End of an Era - Poor countries almost can no longer buy from Steam

Amir · May 27, 2023

In recent years buy games in poor countries like Iran is getting better because of regional pricing in steam. Because of terrible economic conditions (month salary 150$ or lower) buying game is possible with regions like Argentina or Turkey. In this regions we're buying games with gift card if game has good regional pricing. But from last night if you want to buy any game or even have sell or buy something in steam market your country is instantly change to somewhere like France or US or Germany! In these regions we can't even buy one game anymore. We don't even have region or any payment method in steam. In last years our only possible way is buying gift cards in low price regions.
This is not just happened for Iranian users. Some users from Uganda or Hungary(changed to Germany)!
In last months most of publishers in steam increased game prices 3x or more in cheap regions. You can't even buy Mortal Kombat 1 in turkey because it's removed from store! even with this conditions we try to buy games but now it's almost impossible to buy games with 69,99€ (40 Million our currency) price.

JMS · May 27, 2023

Yep, it got abused by people from "richer" countries using VPNs on those countries to buy games for cheap on steam fucking over those who actually had a good use for it.

L.O.R.D · May 27, 2023

I know about increased pricing
But auto change the region? Why there is no news about this?

KanameYuuki · May 27, 2023

Yeah, plenty of games in my country have started to charge 2x and more because of people from much richer countries abusing, then you have people like this making fun of that fact and praising their lord of savior who doesn't even bother to give fair prices on the own psn store or steam.

View: https://twitter.com/GameOverGreggy/status/1649108220622041088
in b4 is just a joke bro.

Amir · May 27, 2023

L.O.R.D said:
I know about increased pricing
But auto change the region? Why there is no news about this?

With first transaction like buying game or sell and buy in market this is happened to you.

Steam suddenly changed my store country without asking! :: Steam Discussions

steamcommunity.com

Shepherd · May 27, 2023

That's the reason it's been years since I bought a square game on steam at full price. Even at discounted price it is too damn expensive here in Brazil.

pswii60 · May 27, 2023

I thought Steam had really clamped down on geo abuse, to the point that I expected it would be a non-issue. So it's a damn shame to hear this. This kind of situation doesn't help anyone.

KanameYuuki said:
Yeah, plenty of games in my country have started to charge 2x and more because of people from much richer countries abusing, then you have people like this making fun of that fact and praising their lord of savior who doesn't even bother to give fair prices on the own psn store or steam.

View: https://twitter.com/GameOverGreggy/status/1649108220622041088
in b4 is just a joke bro.

Let's stop giving this total prat a platform on here.

Tsuyu · May 27, 2023

I think a better question should be how does rich countries got rich and whether "international" institutions serve their interests more.

G_O · May 27, 2023

KanameYuuki said:
Yeah, plenty of games in my country have started to charge 2x and more because of people from much richer countries abusing, then you have people like this making fun of that fact and praising their lord of savior who doesn't even bother to give fair prices on the own psn store or steam.

View: https://twitter.com/GameOverGreggy/status/1649108220622041088
in b4 is just a joke bro.

But it is a joke, its him playing a character. I thought that was obvious

Deleted member 93841 · May 27, 2023

JMS said:
Yep, it got abused by people from "richer" countries using VPNs on those countries to buy games for cheap on steam fucking over those who actually had a good use for it.

Folks here on Era were doing it and then blaming the developers, as if devs should just accept when people from first world countries make it unsustainable for them to offer games to lower income countries for better prices.

Greed always ends up fucking over poor people first.

G_O said:
But it is a joke, its him playing a character. I thought that was obvious

If you do something ironically, you're still doing that thing. If you do something "ironically" all the time, at some point it's just your personality.

Dude's a dollar store troll. I don't know why he's even in this thread.

c0Zm1c · May 27, 2023

G_O said:
But it is a joke, its him playing a character. I thought that was obvious

That excuse wouldn't work for platform warriors posting on this forum so why should it work for him?

antispin · May 27, 2023

Regional pricing is dead :(

Started last year and now almost all games and publishers are no longer pricing appropriately.

G_O · May 27, 2023

c0Zm1c said:
That excuse wouldn't work for platform warriors posting on this forum so why should it work for him?

It's inoffensive bs about video games, if you actually get annoyed by this or any platform war shite that's unfortunate

SinnyIndonesian · May 27, 2023

c0Zm1c said:
That excuse wouldn't work for platform warriors posting on this forum so why should it work for him?

Because "platform warriors" usually mean what they say and that video was blatantly mocking the pricing?

gabyb · May 27, 2023

Argentina must have gone back to piracy for AAA games, full price is way too expensive (average monthly salary for a professional with a degree is around $600).

Even worse I can't imagine living in a country without its own steam store, the USA store prices are insane in almost every other region.

Chairmanchuck (另一个我) · May 27, 2023

Amir said:
With first transaction like buying game or sell and buy in market this is happened to you.

Steam suddenly changed my store country without asking! :: Steam Discussions

steamcommunity.com

Uhm. Reading this, it seems this Iranian person had an account for Argentina...

I need help, my steam store country was set on argentine for a long time now and today, without any notice it changed to Germany, no one logged into my account, no payment was made, I have not been near Germany in my life!

Reading Steam forums, seems Valve is cracking down on region jumpers:

Its new, multiple users have reported it today. Seems that Valve is cracking down on region hoppers and forcefully restore the store region to where you are reall living right now.
If you look around you find multiple threads about it.

It seems it triggers when buying a game and if you dont use a payment method registered in the region you try to buy for.
So if you dont use a turkish bank account or credit card it will switch your region to your current physical location.

Lots of speculation right now how it works.

Sabretooth · May 27, 2023

I sympathise with the OP and agree that it's the end of an era for people from countries like Iran, but at the end of the day, region hopping is region hopping and Valve can't really make exceptions for poorer countries.

My hope is that they bring regional pricing to Iran and other affected countries soon!

PtM · May 27, 2023

Is Iran actually set up as a region in Steam?

Amir · May 27, 2023

PtM said:
Is Iran actually set up as a region in Steam?

No, if you create account with Iranian IP all price are same as US. our salary is not even 3 percent of them!

Praedyth · May 27, 2023

The big problem seems to be Steam not supporting your country. Those low regional prices only work if people can't abuse it, and unfortunately those people use the same methods as you.

jon bones · May 27, 2023

fuck every cheapskate who took advantage of regional pricing

Saucycarpdog · May 27, 2023

JMS said:
Yep, it got abused by people from "richer" countries using VPNs on those countries to buy games for cheap on steam fucking over those who actually had a good use for it.

I thought Steam basically eradicated this by requiring a credit card from that country?

Amir · May 27, 2023

Chairmanchuck said:
Uhm. Reading this, it seems this Iranian person had an account for Argentina...

Reading Steam forums, seems Valve is cracking down on region jumpers:

We don't even have purchasing power of Argentina or Turkey. What should we do? use pirate for all games?

c0Zm1c · May 27, 2023

G_O said:
It's inoffensive bs about video games, if you actually get annoyed by this or any platform war shite that's unfortunate

It's the weird double-standard I find annoying: that platform warrior rhetoric is seen by some of you as okay to post/defend on a forum that literally bans users for doing it (with good reason) whether they too are joking or not. We're completely off-topic at this point though so I'll just leave it there.

cowbanana · May 27, 2023

Can Valve even sell games in Iran? With sanctions etc.

The Omega Man · May 27, 2023

I grew up in a poor country, nobody bought original games it was too expensive, people used to put mod-chips on their consoles and play pirated games, PC games have been pirated since the beginning of times as well.
If you are a gamer in a poor country, buying the shiny new game day 1 is a big no no, wait for a heavy discount and buy from third party sellers like GoG or CD Keys?
Heck I am in Canada and I can't afford those 100$ Games, I wait for big sales.

Sacul64 · May 27, 2023

cowbanana said:
Can Valve even sell games in Iran? With sanctions etc.

Probably not. like it seems like the opposite is actually happening and valve is reverting peoples regions to where they actually live as best they can.

InquisitorAles · May 27, 2023

Amir said:
No, if you create account with Iranian IP all price are same as US. our salary is not even 3 percent of them!

They are not. Iran is part of "South Asia" region on Steam, you get prices displayed in USD, but in most cases prices are still cheaper than US. I know this because I was in CIS region and we have a similar policy.

To be fair, some big publishers like EA, Bethesda, and Capcom loves to shaft our regions and set the same 60-70$ as in US (probably because those dumb fucks see USD and manually change it, while they have no clue about other currencies and just follow Valve's suggestions). But saying that ALL prices are the same as in the US is incorrect.

bitcloudrzr · May 27, 2023

pswii60 said:
I thought Steam had really clamped down on geo abuse, to the point that I expected it would be a non-issue. So it's a damn shame to hear this. This kind of situation doesn't help anyone.

People will always find a way to do things like this.

Spinosaurus · May 27, 2023

Definitely started noticing this since last year and it always bums me out. Steam games used to be so affordable for me.

texhnolyze · May 27, 2023

Yeah, even "waiting for a sale" is not really the solution anymore, since even at 50% it still feels too expensive. We have to wait for 75% off or more which some games would never get, ever.

RubberStamp · May 27, 2023

What about epic games op? I've heard their regional pricing is a lot better for developing countries?

The Omega Man · May 27, 2023

texhnolyze said:
Yeah, even "waiting for a sale" is not really the solution anymore, since even at 50% it still feels too expensive. We have to wait for 75% off or more which some games would never get, ever.

Were the games 75% cheaper from the get go with regional pricing?

Amir · May 27, 2023

InquisitorAles said:
They are not. Iran is part of "South Asia" region on Steam, you get prices displayed in USD, but in most cases prices are still cheaper than US. I know this because I was in CIS region and we have a similar policy.

To be fair, some big publishers like EA, Bethesda, and Capcom loves to shaft our regions and set the same 60-70$ as in US (probably because those dumb fucks see USD and manually change it, while they have no clue about other currencies and just follow Valve's suggestions). But saying that ALL prices are the same as in the US is incorrect.

Supported Currencies (Steamworks Documentation)

partner.steamgames.com

We also recommend a discounted USD price for several South Asian countries where we don't have local pricing. This is presented as "SASIA-USD" in the pricing tools. These countries are: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Iran never be in steam supported countries.

RubberStamp said:
What about epic games op? I've heard their regional pricing is a lot better for developing countries?

Epic does not have gift card and in iran we don't have any visa/mastercard or other international payment method but we can buy something like steam gift card with bitcoin or other crypto payments.

texhnolyze · May 27, 2023

The Omega Man said:
Were the games 75% cheaper from the get go with regional pricing?

Yes, AAA games were like $20 back then, $30 at most.

Here's a thread I made in 2019 comparing the old and 2019 prices, and it's way worse now since most games are full $60 conversion.

Steam regional pricing is getting worse over time and it negatively affects the Grand Prix reward ($5 discount) outside of NA/EU regions

Yes, the Grand Prix has so many issues, but this is the most glaring one for me by far. So basically, by participating in the race you can gain tokens, which ultimately you can exchange with a $5 discount voucher for 15k tokens. For a lot of people, this is their main target in this Summer Sale...

www.resetera.com

Update:

CDPR
The Witcher 3: $38
Thronebreaker: $32
Cyberpunk 20877: $50

Bethesda
Wolfenstein New Order: $28
Wolfenstein New Colossus: $58
The Evil Within: $28
The Evil Within 2: $58

SquareEnix
Just Cause 3: $27
Just Cause 4: $48
Rise of Tomb Raider: $41
Shadow of Tomb Raider: $49

Koei Tecmo
Romance of 3 Kingdoms XIII: $28
Romance of 3 Kingdoms XIV: $62
Nobunaga's Ambition SOI: $28
Nobunaga's Ambition Taishi: $62

Rockstar
Grand Theft Auto V: $40
Red Dead Redemption 2: $46

Warner Bros
Mortal Kombat X: $27
Mortal Kombat XI: $49

Deep Silver
Metro Exodus (2018) : $27
Metro Exodus (2019): $48

Activision
COD Black Ops III: $40 (2015)
COD Black Ops III: $55 (2017~now)

Brawly Likes to Brawl · May 27, 2023

I tried telling people not to abuse VPNs for regional pricing precisely because this would happen. Apparently not enough people cared.

BBboy20 · May 27, 2023

c0Zm1c said:
a forum that literally bans users for doing it (with good reason) whether they too are joking or not

Saying "fuck you" to the games industry for non-criminal behavior is ok but saying their slogans (for example Xbox's The World's Most Powerful Console") isn't?

Elgen98 · May 27, 2023

Yeah, the change in regional pricing suck balls I used to buy indie games all the time when they were in the 20/30 reais range, now the standard seems to be 70 reais and I simply cannot afford unless I'm crazy hyped about a game.

Bonfires Down · May 27, 2023

So, it seems that Valve is cracking down on region hoppers by requiring a credit card or bank account from the region you are buying from. While this will be bad for some in the short term, it should lower prices for low income regions in the long term as publishers become more confident that people from rich countries can't easily region hop.

Iran is under sanctions though, so all bets are off in that case.

Lashley · May 27, 2023

Bonfires Down said:
So, it seems that Valve is cracking down on region hoppers by requiring a credit card or bank account from the region you are buying from. While this will be bad for some in the short term, it should lower prices for low income regions in the long term as publishers become more confident that people from rich countries can't easily region hop.

Iran is under sanctions though, so all bets are off in that case.

We all wish this to be true, but let's be real. Publishers aren't lowering their prices.

Bonfires Down · May 27, 2023

Lashley said:
We all wish this to be true, but let's be real. Publishers aren't lowering their prices.

Some won't. But charging half a months salary for a game will get you next to no sales. Lower the price and increase your revenue. I have no doubt that some publishers will see the logic.

Theswweet · May 27, 2023

I really don't think blaming the region hoppers is the move when they're very much a small, small minority and it's the companies themselves making the choice to raise regional prices despite the fact that there have been safeguards in place.

texhnolyze · May 27, 2023

Theswweet said:
I really don't think blaming the region hoppers is the move when they're very much a small, small minority and it's the companies themselves making the choice to raise regional prices despite the fact that there have been safeguards in place.

Yes, this is true. And once they're up, they're not going down ever. Unless there's a global price drop, that is.

NintendoSwitchLover · May 27, 2023

I've always been curious on this subject but do places like Epic Game Store and GMG do regional pricing? It seems like VPN + Torrents is what other countries are being pushed into.

tiebreaker · May 27, 2023

Seems like a side effect of Valve cracking down on region hopping. That's very unfortunate for people from countries that are not officially supported.

Can you buy from steam key websites?

Roytheone · May 27, 2023

G_O said:
But it is a joke, its him playing a character. I thought that was obvious

I don't really follow kinda funny, but does Greg also comment on these things seriously and criticizes it or does he basically always play his character? Like if he jokes about it but at the end go "but seriously, fuck off Sony this sucks" it's fine, but if he only jokes about the situations and never really comments on it that kinda sucks.

Amir · May 27, 2023

tiebreaker said:
Seems like a side effect of Valve cracking down on region hopping. That's very unfortunate for people from countries that are not officially supported.

Can you buy from steam key websites?

Some sites if supported cryto and dosn't have verify system and yet key prices is high too.

texhnolyze · May 27, 2023

NintendoSwitchLover said:
I've always been curious on this subject but do places like Epic Game Store and GMG do regional pricing? It seems like VPN + Torrents is what other countries are being pushed into.

EGS (and most other stores that support regional pricing) has the same prices as Steam, since the publisher themselves who set them up. So yes, even with bigger cut for developers (publishers) on EGS, it doesn't matter. Which makes all those arguments in the early days of EGS seems stupid now.

MDSVeritas · May 27, 2023

Roytheone said:
I don't really follow kinda funny, but does Greg also comment on these things seriously and criticizes it or does he basically always play his character? Like if he jokes about it but at the end go "but seriously, fuck off Sony this sucks" it's fine, but if he only jokes about the situations and never really comments on it that kinda sucks.

Yeah most of the time when he talks about news like this on their daily show he's more soberly going through things. The couple of times he pulls out this kind of 'Wrestling Heel' persona I've always felt it's a pretty big shift in how he normally is 99% of the time for Kinda Funny's content, which is why I feel like you see most people who watch their stuff regularly confidently say this is a bit. It's very much not how Greg tends to talk about news.

Kongroo · May 27, 2023

Theswweet said:
I really don't think blaming the region hoppers is the move when they're very much a small, small minority and it's the companies themselves making the choice to raise regional prices despite the fact that there have been safeguards in place.

Region hoppers are the scapegoat companies use.

And clearly, based on the reactions in this thread, it's working.

End of an Era - Poor countries almost can no longer buy from Steam

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