Why are Steam games priced unfairly in Euros indifferent to where one resides?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨LtDan@lemmy.zip⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

Regardless where one lives in Europe (including countries where salaries are lower than those living in France or Germany for example: such as Hungary, Romania, Latvia or Serbia to name a few) yet they’re confronted with a 89,99€ at release considering EVERYONE in Europe as wealthy, regional pricing is indifferent in this case indifferent to their actual income.

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Comments

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ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
That’s the downside to a unified market.

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exu@feditown.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
They can’t realistically restrict keys to only be valid for certain countries in the EU. Cheap keys in one country would mean everybody gets these cheaper prices and the publishers would rather not have that.

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- Poopfeast420@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  
  They can’t realistically restrict keys
  
  I think it’s actually illegal to restrict this stuff in the EU.
  
  In the past Steam actually had separate keys for lower income countries in Europe, that could only be activated there. However, either because laws changed or they started to actually be enforced, Steam had to change it.
  
  You can still make the games cheaper to buy in those countries, but you also have to allow people from Germany, France, wherever to buy them (as long as it’s in the EU), which very few publishers want to do.
  
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- Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Greedy publishers can’t make a weighted mean for prices…
  
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ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I live in NYC, where the median household income is about 40% higher than in Philadelphia. Rent is more expensive in NYC, which drives salaries up for what is otherwise the same job. When video games are sticky at certain price points, like $70 right now, that price feels cheaper to me here than it does just a few hours away in Philly. Money is weird like that, but when you’ve got digital distribution, they’ve got to make some calls about how to price things accordingly. If I buy a 20 oz bottle of Diet Coke in Brooklyn, it might be $2.50, but it could easily be $4.50 or $5 in Manhattan.

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nyctre@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m pretty sure it’s the publisher who decides. They can either enable regional pricing or not. And many don’t. Simple as that, unfortunately.

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username_1@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Because that intricate subdivision you want would cost more than it might bring money because of more sales.

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prti@szmer.info ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I can just say, the games USED to be cheaper in Poland (the average person is less wealthy here and we don’t have euro). Finds out there is an EU law against it, so now all prices in Europe are flatlined no matter the currency or the country’s average income.

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- Poopfeast420@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  I think the law doesn’t say that prices have to be the same, it’s just that you can’t block people from other countries from buying stuff at the cheaper price.
  
  With physical goods you either have to actually go to the country or get it shipped to you, which can make this not as easy or “profitable”. However, with digital goods you just go to a website and there’s not really anything to ship, except maybe an email, so those same hurdles don’t exist, which is why those lower income countries usually get the short end of the stick with prices for games and stuff.
  
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- LtDan@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  I’ve heard the prices in PLN are a joke! The currency stabilized after 2022 when it was weak then, but the prices remained the same from that time making it more expensive than intended.
  
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BiscuityCat@lemmy.world ⁨38⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
And that’s why the only correct choice is a piracy. We just cannot afford to waste that kind of money on unfinished games. Especially while the economy is getting worse and worse.

Or one could play FOSS games. However, in such case I would still recommend supporting the developers as much as one can, if the game is enjoyable. Usually, those games are better than any AAA game that came out lately.

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snooggums@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
The same reason it doesn’t have regional pricing by state in the US. They picked regions and priced them the same for that region.

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Gladaed@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Just pirate. That’s the actionable way to solve your issues. Or buy from a key seller who abuses brasilians.

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- username_1@programming.dev ⁨58⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  Maybe just bying Brazilian keys is better than abusing Brazilians?
  
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Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
(For direct answer, see other replies)

In terms of fixing issues like this, I had an idea for a technology but wanted to see if others view it as privacy-violating.

So, you have an encrypted data packet. Optionally, that packet could contain an unencrypted signal outside of the encrypted portion, eg a header or similar, that signals it as: X-Domestic-Origin=true.

The idea would be: When a client device sends this header, it gets forwarded along lots of interchange points, but the legal rule would be that an interchange cannot include that header if the message is crossing national boundaries. So, the receiver of the signal can partially infer that the sender is likely a human within the same country.

Realistically, it would be easy to attach anyway - but since it’s unencrypted, it might become easy to trace back at least to the spot where it crossed the border, even if it would be difficult to fully track its origin. Law enforcement could fine the interchange spots choosing to forward the header, even if they can’t track down bad actors.

VPNs, similarly, would be asked not to include the header when forwarding traffic, but it would come down to their business preference and enforcement.

This could also, for instance, help structure social media in a way that prevents people being fooled by international astroturfers. A while back Twitter accidentally exposed how many MAGA accounts originated in Russia, and this could expose them without requiring detailed identity information on individuals.

It would need extra attention on misuse, as many would prefer not to send this signal even when they are in the same country; it would just be one way of a site asking for the least-necessary information for things like buying a game key.

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- alakey@piefed.social ⁨52⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  It’s not an issue that needs to be fixed by us. It’s not impossible to price digital goods differently in different countries, but companies would rather close up shop than let you buy a product cheaper than in your region. At the end of the day - the lowest they can price it is how much it realistically costs and the rest is extra fees for living in more developed countries, but they are greedy and don’t care about consumers one bit.
  
  Also the digital segregation you are describing is already rolling out anyway with ID verification, that won’t solve the problems you think it will however.
  
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