Thunder Lotus (Spiritfarer): "85% of sales coming from Argentina and Turkey seem to be coming from people playing in other countries"

[Rosebud]

Evidence of people from rich countries fucking over others yet again. Now people that are really from there have to pay much more

What I can say is that we saw a huge increase in sales in your countries last year, but no increase in the number of players. Something like 85% of sales coming "from Argentina and Turkey" seem to be coming from people playing in other countries - people who are chasing the lowest possible price on Steam. This is apparently a widespread problem on Steam, which is why Steam is recommending an especially large increase in your regional prices.

This is not an easy decision, but we do agree with it - the alternative is basically encouraging people to abuse the system and pay far less for our games than we know they're worth. Thanks very much for understanding.

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Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition - Regional Price Update - Steam News

Hey everyone, Today, we're approving and locking in Steam's latest regional price recommendations on our games. Some of these new prices are a big change (check out the full list here), so I want to give a little context. For those who are unaware, Steam doesn't simply use exchange rates to set...

store.steampowered.com

 

[JCG]

I am always mad when developers and/or publishers feel that the need to punish the guilty somehow justifies screwing over the innocent as well.

 

[D O T]

fucking hell, they doubled the price in my region, thanks a lot regional abusers!

This shit actually stops me buying indie games day one.

 

[Seraphs]

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

 

[nsilvias]

isnt it a chore to bypass regions on steam accounts ? or are people buying regional keys like people do for game pass on here

 

[Rosebud]

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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No, this is what happens when people abuse regional pricing to save $10

 

[bes.gen]

fuck the leeches,
also how is it that devs can tell the physical location but steam can't

 

[Tunesmith]

isnt it a chore to bypass regions on steam accounts ?

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It really isn't. But I'm not going to explain the methodology because I don't support the practice.

 

[Seraphs]

No, this is what happens when people abuse regional pricing and save $10

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You know this isnt working anymore? You must have an argentine Credit card. You cant buy gift card, you cant gift games.

Here in Brazil people are buying argentine steam accounts sold by argentines

 

[Rosebud]

You know this isnt working anymore? You must have an argentine Credit card. You cant buy gift card, you cant gift games.

Here in Brazil people are buying argentine steam accounts sold by argentines

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If 85% are regional abusers of course it's possible, the devs themselves just said it is

 

[OrangeNova]

I am always mad when developers and/or publishers feel that the need to punish the guilty somehow justifies screwing over the innocent as well.

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How do you expect them to handle it?

This is purely people ruining it for others, not on the devs at all.

 

[Linus815]

and people here did / do all the time too, by the way. It's incredibly lame. The prices are low in some regions for a reason.

 

[Schmitz]

Steam needs to punish these people more. But it would also recquire people to review wrong flags.
Steam recommending to increase prices says all about their willingnes to tackle the issue.

 

[HandsomeCharles]

Speaking as a developer (who has absolutely taken advantage of regional pricing), I wonder how many of those sales would not have occurred at all if the customer was unable to buy at a "discounted" rate?

Piracy is one thing, but I'd prefer to be given at least some money by my players rather than none.

 

[darkkinder]

No, this is what happens when people abuse regional pricing to save $10

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I think the problem is more than That. If people are buying in this countries (if it is possible yet on steam), because of different reasons (and I say this because we can't know 100% the reason of every person who buys from another country), the problem it is really not that simple to just blame them.

 

[2Blackcats]

fuck the leeches,
also how is it that devs can tell the physical location but steam can't

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Lots of ways, surveys or just seeing the spikes in the cheapest countries.

I don't know why people can't see the harm they do with this.

 

[Lant_War]

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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Aren't you the same one that got upset at Bolsonaro being called fascist?

 

[LiquidSolid]

I am always mad when developers and/or publishers feel that the need to punish the guilty somehow justifies screwing over the innocent as well.

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How exactly do you propose they punish the guilty without screwing over the innocent?

 

[Grips]

I can't get mad at this really.
Too lazy to do this buy hey you do you and save your cash!

 

[RPGam3r]

I'm so tired of watching people even here talk about doing this, or complain when they can't anymore. Purchase shit in your own region and stop ruining pricing that is supposed to help regions who need it.

 

[Rosebud]

How exactly do you propose they punish the guilty without screwing over the innocent?

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Platorm holders should crack down even more on regional changes

I can't get mad at this really.
Too lazy to do this buy hey you do you and save your cash!

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... are you affected by this?

People from entire countries are getting priced out of gaming so some can "save their cash"

 

[2Blackcats]

Speaking as a developer (who has absolutely taken advantage of regional pricing), I wonder how many of those sales would not have occurred at all if the customer was unable to buy at a "discounted" rate?

Piracy is one thing, but I'd prefer to be given at least some money by my players rather than none.

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The people I know that do this would definitely be buying anyway. Anecdotal of course and obviously their gaming budget tops out at some point.

 

[Ailanthium]

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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Yes, because Turkey's Erdogan is definitely a communist (</s>, obviously).

Obviously there's a lot to be said about bad economic policy and recessions worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, but implying that communism is the real cause of bad actors abusing regional pricing or purchasing Argentinian Steam accounts or whatever else is oversimplifying the situation to the extreme.

Aren't you the same one that got upset at Bolsonaro being called fascist?

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Yikes. I typically don't like searching through someone's post history, but the right-wing apologism here is something else. I also know that this sort of debate should really go in Off-Topic, but fuck Bolsonaro and anyone who defends him. Fucking monster.

 

[Bish_Bosch]

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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Lol that would be cool if it was at all real but no. Unless you are talking about Turkey then WTAF.

 

[Seraphs]

Steam is making it harder to get cheap games from other regions

It seems its previous measures still weren't enough.

www.pcgamer.com

Last summer, life was made more difficult for VPN users(opens in new tab) when Steam began requiring a payment method registered at whatever country you were trying to buy from. Grabbing Half-Life from Argentina with a US credit card? No can do.

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[Speedstersonic]

I would like to know actual number stats rather than percentages. This feels like the whole piracy debate as in do you think people buying it after going through all those hoops would actually buy it full price? I highly doubt it and i highly doubt this is worth fucking over innocent people.

 

[Sounds]

I personally would never do this, but let's not pretend that these "rich" counties don't have millions and millions of poor people too. Half my friends struggle to pay rent.

 

[Seraphs]

Aren't you the same one that got upset at Bolsonaro being called fascist?

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Show me how i got upset? People asked why CADE was not trustworthy and i said because of the president. Did i defend him or something?

 

[HandsomeCharles]

The people I know that do this would definitely be buying anyway. Anecdotal of course and obviously their gaming budget tops out at some point.

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There undoubtedly would be some, but I feel it's probably similar to steam sales etc. plenty of people could afford to take a "full price" hit, but more wouldn't be willing to take a chance on something for full price.


But anyway, if/when I got round to releasing my own indie title, I'd obviously prefer people paid full price, but I'm also not going to complain about regional pricing if the alternative is that they don't play (or pay) at all.

Also, I'd like to see the overall sales figures breakdown. It may be that 85% of people buying in those regions are illegitimate, but what's the overall percentage of sales that comes from that region?

 

[Prelude]

The game is constantly on sale from official stores for dirt cheap, is it really worth possibly getting your Steam account banned this way just to pay 0.50€ instead of 3€? Come on, man.

 

[BabyDontHurtMe]

Feels pretty exploitative to take advantage of weaker currencies of poorer countries like that. It sucks because it results in steeper prices in those territories for people living there, too.

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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What? Lula isn't really a communist so this is an odd remark--

Aren't you the same one that got upset at Bolsonaro being called fascist?

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Ohhh okay that makes sense

 

[JCG]

How exactly do you propose they punish the guilty without screwing over the innocent?

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How do you expect them to handle it?

This is purely people ruining it for others, not on the devs at all.

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They can pressure Steam to make cross-regional purchases even more difficult without making their games unreasonably expensive where they shouldn't be.

 

[ditusjack]

Don't worry, publishers already have a solution for this, raising the price to completely brutal impractical xenophobic levels.

Yes, this 2016 game now cost the same as fucking Elden Ring.

Thanks for all the little privileged first world FUCKS that need to (as always) take advantage from poor countries while at the same time goes online to say racist and xenophobic shit about them, you just destroyed the gaming market for LATAM, but i guess that's mission accomplished right?

 

[OrangeNova]

They can pressure Steam to make cross-regional purchases even more difficult without making their games unreasonably expensive where they shouldn't be.

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Sure, but that's a overall problem, the short term fix is to adjust prices.

Until steam fixes the cross-region purchases, then I don't blame them.

 

[Rosebud]

I personally would never do this, but let's not pretend that these "rich" counties don't have millions and millions of poor people too. Half my friends struggle to pay rent.

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Everyone can wait for a sale in their own store if full price is too much

 

[Deleted member 16876]

Selfish People from rich countries screwing over people... Again.

Regional prices are there for a reason. Disgusting.

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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Stupid ass post. You should go educate yourself before talking about something you don't understand.

Go read some books.

 

[RPGam3r]

I personally would never do this, but let's not pretend that these "rich" counties don't have millions and millions of poor people too. Half my friends struggle to pay rent.

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That doesn't give folks the right to take advantage of others who are even in worse off situations, good grief.

 

[z1ggy]

Did i defend him or something?

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Yes, clearly.

Anyways, for the topic at hand regional price is slowly being a thing of the past. New games from big publishers go full international price

 

[bitcloudrzr]

Platorm holders should crack down even more on regional changes

... are you affected by this?

People from entire countries are getting priced out of gaming so some can "save their cash"

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At the end of the day people really only care about how much they are spending. Someone in another country getting priced out does not even register.

 

[Oghuz]

What is this forums stance on this? Imo regional price abuse should be treated the same as piracy.

 

[cw_sasuke]

The people I know that do this would definitely be buying anyway. Anecdotal of course and obviously their gaming budget tops out at some point.

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I don't know about that, there are so many people nowadays that pick up games just because they are cheap.

 

[Grips]

Platorm holders should crack down even more on regional changes



... are you affected by this?

People from entire countries are getting priced out of gaming so some can "save their cash"

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In Morocco yes, in Canada not so much, but now it ends up costing more than the US store since the region pricing change.

 

[LewieP]

This is what happen when your country have 100% inflation, you currency is worth nothing and the president is a communist

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Ah yes, this flaw in capitalist systems is due to communism.

 

[shintoki]

I personally would never do this, but let's not pretend that these "rich" counties don't have millions and millions of poor people too. Half my friends struggle to pay rent.

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1. It is videogames. They are not a necessity. They can wait.
2. You have been able to get Spiritfarer for less then 5$ through regional keyshops.

This is just people wanting to be as cheap as possible and being okay with exploiting poorer countries.

 

[Sangral]

85% of all sales? Like how? I thought it was incredibly bothersome to get or redeem stuff from other countries these days on Steam? How are 85% of all people doing it? That sounds made up. Like as if there aren't way more casual player and impulse buyer out there than hardcore nerds doing VPN trickery.
I mean my partner and I got it for 6 or 7 bucks a couple of months ago with a normal sale, it's 5 bucks currently on GMG, why would the majority still be from Turkey Argentina keys/sales? Something doesn't work here.


Edit:

Misunderstood, does make sense.

 

[LiquidSolid]

Platorm holders should crack down even more on regional changes

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They can pressure Steam to make cross-regional purchases even more difficult without making their games unreasonably expensive where they shouldn't be.

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Dev/pubs have been bitching about it for well over a decade at this point (and tbh, the usual response on these forums was to accuse them of being greedy, not the people exploiting poorer countries of being assholes).

 

[Ganado]

I knew someone that used to abuse the regional pricing. Eventually he stopped but with that, he also stopped buying any small game that he wouldn't play, only focusing on the big ones so I don't really know what the best thing would be.

mod edit: scrubbed details on how to abuse pricing on Steam

Also, I'd like to see the overall sales figures breakdown. It may be that 85% of people buying in those regions are illegitimate, but what's the overall percentage of sales that comes from that region?

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This would be interesting.

85% of all sales? Like how? I thought it was incredibly bothersome to get or redeem stuff from other countries these days on Steam? How are 85% of all people doing it? That sounds made up. Like as if there aren't way more casual player and impulse buyer out there than hardcore nerds doing VPN trickery.
I mean my partner and I got it for 6 or 7 bucks a couple of months ago with a normal sale, it's 5 bucks currently on GMG, why would the majority still be from Turkey Argentina keys/sales? Something doesn't work here.

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It's 85% of all sales in Argentina that's being played outside. So if it has only sold 100 copies in ARS, 85 of those probably aren't from Argentina.

 

[yelough]

85% of all sales? Like how? I thought it was incredibly bothersome to get or redeem stuff from other countries these days on Steam? How are 85% of all people doing it? That sounds made up. Like as if there aren't way more casual player and impulse buyer out there than hardcore nerds doing VPN trickery.
I mean my partner and I got it for 6 or 7 bucks a couple of months ago with a normal sale, it's 5 bucks currently on GMG, why would the majority still be from Turkey Argentina keys/sales? Something doesn't work here.

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85% of sales from those countries, not in total.

 

[Anustart]

I think the problem is more than That. If people are buying in this countries (if it is possible yet on steam), because of different reasons (and I say this because we can't know 100% the reason of every person who buys from another country), the problem it is really not that simple to just blame them.

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I buy from the Argentina steam store to uhh, bolster their economy, yeah that's it!

 

[Icarian]

Digital platforms need to start locking out people that abuse regional pricing, just make them verify they're from the country they say they are, and if they're unable to (AKA, they're lying), just lock their accounts.

It's funny how people vilify developers and publishers that raise the price in said areas to the point of making regional pricing useless and call them greedy when they offered regional pricing first but people from wealthier countries decided to abuse it to save money, it's just plain pure entitlement.

Same with the people crying they're locked out of Argentina/India $1/mo Youtube Premium.