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From what I've read on Steam community forums and numerous articles, it's up to the devs what prices are set for games on Steam. On the other hand, some are suggesting that Steam has its own pricing algorithm which they suggest to devs/publishers, but are not mandatory, so to speak.
That algorithm is said to be based on each region's cost of living index and is directly related to monthly income and purchasing power, although I can't find any evidence to back that up. Getting Valve to comment on matters such as this is almost impossible.
According to PC Gamer in 2014, Russian gamers weren't using credit cards so much to buy games and instead buying physical versions in actual shops. Then Steam introduced a local payment system for Russia in 2011 where you could pay cash through a kiosk (as per Arg). But Steam games still remain the cheapest in Russia, even today, with it's purchasing power listed as less than Argentina.
The reason I don't understand their regional pricing are the fluctuations, but more importantly, the relation of price vs the aforementioned purchasing power per region. For example, Gears 5 is on pre-purchase at Steam and is due for release on 9th September with a base price of US$60. Many Steam gamers from South America are complaining that the equivalent USD price of around (depending on ex rate) $52 for say Argentina is far too steep. At first, I thought this was simply whinging until I looked at Steamdb and found that the price in Turkey and Russia is around $15 -$17 and the price for more developed countries such as S. Korea and Hong Kong are less than say Argentina, Mexico or Colombia.
Having said all that, if you look at the worldwide cost of living index, you'll see that there is some correlation, but there are also some pretty wild discrepancies if that index is taken as the yardstick.
Then I looked at Cyberpunk 2077 where the base purchase price is US$60, yet Argentina's price (I'm only using Arg as an example of a low-income country) is US$39.20 at a rate of exchange of AR$56. I'm also led to believe that the rate of exchange to the US$ is set on the day of publishing, but how often that is changed, I can't be certain.
I'm not an economist by any means and am just curious as to how Steam prices are arrived at. My curiosity was originally piqued when I started picking up games on Steam for bargain prices and I wondered why that was the case.
The more I look into it, the less sense it makes, although I'm inclined to think that many publishers are ignoring Steam's so-called algorithm, with Gears 5 from X Box Studios being a good example.
That algorithm is said to be based on each region's cost of living index and is directly related to monthly income and purchasing power, although I can't find any evidence to back that up. Getting Valve to comment on matters such as this is almost impossible.
According to PC Gamer in 2014, Russian gamers weren't using credit cards so much to buy games and instead buying physical versions in actual shops. Then Steam introduced a local payment system for Russia in 2011 where you could pay cash through a kiosk (as per Arg). But Steam games still remain the cheapest in Russia, even today, with it's purchasing power listed as less than Argentina.
The reason I don't understand their regional pricing are the fluctuations, but more importantly, the relation of price vs the aforementioned purchasing power per region. For example, Gears 5 is on pre-purchase at Steam and is due for release on 9th September with a base price of US$60. Many Steam gamers from South America are complaining that the equivalent USD price of around (depending on ex rate) $52 for say Argentina is far too steep. At first, I thought this was simply whinging until I looked at Steamdb and found that the price in Turkey and Russia is around $15 -$17 and the price for more developed countries such as S. Korea and Hong Kong are less than say Argentina, Mexico or Colombia.
Having said all that, if you look at the worldwide cost of living index, you'll see that there is some correlation, but there are also some pretty wild discrepancies if that index is taken as the yardstick.
Then I looked at Cyberpunk 2077 where the base purchase price is US$60, yet Argentina's price (I'm only using Arg as an example of a low-income country) is US$39.20 at a rate of exchange of AR$56. I'm also led to believe that the rate of exchange to the US$ is set on the day of publishing, but how often that is changed, I can't be certain.
I'm not an economist by any means and am just curious as to how Steam prices are arrived at. My curiosity was originally piqued when I started picking up games on Steam for bargain prices and I wondered why that was the case.
The more I look into it, the less sense it makes, although I'm inclined to think that many publishers are ignoring Steam's so-called algorithm, with Gears 5 from X Box Studios being a good example.
