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 event as you can use multiple of these vouchers in your purchase so they stack up nicely if you have lots of tokens in your account. The problem is, as we all know Steam supports regional pricing for various currencies, including my region (Indonesia). So instead of getting a full $5 conversion, I got $1.7 from the voucher. Yes, people may say that it's totally fair because games are cheaper here. However, it's not really the case anymore these days. Lots of games, especially those from big publishers don't get as good regional pricing anymore as in the past (or it was just never good). From my observations, the publishers are slowly leaving regional pricing behind over the past few years. Previously, I can regularly get $60 games for $30, even lower in some cases. But today, it's becoming a pretty rare occurrence for big games. Some examples are (converted from IDR to US$):
Anyway, as previously stated, all I'd get from the 15k tokens is 25k IDR discount voucher, which is barely $1.7 from this event. That means that I'm getting 1/3 of the full reward compared to NA/EU regions. Even with the way pricing worked for my region in the past, most games only got like 50% price cut at most with the regional pricing. I've asked around people from various regions who regularly get regional pricing, and their rewards are also not that far off from my region (i.e. it's $1.6 in Russia). So yeah, combined with the dumpster fire of the event in general, this main reward just pretty much confirmed that this is the worst event in Steam history for me. I've submitted a ticket to the support with more or less similar message as this OP. Hopefully they can give us a good explanation, but I'm not holding my breath.
Oh and by the way, what about Valve games regional pricing? Turns out they've completely abandoned their own guideline too.
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 event as you can use multiple of these vouchers in your purchase so they stack up nicely if you have lots of tokens in your account. The problem is, as we all know Steam supports regional pricing for various currencies, including my region (Indonesia). So instead of getting a full $5 conversion, I got $1.7 from the voucher. Yes, people may say that it's totally fair because games are cheaper here. However, it's not really the case anymore these days. Lots of games, especially those from big publishers don't get as good regional pricing anymore as in the past (or it was just never good). From my observations, the publishers are slowly leaving regional pricing behind over the past few years. Previously, I can regularly get $60 games for $30, even lower in some cases. But today, it's becoming a pretty rare occurrence for big games. Some examples are (converted from IDR to US$):
Yes, you read that right, Deep Silver increased the price while it's still in pre-purchase phase and Activision increased the price 2 years after the game is released. And after that, all of their games are almost full $60 here. Meanwhile, Bandai Namco and Ubisoft never exactly followed the regional pricing guideline that well, buat at least they've been pretty consistent with their $45-$50 pricing. And there's SEGA that consistently priced their Japanese games at full US$ conversion here. I could give you more examples, but it's mostly the same the same story for big publishers. That said, there are publishers who still honor it, such as Capcom who still regularly price their newest games at $35. Mid-tier publishers are also still quite generous and I won't deny that fact.
Anyway, as previously stated, all I'd get from the 15k tokens is 25k IDR discount voucher, which is barely $1.7 from this event. That means that I'm getting 1/3 of the full reward compared to NA/EU regions. Even with the way pricing worked for my region in the past, most games only got like 50% price cut at most with the regional pricing. I've asked around people from various regions who regularly get regional pricing, and their rewards are also not that far off from my region (i.e. it's $1.6 in Russia). So yeah, combined with the dumpster fire of the event in general, this main reward just pretty much confirmed that this is the worst event in Steam history for me. I've submitted a ticket to the support with more or less similar message as this OP. Hopefully they can give us a good explanation, but I'm not holding my breath.
Oh and by the way, what about Valve games regional pricing? Turns out they've completely abandoned their own guideline too.
