Great, well I guess they better fix it.The point is that this is such a basic feature the store should have had it from the get go, especially considering who they hired to develop it for them.
With due respect, those are just excuses. If you were aware of how steam counters regional price abusers you wouldn't be saying this. For starters you cannot buy from a foreign store on steam just by using VPN, you NEED a payment option from that country. That means you need a credit/debit card from that country with a billing address registered to that country to even be able to make a purchase. There is also no way to gift a game purchased in a lower priced region to a higher priced region.Publishers aren't obligated to do regional pricing. It's not somehow anti-consumer to charge what you want for your own products.
And while it really sucks for anyone who actually lives in these placing... considering the hoops people jump through to exploit regional pricing systems, I'm kind of surprised it's still as prominent as it is.
Huh. TIL. That seems like a lot of work, especially since most Denuvo games get cracked eventually.They exploit is you use a different account in order to transfer the Denuvo ticket to your own machine. I don't know exactly how it works but I've seen people on (unscrupulous) forums discuss these schemes. It's basically always in relation to Denuvo games, since in any other case it would be easier to just pirate a copy.
We'd also have to give our personal information out to another major corporation, and pay whatever prices Epic wants us to pay because as of right now you can't buy keys to their games on 3rd party sites, and use whatever controllers Epic decided they'll support, and deal with no cloud support etc., etc.
It's not just downloading another launcher.
According the their FAQ they do have regional pricing.
Where is the Epic Games store available?
The Epic Games store is available to players in most countries in the world except for China and where prohibited by US law, such as North Korea and Iran. Certain regions, such as South Korea, may have additional legal requirements that you may need to implement in your game in order to be compliant and to be distributed there.
Does the Epic Games store have regional pricing?
Yes, we do support regional pricing. We also have a set of suggested regional discounts based on local norms that are regularly reviewed.
Which currencies do you accept and in which currencies do you display prices?
We currently support local pricing in USD, Great British Pound, Euro, Polish Zloty, Russian Ruble, South Korean Won, Japanese Yen, Turkish Lira, and Ukrainian Hryvnia.
You mean the developer who chose that pricing is just choosing to price their game at USD prices converted to Rubles; Epic supports "regional pricing" which means the developer can choose the price of their game on a per-region basis, not Epic.One of those counties listed was used in the OPs calculations.
Epics 'regional pricing' is just usnig USD prices converted to rubles, which for the average Russian citizen makes much less then a US person even minimum wage.
Now, this is just my talking out of my ass, but afaik Steam has suggested regional prices based on what the dev decided to charge in USD and I would be willing to be all the free games I plan on getting from Epic that the Epic Store has no such feature and the devs don't know or care about all the world's socioeconomical issues; which is why you get shit like what the OP posted.You mean the developer who chose that pricing is just USD prices converted to Rubles; Epic supports "regional pricing" which means the developer can choose the price of their game on a per-region basis, not Epic.
So a handful of shady idiots do it, so Steam should do away with regional pricing altogether?They exploit is you use a different account in order to transfer the Denuvo ticket to your own machine. I don't know exactly how it works but I've seen people on (unscrupulous) forums discuss these schemes. It's basically always in relation to Denuvo games, since in any other case it would be easier to just pirate a copy.
You haven't been able to abuse the fuck out of russian prices in ages. The changes in the marketplace and gifting rules put a stop to that pretty definitely years ago.
Sadly.
Now, this is just my talking out of my ass, but afaik Steam has suggested regional prices based on what the dev decided to charge in USD and I would be willing to be all the free games I plan on getting from Epic that the Epic Store has no such feature and the devs don't know or care about all the world's socioeconomical issues; which is why you get shit like what the OP posted.
Epic said:Does the Epic Games store have regional pricing?
Yes, we do support regional pricing. We also have a set of suggested regional discounts based on local norms that are regularly reviewed.
I mean, the Microsoft store is still shit. This being shit too doesn't change that.
Honestly, just because it took steam years doesn't mean Epic can't have launched with features that the platform that they want to compete against has had for years. They had the advantage of coming out after steam implemented these features so they could have launched with it from get go, including basic things like cloud saves.Steam took years to make this work and a lot of countries still don't have regional prices (Australia only got it last month), they're probably already working on that.
Mate, UWP has a circle of hell reserved for itself all on its own.
I'm wondering if a lot of Epic's moves with the store, like this, are in response to what developers like those have been saying for a while. Like how store pages for games don't show recommendations of similar games, which they tout as a positive because customers can't see any competition for your game.There are indie developers that don't understand this. There was that Polygon hit piece where they claimed that regional pricing was a negative and that people were effectively stealing from them.
Huh. I guess I need to send you my free games then.Does the Epic Games store have regional pricing?
Yes, we do support regional pricing. We also have a set of suggested regional discounts based on local norms that are regularly reviewed.
more like people need to take off their tin foil hats.Mate, UWP has a circle of hell reserved for itself all on its own.
The Microsoft store was, and still is terrible.
Eh it's close. UWP is hell of a negative. It would be nice if it worked most of the time.
Pretty much.You can't really blame your customers when the only option you give them is pay way more, or wait 12 months.
In 12 month no one will be playing the game with you, and the whole excitement has worn off.
Honestly, just because it took steam years doesn't mean Epic can't have launched with features that the platform that they want to compete against has had for years. They had the advantage of coming out after steam implemented these features so they could have launched with it from get go, including basic things like cloud saves.
Now, this is just my talking out of my ass, but afaik Steam has suggested regional prices based on what the dev decided to charge in USD and I would be willing to be all the free games I plan on getting from Epic that the Epic Store has no such feature and the devs don't know or care about all the world's socioeconomical issues; which is why you get shit like what the OP posted.
People do want competition.That's a shame, hopefully they fix this sooner then later. People will go for the best deal, that's just how it works.
Sidenote: but ma completion statements bother me. What you don't want competition? It just seems like a weird group of people you feel the need to dumb down.
But the Epic Luancher has been a thing for years and took money for years.I don't know exactly how that works but here in Brazil it took a long time for Steam to start accepting local currency and it does it by partnering up with some local payment services. So, judging by the time they took in other regions, I'm guessing it's not that simple and there's some bureaucracy involved in using different currencies in your store. There are probably taxes to be paid to the local government and stuff like that.
Steam has a suggested price, but the dev can put whatever he wants. If you want to charge $50 for your game in the US and $2 for it in Russia, they won't stop you.
I know that, I was saying that if you had no clue about the income levels in Siberia you would probably fuck that up yourself and that Epic not offering such a suggestion might have been what caused the devs just going with a simple exchange rate. But as proved by Dreamwriter I was really, really off base.Steam has a suggested price, but the dev can put whatever he wants. If you want to charge $50 for your game in the US and $2 for it in Russia, they won't stop you.
But it could be someday competition. I'm not saying epic has a good store here im just saying I don't get why we should make fun of those who want them to do better.People do want competition.
What Epic is doing isn't competition.
I'm actually worried Epic will start buying exclusivity from big publishers. I mean, they clearly believe exclusives are the only way to compete with Steam. And they have a lot of money to throw around. Why stop at indie games?Well at least they're not buying exclusivity for 3rd party games and they've got a reasonable refund policy.
*checks Epic store*
Oh, right.
That's a shame, hopefully they fix this sooner then later. People will go for the best deal, that's just how it works.
Sidenote: but ma completion statements bother me. What you don't want competition? It just seems like a weird group of people you feel the need to dumb down.
I might someday win the national lottery and game prices could cease to be an issue.
To be fair I'm pretty out of the loop so this might be missing context.You must have missed all the steam/valve related threads where people come and just scream "Steam needs real competition" and shit on Valve for no reason related to the thread. The first Epic Store thread was really peak era in how they dismissed what Steam has added over a decade+ while blindly saying things such as "This is real competition" and Valve is "resting on it's laurels". Quite frankly, it's impossible to talk about Steam/Valve in a constructive manner on gaming side.