Valve Inflicts European Gamers with $1 = €1 Equation

[theJesus]

imo, there's only two good (conditional) reasons to buy through Steam:

1: If it's cheaper than boxed version.
2: Convenience (provided the price is <~ boxed price.

 

[ZilverPhish]

I would never pay full price for a digital download unless they send me free beer along with it.
This greed wil just shrink the market for them.

 

[Morgoth]

Hmmm, would the following be possible?

1: Make US steam account.
2: Deposit money into PayPal.
3: Pay with PayPal.

I assume you should be able to get US pricing that way.

and a ban from valve when the find out
if it was euro = Us dollar the US would be crying now
now US got lower prices and EU got overrated prices

 

[huguberhart]

Steam is just not competetive with physical ditributions. Distributor has every right to set price they want. The only advantage is the games are sold when they are out. I live in Poland and large distributor here delayed few 'main' titles for few days.
USD to PLN is 1USD = 3PLN. It oscillates around that.
EUR to PLN is 1EUR = 4PLN.
Retail price here for GTA IV is 150PLN so its reasonable. Amazon lists it for 49,99USD. Then when I logon to Steam I see 49,99EUR.
The actual price for game is universal and leaflet, manual, CD or DVD is considerably smaller to cost to the cost of developing the game.

 

[Pinchy]

Everbody seems to be avoiding this question. I'm using GTA IV as an example on Amazon.com and Amazon.de.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FRU1UM/?tag=tec06d-20

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FII8CE/shoppingdevideogames-21/ref=nosim

Aside from the US one being on sale, they are both normally 59.99 in US dollars and/or Euros.

Seems to me a big deal is being made about this, when it is already the industry standard. Steam was just late to the game.

Then why are we paying in USD ?

 

[Morgoth]

and valve forces us to pay with Euro's

 

[DarkMatter]

Yes, but what taxes/royalties/premiums/etc. does the non-EU supplier have to pay to the government?

As ghost101 said there's none. Nothing extra that a non-EU e-supplier has to pay over an standard supplier...

Valve = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[Triprift]

Then why are we paying in USD ?

Exactly give us the same 1 us dollar for 1 aussie dollar and weed be laughing but no course not.

 

[Gam'ster]

I always thought that was the whole point of steam: cheap games as you dont need to pay for the box etc...., Ok theres tax there has always been tax but i think valve is feeling the credit squeeze atm with people cutting back and its just found somewhere to get extra revenue from.
Also as ive been reading this thread ive seen some pretty disrespectful posts from members :shadedshu, there is no reason to flame each other if you need to vent piss off somewhere else and do it.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

On the steam forum,a lot of people have tried logging into the uk steam website to buy,but its not possible.

 

[Pinchy]

Exactly give us the same 1 us dollar for 1 aussie dollar and weed be laughing but no course not.

I know lol sucks so much. We dont even have bad taxes around here for that kind of stuff.


And @ the buying a steam thing from another location (ie america) and using in europe...Steam have regions now. I bought the Orange box from ebay from Hong Kong when it was released. After a week of having the game, it wouldnt let me play any of the games saying:
"These products are for the asian region" or w/e. The seller contacted Valve because the games were tied to my account already and I couldnt return them to him, so valve let me have the games but said they wouldnt do it anymore for that seller if he was to sell overseas again.

 

[theJesus]

and a ban from valve when the find out
if it was euro = Us dollar the US would be crying now
now US got lower prices and EU got overrated prices

Well, that'd be if they found out. If I were to try it, I'd make a separate account and purchase the game as a gift to send to my main account.

On the steam forum,a lot of people have tried logging into the uk steam website to buy,but its not possible.

People from where? EU, UK, or US? If anything, I'd think people would try logging into the US site from UK EU to get the cheaper pricing. (edited cuz I got 'em backwards the first time)

And @ the buying a steam thing from another location (ie america) and using in europe...Steam have regions now. I bought the Orange box from ebay from Hong Kong when it was released. After a week of having the game, it wouldnt let me play any of the games saying:
"These products are for the asian region" or w/e. The seller contacted Valve because the games were tied to my account already and I couldnt return them to him, so valve let me have the games but said they wouldnt do it anymore for that seller if he was to sell overseas again.

Well, that shot my plan down pretty effectively. I guess cheapest option is to order the boxed retail games off amazon or something.

 

[crazy pyro]

It's no cheaper in USD than GBP since the exchange rate from USD to GBP is currently crap and if you added tax on it would be more expensive. For instance L4D is about £28 if you take an exchange rate of 2 USD to 1 GBP, however valve is selling it in the UK steam store for £27, not much of a difference but it seems to be actually benefiting UK gamers.

 

[Gam'ster]

Just because its benefiting UK games a little doesn't mean we shouldn't kick up a fuss to help our euro/Aussie counterparts , At the end of the day we should all pay roughly the same for games it only fair tbh. Also a revolution would do us all good just before Christmas...clear the air a bit .

 

[Triprift]

Thankyou my good man sounds like a good thing to me.

 

[Gam'ster]

CHEAP GAMES!!!!!!!

 

[Deleted member 24505]

It was people in europe trying to log into the uk site,to buy cheaper than their euro price.

 

[theJesus]

It's no cheaper in USD than GBP

It was people in europe trying to log into the uk site,to buy cheaper than their euro price.

Sorry, I meant to say that logging in to US from EU would make the most since, but I accidentally put UK instead

 

[Millenia]

Wow, that's pretty anal, now we have to pay a LOT more considering we also get a 22% VAT on top of the already high prices here in Finland :/

 

[wiak]

i come with news my friends
http://www.steamfriends.com/news/3635/prices-steam-euros

 

[v-zero]

Gladly it appears that Valve doesn't consider the UK as part of the EU... Damn right too!

 

[theJesus]

As part of the switch to Euro currencies the prices now include VAT and any other fees. When you go to “checkout” the price post is the price you pay. Before when we you are in Europe, you saw the dollar price and after that you also had to pay the VAT and extra fees.

Next to that Mike also tells us about the prices being a bit higher sometimes then they could be in local shops:

Mike: "Yes, we agree that some of the prices for third party products are higher then what you can find locally but we are working to fix that."

That ought to calm a few people down

 

[DarkMatter]

Not actually. 50$+VAT is much less than 50 euros. Even with a 20% VAT, which I doubt any country has such a high one, that's $60 = 42 euros (now that the euro is pretty low, the difference can only get higher when the euro recovers it's strenght). Valve is trying to cash-in 8 euros = $11 more here right now, much more if the euro recovers. I was counting with that the VAT was included, as VAT is indeed included in retail prices. It's still a simple scam.

 

[Tatty_Two]

UK and US got diffrent prices vs EU, last time i checked UK was part of EU

Not by choice ......and not fully.

 

[caleb]

Haha Valve is very smart. They simply want to remove the risks involved with exchange rates from their side as most likely they pay producers with USD and let the customer pay that. Euro might jump a bit for a couple of years and after that it will become very stable as we (Central europe) catch up to the western europe.

I cant wait the day US will pay the same cash for stuff as we do and teh crying will start.
But the day is comming soon