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

[Laziness]

I wonder if war played into that and affected\is going to affect some storefronts in certain regions. Don't forget that once Russia was cut off swift earlier last year, that was also the end of all services like psn, xbox, steam, etc, and there was no work around it. The whole country started region hopping. Doesn't sound like minority, it's not a dozen of folks.

 

[texhnolyze]

I wonder if war played into that and affected\is going to affect some storefronts in certain regions. Don't forget that once Russia was cut off swift earlier last year, that was also the end of all services like psn, xbox, steam, etc, and there was no work around it. The whole country started region hopping. Doesn't sound like minority, it's not a dozen of folks.

Click to shrink...

Check my post, publishers already ricing prices years before the war, even before covid.

 

[WonderingRogue]

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

Click to shrink...

Lol did you just start watching Greg Miller? Dude has been a console troll forever. It's not a character, it's him.

Back in GameSpot many, many years ago he was always trolling pc gaming. He outright said that he would quit GameSpot if they made him review a pc game. This dude l, several times had interviews with PC only developers, showing off their PC only game only to be shouted down by him saying things like "who cares about all that, the important question is when is this game coming to consoles"

This was him supposedly doing a professional interview. Literally dismissing these devs games, asking about the console version, which didn't exist and just moving on cause he didn't like the answer.

And ba k in the gamestop podcast days he would dunk on pc gaming and pc gamers all the time. I lo Ed the podcast but it got to the point that if he was going to be on I just skipped those episodes. Dude was like a one note troll.

So please don't give him a platform here. While his cackling while holding a ps5 may be a character, what he says is all Greg Miller through and through.

 

[RubberStamp]

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.

Click to shrink...

From what I've heard, epic's regional pricing is a lot better for some developing countries or countries with low purchasing power.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

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.

Click to shrink...

Region hoppers are the scapegoat companies use.

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

Click to shrink...

We've literally had indie developers tell us that it's an issue and the reason they're forced to raise prices. I don't know what more you want? This shit was rife. People were advising others on how to do it on the Steam forums for the games they were buying. This isn't even the first time it happens and still people want to claim that the region hoppers carry no blame for the situation we're in.

But those greedy, nasty indie developers using the poor, innocent region hoppers as a scapegoat. 😢

No doubt it gets defended on this forum because tons of people here do it themselves, be it for videogames, Youtube Premium, Netflix or what have you.

 

[GK0]

Honestly, if buying a game ends up costing half of your paycheck you should just pirate everthing without feeling bad. Whatever "damage" you cause to the publisher/developer could never come close to sacrifices you'd have to make just to enjoy your hobby.

Also people in this thread seem to forget that poverty also exists in the western world and 70 bucks is a lot of money for a lot of People. I think, for people that live paycheck to paycheck, going the VPN route to at least somewhat semi legally obtain your games and support the devs is still commendable.
I say this as someone who has never "abused" regional pricing.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

Also people in this thread seem to forget that poverty also exists in the western world and 70 bucks is a lot of money for a lot of People. I think, for people that live paycheck to paycheck, going the VPN route to at least somewhat semi legally obtain your games and support the devs is still commendable.
I say this as someone who has never "abused" regional pricing.

Click to shrink...

Except that we know that this wasn't used only by impoverished people. The whole "people in western countries are poor too, maaaan" excuse falls flat every time it is used. I say this as someone who has in the past been screwed by higher prices due to region hoppers.

Sucks for people who are genuinely poor, but whatever your situation, you're helping to screw people in lower income countries over if you abuse regional pricing to get games cheaper.

 

[SCUMMbag]

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.

Click to shrink...

Is this really what Kinda Funny is?

Fuck people exploiting regional pricing btw.

 

[Kenzodielocke]

There is not really much point into pointing out that the system abusers are to blame, there is no data to support that or disprove that. I think at the end of the day, publishers want more money. And seemingly for them it seems to be worth it raising the prices vs losing people that buy your games (at all or later).

 

[Guaraná]

op, I'm not going to tell you how to play the games you want. but please, don't waste half your monthly income on it.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

There is not really much point into pointing out that the system abusers are to blame, there is no data to support that or disprove that. I think at the end of the day, publishers want more money. And seemingly for them it seems to be worth it raising the prices vs losing people that buy your games (at all or later).

Click to shrink...

Yes, those greedy publishers like *checks notes* Motion Twin, the indie studio behind Dead Cells.

Dead Cells - Price change for Argentina & Turkey - Steam News

Hello, Due to circumstances that we will explain below, we're being forced to increase our prices in Argentina & Turkey. We don't make this choice lightly, but unfortunately a significant portion of sales in the last year came from these two countries, without a corresponding increase in players...

store.steampowered.com

Maybe some publishers are taking unfair advantage of the situation, but it's ridiculous to imply that region hoppers weren't causing problems in the industry.

 

[Guaraná]

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.

Click to shrink...

this dude is what, 40-something? man, that's just sad.

 

[JuniperAndSage]

Region hoppers are the scapegoat companies use.

Click to shrink...

The idea that countless developers, from huge multinational corporations to small anarchist collectives to solo indie devs, have all just inexplicably decided to go after the same 2-3 countries for no good reason is absurd.

 

[NewDust]

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.

Click to shrink...

I think your best bet is pushing Valve to group Iran with the South Asian countries, despite not being officially supported. That would still be more expensive than what you are used to, but better than the German or US prices you are getting now.

It is a shame that abusers of the regional pricing forced a clamp down with these side effects.

 

[GK0]

Except that we know that this wasn't used only by impoverished people. The whole "people in western countries are poor too, maaaan" excuse falls flat every time it is used. I say this as someone who has in the past been screwed by higher prices due to region hoppers.

Sucks for people who are genuinely poor, but whatever your situation, you're helping to screw people in lower income countries over if you abuse regional pricing to get games cheaper.

Click to shrink...

I specifically mentioned people who "live paycheck to paycheck" in my post. How does it fall flat btw? There are people who maybe make 10 times as much as people in poorer countries but when all of that goes into Rent, Food, and other costs of living the end result might still be zero or very close to that.

Are you saying these people are not poor enough to seek out an affordable way to engage in their hobby or do you think they dont deserve to be able to have it?

 

[Deleted member 93841]

I specifically mentioned people who "live paycheck to paycheck" in my post. How does it fall flat btw? There are people who maybe make 10 times as much as people in poorer countries but when all of that goes into Rent, Food, and other costs of living the end result might still be zero or very close to that.

Are you saying these people are not poor enough to seek out an affordable way to engage in their hobby or do you think they dont deserve to be able to have it?

Click to shrink...

So just because someone is too poor to buy games in America, it means it's okay to screw over people from countries like Argentina by exploiting their regional pricing?

Because you know, there's no way to prove that Cleetus is buying via VPN from Argentina only because he couldn't afford it otherwise. Cleetos from just down the road might have $100 a month to spend on games, and sees Argentina as an opportunity to buy 3-4 games a month, rather than just 1-2. And you can bet there were a lot of Cleetoses exploiting regional pricing.

Are you saying these people are not poor enough to seek out an affordable way to engage in their hobby or do you think they dont deserve to be able to have it?

Click to shrink...

Are you saying that these people's access to games is more important than people from places like Argentina being able to access games?

It falls flat because no matter how much you try to jerk those tears out of other people, it's a selfish mindset.

 

[Arubedo]

That sucks, i live in Morocco (North Africa) and the only platform that has Regional Pricing here is the Epic Game Store, game publishers do not care about third world countries and regions like Africa so adding regional pricings to those areas will most likely never happen.

 

[bes.gen]

yeah that's what it came to unfortunately.
also remember the "blame the game, not the player " assholes that abuse regional pricing.
they pop every time like clockwork trying to justify this shit.

 

[Necromanti]

Eh, the regional pricing exploit argument is a bit more complicated in this case, because the person mentioned in the OP was doing exactly that: they live in Iran, which doesn't have regional pricing that accurately reflects the situation there, so they were using the Argentinian store instead. Still paying more than what makes sense, but less than what was expected of them. If we're not making any moral exceptions, then…

 

[GK0]

So just because someone is too poor to buy games in America, it means it's okay to screw over people from countries like Argentina by exploiting their regional pricing?

Because you know, there's no way to prove that Cleetus is buying via VPN from Argentina only because he couldn't afford it otherwise. Cleetos from just down the road might have $100 a month to spend on games, and sees Argentina as an opportunity to buy 3-4 games a month, rather than just 1-2. And you can bet there were a lot of Cleetoses exploiting regional pricing.

Click to shrink...

Sound like Cleetus doesnt have a lot of money and tries to spend it responsibly.

Are you saying that these people's access to games is more important than people from places like Argentina being able to access games?

It falls flat because no matter how much you try to jerk those tears out of other people, it's a selfish mindset.

Click to shrink...

I think they are equally as important. Pitting poor people against poor people when its publishers deciding to increase prices over some imaginary number they could have sold at full price to people who would have never bought the game at full price is an ignorant mindset

 

[LV-0504]

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.

Click to shrink...

He is, by far, the most obnoxious ignoramus on the internet, and that is saying a LOT.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

I think they are equally as important. Pitting poor people against poor people when its publishers deciding to increase prices over some imaginary number they could have sold at full price to people who would have never bought the game at full price is an ignorant mindset

Click to shrink...

It's not just "greedy" publishers! How many times do we have to tell you this? Indie devs have literally said that it's sustainable for them. Or is your next argument going to be that those greedy darn indie developers are just banding together to screw poor people over?

By using a VPN to buy elsewhere, you're placing your own needs above those of others and showing that you don't care if they get screwed by the consequences of your actions. Both parties are not equally important when it comes to being able to buy games for cheaper in Argentina (or whereever else it is that gets their regional pricing exploited). Argentinians win that one and it's not even a competition.

yeah that's what it came to unfortunately.
also remember the "blame the game, not the player " assholes that abuse regional pricing.
they pop every time like clockwork trying to justify this shit.

Click to shrink...

Guilty conscience, is what it is. Plenty of people on Era engage in the behaviour themselves and they defend it, because they don't want to think of themselves as the bad guys.

Eh, the regional pricing exploit argument is a bit more complicated in this case, because the person mentioned in the OP was doing exactly that: they live in Iran, which doesn't have regional pricing that accurately reflects the situation there, so they were using the Argentinian store instead. Still paying more than what makes sense, but less than what was expected of them. If we're not making any moral exceptions, then…

Click to shrink...

OP is part of the problem too. It is what is, unfortunately. In South Africa we didn't have regional pricing on Steam for a long time and we got charged according to the US prices and were at the mercy of our exchange rate.

 

[JoeInky]

It's a shame we can never get any actual data from this sort of stuff to figure out what's actually going on, never region hopped myself because I don't see the point for me personally but:

-What are the actual sales from Argentina + Turkey as a percentage of total sales
-What percentage of that number is from countries that don't have regional pricing yet or poor countries where their regional pricing is too high
-Do they have any data to show the people from richer countries who have been abusing this will buy their games at all if they aren't cheaper anymore
-Has enacting these changes actually increased sales from other countries for the "correct" price or has it just decreased legitimate sales from Argentina + Turkey

Personally I've not cared to look into how easy or not it is to region hop in the first place but I've always been skeptical of the idea that a significant number of people are doing this, or that the ones who are doing this would be fine with buying the game full price, and as a developer I've always been of the opinion that it's atleast better people buy your game than pirate it.

 

[devSin]

The only problem here is that there's no legitimate region for Iranian purchasers. (It may not even be legal for them to provide one.)

Region hopping shouldn't be allowed at all. It makes no difference what country you're in while you're doing it.

 

[Lunchbox]

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

Click to shrink...

Because he's white, rich & a lot of people like him here. It's totally cool dude.

 

[texhnolyze]

From what I've heard, epic's regional pricing is a lot better for some developing countries or countries with low purchasing power.

Click to shrink...

Nah, it only happened a few times and usually unintentional. When EGS is cheaper, it's usually a price mistake since EGS also has default regional pricing by system. It's only cheaper for a brief time and will be fixed by the publisher to match Steam and other stores. The opposite case has also happened before.

 

[CheapJi]

The idea that countless developers, from huge multinational corporations to small anarchist collectives to solo indie devs, have all just inexplicably decided to go after the same 2-3 countries for no good reason is absurd.

Click to shrink...

The recommended default price for these regions went up after some big publishers, mainly sony, complained about people getting their games cheaper.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

Personally I've not cared to look into how easy or not it is to region hop in the first place but I've always been skeptical of the idea that a significant number of people are doing this, or that the ones who are doing this would be fine with buying the game full price, and as a developer I've always been of the opinion that it's atleast better people buy your game than pirate it.

Click to shrink...

Well, the Dead Cells developers claimed that in regions like Argentina they had 3-4 times as many buyers as they had players. The Spiritfarer devs said that approximately 85% of their sales in Argentina appeared to be coming from people from other countries. It's hard to say without exact numbers, but that doesn't sound insignificant when you consider that there are probably at least a couple 100 people playing these games in Argentina. And when your game costs 70%-90% less in Argentina than the US, you only need to convert a couple of those region hoppers to make up that money.

The alternative is that we assume these smaller devs are just bullshitting, which... you tell me? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have no doubt that many people were doing this, as tutorials for how to do it were being posted on German deal sites at one point.

 

[Sangral]

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:

Click to shrink...

I know it's not a solution to the general problem, nor to newer releases, but especially with all these old ass games, why don't you just buy keys? Most older games are DIRT cheap out there, like basically almost free anyway. It sucks for all the newer stuff but at least there is an option.

Buy cheap Just Cause 3 cd key - lowest price

Compare prices of over 50 stores to find best deals for Just Cause 3 in digital distribution. Check the price history, create a price alert, buy games cheaper with GG.deals

gg.deals

 

[CheapJi]

I know it's not a solution to the general problem, nor to newer releases, but especially with all these old ass games, why don't you just buy keys? Most older games are DIRT cheap out there, like basically almost free anyway. It sucks for all the newer stuff but at least there is an option.

Buy cheap Just Cause 3 cd key - lowest price

Compare prices of over 50 stores to find best deals for Just Cause 3 in digital distribution. Check the price history, create a price alert, buy games cheaper with GG.deals

gg.deals

Click to shrink...

The payment methods available in all these key reseller sites are not easily accessible(or accessible at all) to most people living in these countries.

 

[Sangral]

The payment methods available in all these key reseller sites are not easily accessible(or accessible at all) to most people living in these countries.

Click to shrink...

Ah ok, didn't know that. Yeah that's an issue then. 😕

 

[texhnolyze]

I know it's not a solution to the general problem, nor to newer releases, but especially with all these old ass games, why don't you just buy keys? Most older games are DIRT cheap out there, like basically almost free anyway. It sucks for all the newer stuff but at least there is an option.

Buy cheap Just Cause 3 cd key - lowest price

Compare prices of over 50 stores to find best deals for Just Cause 3 in digital distribution. Check the price history, create a price alert, buy games cheaper with GG.deals

gg.deals

Click to shrink...

It's not about how much the prices are now because of sales, but how much these games cost at launch compared to the prices of the newer games/sequels that are coming from the same companies.

To make it simple, imagine if games that are usually $60 at launch becomes $120 for US users. Yes, you can wait until they're 50% off to get them at $60, but ideally before the price hike, you could buy them $30 at 50% discount.

 

[JoeInky]

Well, the Dead Cells developers claimed that in regions like Argentina they had 3-4 times as many buyers as they had players. The Spiritfarer devs said that approximately 85% of their sales in Argentina appeared to be coming from people from other countries. It's hard to say without exact numbers, but that doesn't sound insignificant when you consider that there are probably at least a couple 100 people playing these games in Argentina. And when your game costs 70%-90% less in Argentina than the US, you only need to convert a couple of those region hoppers to make up that money.

The alternative is that we assume these smaller devs are just bullshitting, which... you tell me? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have no doubt that many people were doing this, as tutorials for how to do it were being posted on German deal sites at one point.

Click to shrink...

I don't think they're bullshitting, but I do think people can see a set of facts and come to the wrong conclusion, especially when money is involved.

It's very easy to see a situation where someone doesn't look any further into it than "These people bought our game for 90% cheaper, but if they couldn't they would have bought it for full price/on sale for~50% off and thus we get more money" when I'm just not convinced that that would be the case. Especially for games like Dead Cells and Spiritfarer which are still going to be over £10 anyway even with 50% off.

3 to 4 times more than a couple 100 is still at most a couple of thousand, as a total of games that sell in the million+ range (or in Dead Cells case; multimillions), to me that just isn't worth screwing over the people in the poorer countries. I'd understand more if it was a dev that sold only 6000 copies and 50% of them were from Argentia/turkey

The 85% one for Spiritfarer is a little more concerning, but at the same time again we don't know what the percentage of the total sales that is.

Without the actual facts to back it up we can't say for certain what is actually going on, but I'd rather err on the side of allowing people in poorer countries to have better options even if some people are abusing it.

E: The fact that Motion Twin decided to make this change after the game has already been out for 4 years and they've probably already made the majority of their sales is also a bit odd to me.

I'm going to assume no developer has made some kind of post-mortem look into what happened to their sales within these regions after a change such as this? I'd be interested in reading something like that.

 

[Bowl0l]

Imagine publishers start charging based on income slip. Anyone wants a store client to implement that?

 

[G_O]

Lol did you just start watching Greg Miller? Dude has been a console troll forever. It's not a character, it's him.

Back in GameSpot many, many years ago he was always trolling pc gaming. He outright said that he would quit GameSpot if they made him review a pc game. This dude l, several times had interviews with PC only developers, showing off their PC only game only to be shouted down by him saying things like "who cares about all that, the important question is when is this game coming to consoles"

This was him supposedly doing a professional interview. Literally dismissing these devs games, asking about the console version, which didn't exist and just moving on cause he didn't like the answer.

And ba k in the gamestop podcast days he would dunk on pc gaming and pc gamers all the time. I lo Ed the podcast but it got to the point that if he was going to be on I just skipped those episodes. Dude was like a one note troll.

So please don't give him a platform here. While his cackling while holding a ps5 may be a character, what he says is all Greg Miller through and through.

Click to shrink...

I used to watch kinda funny years ago but not anymore. I also watched ign stuff when he was there. I don't recall him ever working for game spot though

 

[WonderingRogue]

I used to watch kinda funny years ago but not anymore. I also watched ign stuff when he was there. I don't recall him ever working for game spot though

Click to shrink...

Sorry it was IGN I was thinking of. Haven't really followed either of those outlets in a while, and I used to follow both so they kind of run together.

 

[G_O]

Sorry it was IGN I was thinking of. Haven't really followed either of those outlets in a while, and I used to follow both so they kind of run together.

Click to shrink...

No bothers

either way I never understand how anyone can ever get annoyed by anything the likes of him says. I think it says more about them than him. I got bored of kf a few years ago but never because anything they did was offensive. To reiterate its video games we are talking about. who cares what people say or joke about when it comes to this subject?

 

[PtM]

Personally I've not cared to look into how easy or not it is to region hop in the first place but I've always been skeptical of the idea that a significant number of people are doing this, or that the ones who are doing this would be fine with buying the game full price, and as a developer I've always been of the opinion that it's atleast better people buy your game than pirate it

Click to shrink...

You can find posts on deal websites about the South-African or Russian eshop all the time.
Border hopping is also a real thing.

Imagine publishers start charging based on income slip. Anyone wants a store client to implement that?

Click to shrink...

People will find a way to ruin it.

No bothers

either way I never understand how anyone can ever get annoyed by anything the likes of him says. I think it says more about them than him. I got bored of kf a few years ago but never because anything they did was offensive. To reiterate its video games we are talking about. who cares what people say or joke about when it comes to this subject?

Click to shrink...

It's the kids who are wrong.

 

[Amir]

I think your best bet is pushing Valve to group Iran with the South Asian countries, despite not being officially supported. That would still be more expensive than what you are used to, but better than the German or US prices you are getting now.

It is a shame that abusers of the regional pricing forced a clamp down with these side effects.

Click to shrink...

Even if we are going to south asian region because this region don't have gift card and we don't have any payment method that work worldwide we can't buy anything!

The only problem here is that there's no legitimate region for Iranian purchasers. (It may not even be legal for them to provide one.)

Region hopping shouldn't be allowed at all. It makes no difference what country you're in while you're doing it.

Click to shrink...

So if i want to play games pirate single players and just watch streamers for online games and i have no right to play online games or buy from us region and pay at usd price and pay tax for them and not use Argentina or Turkey stores.

 

[XR.]

Or is your next argument going to be that those greedy darn indie developers are just banding together to screw poor people over?

Click to shrink...

That's quite literally what they're doing. Being indie doesn't mean you're inherently incapable of being greedy. Those region hoppers aren't the difference between being sustainable, they're just being greedy and think it's ok to punish poorer regions. They're not forced to do so.

 

[Elven_Star]

I live in Iran and this is going to hit me pretty hard. We still have Game Pass at least... for now. Soon, I'll have no choice but to buy a couple of mega big AAA games a year, stuff like Elden Ring, Starfield, and TotK that can last for months. Indies and smaller games are going to vanish for me.

 

[texhnolyze]

I live in Iran and this is going to hit me pretty hard. We still have Game Pass at least... for now. Soon, I'll have no choice but to buy a couple of mega big AAA games a year, stuff like Elden Ring, Starfield, and TotK that can last for months. Indies and smaller games are going to vanish for me.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Game Pass has been a life saver for a lot of gamers here. Not only it diverts people from piracy, but also moving the XBox console sales here. People are actually buying XBox now, much more compared to its nonexistence before.

 

[Cipherr]

Region hoppers are the scapegoat companies use.

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

Click to shrink...

Nah man, no. Nobody says that region hoppers are the sole reason, but many of them are from rich countries and just do the shit to be cheap giving zero fucks about the possible repercussions. Im not letting a single one off the hook for that.

Yes, those greedy publishers like *checks notes* Motion Twin, the indie studio behind Dead Cells.

Dead Cells - Price change for Argentina & Turkey - Steam News

Hello, Due to circumstances that we will explain below, we're being forced to increase our prices in Argentina & Turkey. We don't make this choice lightly, but unfortunately a significant portion of sales in the last year came from these two countries, without a corresponding increase in players...

store.steampowered.com

Maybe some publishers are taking unfair advantage of the situation, but it's ridiculous to imply that region hoppers weren't causing problems in the industry.

Click to shrink...

Exactly. Its possible for it to be a problem that's getting contributions from more than one angle. Region hoppers are a problem, period.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

Honestly, if buying a game ends up costing half of your paycheck you should just pirate everthing without feeling bad. Whatever "damage" you cause to the publisher/developer could never come close to sacrifices you'd have to make just to enjoy your hobby.

Also people in this thread seem to forget that poverty also exists in the western world and 70 bucks is a lot of money for a lot of People. I think, for people that live paycheck to paycheck, going the VPN route to at least somewhat semi legally obtain your games and support the devs is still commendable.
I say this as someone who has never "abused" regional pricing.

Click to shrink...

If you can't afford the $60-70 price tag because you are living paycheck to paycheck, either wait when the game goes down in price or find a new hobby. Using a VPN to get a product cheaper from another region where people earn like $200-$500 monthly just to play a videogame is selfish. Which is what happened, and now people from those regions will suffer because of these assholes.

I find also amusing you mention the western world like it only is the United States, Canada and Europe. Latin America is part of the western world. Our economies are awful. Especially in countries like Argentina or Colombia.

 

[JulianV]

Here in Argentina a lot of people jumped from PS to Xbox or PC because of regional pricings. We'll have to see if Xbox starts raising the prices too.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

E: The fact that Motion Twin decided to make this change after the game has already been out for 4 years and they've probably already made the majority of their sales is also a bit odd to me.

Click to shrink...

Motion Twin keeps releasing free content updates as well as DLC. They're constantly working on their game. It wasn't a one and done deal where lots of people bought it and then forgot about it. It's easy to see why people paying $1 for something that they would otherwise have to pay $10 for is not sustainable at large scale.

That's quite literally what they're doing. Being indie doesn't mean you're inherently incapable of being greedy. Those region hoppers aren't the difference between being sustainable, they're just being greedy and think it's ok to punish poorer regions. They're not forced to do so.

Click to shrink...

Who are you actually to say this? Because we've got small indie devs telling us that it's not sustainable to them. Do you have anything to actually back this up other than "developers bad!!!"?

Regardless of the greedy dev rhetoric, we all know what the consequences are of exploiting regional pricing and it's fucked up to do it anyway and then shift the blame entirely onto "greedy devs" when the shit hits the fan for people in lower income regions.

 

[XR.]

Motion Twin keeps releasing free content updates as well as DLC. They're constantly working on their game. It wasn't a one and done deal where lots of people bought it and then forgot about it. It's easy to see why people paying $1 for something that they would otherwise have to pay $10 for is not sustainable at large scale.



Who are you actually to say this? Because we've got small indie devs telling us that it's not sustainable to them. Do you have anything to actually back this up other than "developers bad!!!"?

Click to shrink...

I'mma be real, do you honestly think, years after release, the amount of region hoppers who are willing to buy at full price after they've increased the price in poorer regions will make the difference between being sustainable and not being sustainable? It doesn't add up in the slightest.

If you can't afford the $60-70 price tag because you are living paycheck to paycheck, either wait when the game goes down in price or find a new hobby

Click to shrink...

Is this mentality applicable to everyone (incl. poorer regions) or just a certain group?

I find this incredibly ignorant considering the zero cost of distribution. A digital game doesn't have to cost a certain amount and a developer doesn't inherently deserve a certain amount. I think most people can adapt but if there's a possibility to buy games for a cheaper price, people are going to seek out that possibility if that lets them enjoy their hobby during the circumstances they're in.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

I'mma be real, do you honestly think, years after release, the amount of region hoppers who are willing to buy at full price after they've increased the price in poorer regions will make the difference between being sustainable and not being sustainable? It doesn't add up in the slightest.

Click to shrink...

Imma be real, yes. For a small indie dev trying to fund the creation of DLC, new content updates, their employees' salaries and new projects. Dead Cells is one of the few games that has enjoyed a massive amount of post-release support, a lot of completely free to people who already bought the game. If they say it's an issue to them, I'm probably going to take their word over that of someone on a gaming forum trying to justify why it's actually okay to exploit regional pricing to get at cheaper games.

Region hop if you want, just at least have the decency to admit to the shitty thing you're doing. At this point we all know what the consequences of regional pricing abuse is for residents of lower income countries. You don't get to do it anyway and then try and point fingers at the devs. At least own the behavior.

 

[Musubi]

Lol did you just start watching Greg Miller? Dude has been a console troll forever. It's not a character, it's him.

Back in GameSpot many, many years ago he was always trolling pc gaming. He outright said that he would quit GameSpot if they made him review a pc game. This dude l, several times had interviews with PC only developers, showing off their PC only game only to be shouted down by him saying things like "who cares about all that, the important question is when is this game coming to consoles"

This was him supposedly doing a professional interview. Literally dismissing these devs games, asking about the console version, which didn't exist and just moving on cause he didn't like the answer.

And ba k in the gamestop podcast days he would dunk on pc gaming and pc gamers all the time. I lo Ed the podcast but it got to the point that if he was going to be on I just skipped those episodes. Dude was like a one note troll.

So please don't give him a platform here. While his cackling while holding a ps5 may be a character, what he says is all Greg Miller through and through.

Click to shrink...

Who are you even talking about? Miller never worked at Gamespot.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

Is this mentality applicable to everyone (incl. poorer regions) or just a certain group?

I find this incredibly ignorant considering the zero cost of distribution. A digital game doesn't have to cost a certain amount and a developer doesn't inherently deserve a certain amount. I think most people can adapt but if there's a possibility to buy games for a cheaper price, people are going to seek out that possibility if that lets them enjoy their hobby during the circumstances they're in.

Click to shrink...

If enjoying your hobby means it will screw up people from people in regions that, if lucky, they can earn 5k a year, then I don't know what to tell you.

Publishers are greedy, no doubt about that. But let's not pretend people who are region hopping are righteous for buying a game. They are not. They are selfish.

And hey, the sales mentality goes also into those regions too. Perhaps with the regional pricing, they couldn't afford game full price. But with the sale, they finally can get it. Now, by removing regional pricing, they can't even buy the game on a sale because it is too expensive for them.

SMH. It is astounding all kind of reasoning people use to justify region hopping.