Recent changes to the Steam Store have seen the addition of more local currencies for customers in different regions. Expect to get more bang for your Peso or Dinar.
Originally tweeted by the excellent SteamDB, it would seem that customers in different regions will be able to buy from the Steam Store using their local currency. This usually means lower prices and no fiddling about with conversion rates for currency and prices are also adjusted for regional standards. The changes went live earlier and users in the affected countries have gotten emails telling them about the new changes to the Steam Store.
Below are the new currencies and region:
- Argentinian Peso
- Costa Rican Colón
- Israeli New Shekel
- Kazakhstani Tenge
- Kuwaiti Dinar
- Polish Zloty
- Qatari Rial
- Ukrainian Hryvnia
- Uruguayan Peso
- Vietnamese Dong
- South Asian USD Region
As someone who has moved around a lot and has lived in all sorts of countries, local currency and regional pricing makes sense to me. The purchasing power around the world varies wildly and brick and mortar stores sometimes have prices that reflect the reality on the ground closer than digital retailers. This kind of thing is a good way to make sure your digital store will remain competitive if you allow your customers to pay what they're used to and not have to waste precious money on conversion fees to USD or EUR. It'd also be nice if Valve added local payment methods while they're at it. They've done so in the past in other regions but as I'm not in one of the above affected countries, I can't confirm either way.
Do also note that while the changes should be live, there may be teething problems with not all prices yet updated to the corresponding equivalent in the local currency. Except that to be sorted out as time goes by.
With thanks to the original submission from Faalagorn!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
hardpenguin Nov 14, 2017
Quoting: hardpenguinSome games are not available for purchase at all in new currency regions due to the change. I hope this will be fixed soon!
Yes. The problem is that the developers have to set the prices themselves. While it will hopefully get ironed out, it will prove troublesome for games that no longer get active care from developer/publisher.
The fact that publishers/developers set new prices themselves is particularly interesting. I have taken a look at two Linux games that cost exactly the same in euros (FM 2018 and F1 2017) and in my local currency the difference in price between these two titles is quite substantial (around 9% = over 5 euros). Football Manager is even more expensive than in euros but I imagine FM is probably one of those games with inelastic demand.
Still, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time so I'm glad it finally happened. I can't wait for winter sale now :)!
First : Local sellers.
In my country ( Turkey ) a bitch ass company called named Aral is have the rights publishing some companies games. Most notable one is Bethesda , others are EA and Ubisoft.
This company sells boxed games and because of them Steam is setting these games prices to equal their pricing.
Some times it become visible too obviously. A game is came to Steam ( Prey 2017 ) with pre order at 78 TL and few hours later (because of that Aral ) it bumped up to 180 TL.
Valve has a good policy about not killing local sellers but they're abusing it.
Second : Your currency value against US dollar.
If a game is not contracted to a local seller and dev or publisher didn't do re pricing for that region , Steam converts price to your regions price with a fixed ratio.
That ratio is usually much more lower than actual currency ratio.
Comandante Ñoñardo Nov 14, 2017
but that is not a problem because they added local payments systems like Rapipago and pagofacil, so people without credit or debit cards now can buy games and Steam wallet credit just using cash.
This is an excellent method for to fight against the bad called piracy, because now, a game on sale will be more cheapest than the illegal copy available on the street.
Segata Sanshiro Nov 14, 2017
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoThey removed Paypal in Argentina, by the way...
but that is not a problem because they added local payments systems like Rapipago and pagofacil, so people without credit or debit cards now can buy games and Steam wallet credit just using cash.
It would really be easier if everyone in Argentina just got a bank account and debit card like in every other country on earth instead of always making everything needlessly complicated, just saying. I can't see why anyone would want to physically go to Rapipago every time they want to pay their electricity bill or buy a game on Steam, it's absolutely insane and time consuming. The only explanations I've ever gotten for not having a bank account has been "blah blah, 2001, blah blah, they're all crooks, blah blah" - as if it's the only country on earth which has had recessions and this therefore justifies the hysteria and necessitates having all your money in cash under your bed.
To add insult to injury, quite a few games are now more expensive than before. Perhaps publishers didn't realise that Polish zloty purchasing power is lower than Euros, not higher...
Quoting: knroI got an email from Steam last week saying that I will be paying with Kuwaiti Dinar soon. Does that mean no fees for currency exchange to dollars?
Yes. ...but as it seems, the new prices might not always be better than the exchange price. :-/
(I wonder if average wages in Kuwait are above or below in say the US, though?)
Comandante Ñoñardo Nov 15, 2017
Quoting: EikeQuoting: knroI got an email from Steam last week saying that I will be paying with Kuwaiti Dinar soon. Does that mean no fees for currency exchange to dollars?
Yes. ...but as it seems, the new prices might not always be better than the exchange price. :-/
(I wonder if average wages in Kuwait are above or below in say the US, though?)
The truth is in the SteamDB entry of each game.
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