scientist 13 Apr, 2024 @ 10:45am

Originally posted by toxicnet:
The regional prices for Poland were supposed to make the games cheaper for Polish players because they were previously forced to pay prices in Euros (I think it was the Euro, I'm not sure, maybe it was the dollar), but Steam decided to update the regional prices while the dollar was at its peak in Poland when $1 was around 5 PLN, today the $ is 4 PLN and is where it usually stands the regional prices should be adjusted to that, most developers are not adjusting regional prices for their games using the recommended prices instead making Poles pay the second highest game prices next to Switzerland, while overall being much poorer Poles pay more for the same games than Americans, Norwegians, Brits, Eurozone and every other country except Switzerland, while the Polish purchasing power is much lower than most of these nations.

Suggested prices are based upon the value or lack of value in currency. Developers often charge more than the suggested prices or can just leave it at the suggested and continue to publish their game or update prices with the suggested one.

The Developer/Publisher is ultimately responsible for choosing the price of their product, even if thats lazily just going with the suggested price.

If you want a different price, contact the developer or publisher.

Last edited by Mad Scientist; 13 Apr, 2024 @ 10:45am

HikariLight 13 Apr, 2024 @ 11:09am

Originally posted by fakenzz:
Originally posted by HikariLight:
Devs set the prices, not Steam.
Just like with Argentina and Turkey, the devs will not take pennies on the dollar.
So if your currency has a poor global market value, they will not give you special treatment for prices.
Video games are a luxury, not a human right.
So if you can't afford them do to a poor economy, that is not the devs problem.

Originally posted by fakenzz:

Like I said earlier, I'm fully aware that it is publisher who is making the last call about pricing but most ignorant devs/publishers dont do research and currency conversion on their own and just depend on Steam's suggestions..

I dont know what are you trying to do here, I already covered this topic.
"Video games are a luxury, not a human right." - wtf? Are you just trying to farm clown awards with your weird and unnecessary moralizing? I really dont get it lol

Many players with currency that has little value like to demand that companies give them games for cheap because they cannot afford them at full price.
Video games are not a necessity to live, so thus they are a luxury and no one is obligated to ensure everyone can play videogames.

William Shakesman 13 Apr, 2024 @ 11:50am

Originally posted by fakenzz:
Originally posted by HikariLight:
Devs set the prices, not Steam.
Just like with Argentina and Turkey, the devs will not take pennies on the dollar.
So if your currency has a poor global market value, they will not give you special treatment for prices.
Video games are a luxury, not a human right.
So if you can't afford them do to a poor economy, that is not the devs problem.

Originally posted by fakenzz:

Like I said earlier, I'm fully aware that it is publisher who is making the last call about pricing but most ignorant devs/publishers dont do research and currency conversion on their own and just depend on Steam's suggestions..

I dont know what are you trying to do here, I already covered this topic.
"Video games are a luxury, not a human right." - wtf? Are you just trying to farm clown awards with your weird and unnecessary moralizing? I really dont get it lol

You must remember that this board is primarily for people who are not Valve employees to roleplay as such so they may abuse people who come here with suggestions. It is quite amusing once you understand the sort of person with no connection to game companies or actual experience in the fields of game development, sales, or customer service saying nonsense like this.

Last edited by William Shakesman; 13 Apr, 2024 @ 11:51am

William Shakesman 13 Apr, 2024 @ 11:55am

Also, Valve moderation aggressively takes the side of people asking for regional pricing in my experience. You are much more likely to be banned verbally abusing or harassing people requesting regional pricing considerations than people who have managed to fill up an entire gaming board front page with multiple regional pricing threads. I recommend folks in this thread choose their words a bit more carefully and try to spend less time violating the Steam rules.

Last edited by William Shakesman; 13 Apr, 2024 @ 11:55am

#10

wuddih 13 Apr, 2024 @ 12:20pm

Originally posted by fakenzz:
Like I said earlier, I'm fully aware that it is publisher who is making the last call about pricing

little fix here: they have the only call for pricing and...

Originally posted by fakenzz:
most ignorant devs/publishers dont do research

it is actually just the bigger publishers who actually employ people to do their own research and then totally NOT use Valves price recommendations. most products on Steam actually follow Valves price recommendations because most partners on Steam are indie and do not have time for such shenanigans.

pro tip:
https://steamdb.info/sub/734193/
if you use a package instead of the app, SteamDB actually displays Valve recommended pricing.

fun fact:
capcom is partially owned by saudia arabia, the country.

#11

fakenzz 13 Apr, 2024 @ 12:28pm

Originally posted by HikariLight:
Originally posted by fakenzz:
I dont know what are you trying to do here, I already covered this topic.
"Video games are a luxury, not a human right." - wtf? Are you just trying to farm clown awards with your weird and unnecessary moralizing? I really dont get it lol
Many players with currency that has little value like to demand that companies give them games for cheap because they cannot afford them at full price.
Video games are not a necessity to live, so thus they are a luxury and no one is obligated to ensure everyone can play videogames.

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
You must remember that this board is primarily for people who are not Valve employees to roleplay as such

You are right, man im sad seeing people like the one above. I genuinely wanna know what is going in his head and what exactly is he trying to accomplish doing that. "Imma roleplay until I land job at Valve because I was shilling multibillion dollar companies on steam forums"? Lol

Last edited by fakenzz; 13 Apr, 2024 @ 12:29pm

#12

76561198407601200 13 Apr, 2024 @ 1:41pm

Originally posted by fakenzz:
Hello.

Are there plans for Steam to update localized pricing suggestions anytime soon?

I remember that Steam did it last year and its outdated and hurtful. I assume most developers use Steam's region pricesheet suggestion without making any major changes because pricing in PLN is currently abysmal for most games and hurting Polish customers.

Please look at this: {LINK REMOVED}https://steamdb.info/app/2054970/ or {LINK REMOVED}https://steamdb.info/app/2420110/ and set your currency to PLN to see what Im talking about.

TLDR screenshot of Dragon Dogma 2 prices: {LINK REMOVED}https://i.imgur.com/G49QFaE.png

This is just example from two AAA games released this month. There are tons of other examples with releases 2022< and even more extreme ones.

Why Polish customers have to pay more than initial price in USD not to mention Euro while we are in EU with similiar taxes?

Wasnt regional pricing suggestions supposed initially to help poorer countries?
Yet here we are in Poland paying more than most of the world like we were more rich than USA or wealthy EU countries..

Like I said earlier, I'm fully aware that it is publisher who is making the last call about pricing but most ignorant devs/publishers dont do research and currency conversion on their own and just depend on Steam's suggestions..

Anybody who made it this far reading that wall of text, especially if one's country is not affected, I really appreciate it

Contact the game developer and ask if they can set the proper pricing as they are the ones who can do so.

#13

MonsieurEmpereurTheSecond 22 Apr, 2024 @ 12:29am

Bumping the topic. Entire idea for regional pricing is that the game is cheaper for weaker currencies/countries with lower purchasing power. That's why a lot of games are near twice as cheap in, for example, Ukraine, using their currency.

In Poland we earn less(when converted to $) than USA but pay more(when converted to $) for games on steam, which defeats the purpose of regional pricing. Average Pole has lower purchasing power than average US citizen.

It was mentioned in this thread but it's partially because the price update happened at the peak dollar and pln exchange rate.

So yeah, wishing for steam to update recommended prices (which most publishers follow, because they don't have resources or don't bother to investigate each currency) and set appropriate price which would incentivize to buy games at the price that is more in line with local earnings. Which again is the entire point of regional pricing.

Example:
https://steamdb.info/app/2427700/
At the time of writing, PLN is +14.34% compared to dollar, rivaling only swiss franc at +22.45% compared to dollar.

Average salary per month (first results from google, just to put things into perspective):
Poland: $1820
USA: $4949
Switzerland: $7439

#14