Herr der Verboten
Honorary Master
This came up in the general gaming thread, but it probably deserves its own discussion.
The Gears of War: E-Day Steam price is sitting around R1,300, and honestly, I am not paying that for a standard new release. I’ll wait for a sale, Game Pass, or just skip it.
But I don’t think this is only a South African pricing problem. That is part of it, sure, because ZAR pricing on Steam has definitely become rough. We are seeing more games where the local price no longer feels like proper regional pricing, and in some cases it feels like we are being priced closer to USD / EUR markets. Older games and DLC also seem to be getting pushed up through regional price adjustments, so even sales are not always what they used to be.
The bigger issue is that the global base price keeps moving up too. $60 became $70, and now it feels like the industry is testing how far it can push beyond that. If GTA or some other major release normalises $80, then that eventually becomes the new benchmark. After that, the ZAR conversion just makes the hit even worse for us.
So when I say I am not paying R1,300 for a game, that probably also means I need to stop doing day-one purchases and pre-orders for these games. Otherwise I am complaining about the price while still rewarding the pricing model.
That is probably the only real choice consumers have. Wait, buy on deep sale, use subscriptions where they make sense, support better-priced games, or skip releases entirely. The problem is that “vote with your wallet” only works if enough people do it, and there will always be people with enough money, or enough FOMO, to pay whatever the launch price is.
Game Pass PC is still a decent local deal for now, especially compared to buying some of these games individually on Steam, but I also don’t expect that pricing to stay generous forever. These services usually start as good value while they are trying to pull people in, and then the price changes once enough people are locked in.
So where does this leave SA PC gamers?
Are R1,200–R1,500 launch prices just the new normal now?
Are you still buying day one, waiting for sales, using Game Pass, or just becoming more selective?
The Gears of War: E-Day Steam price is sitting around R1,300, and honestly, I am not paying that for a standard new release. I’ll wait for a sale, Game Pass, or just skip it.
But I don’t think this is only a South African pricing problem. That is part of it, sure, because ZAR pricing on Steam has definitely become rough. We are seeing more games where the local price no longer feels like proper regional pricing, and in some cases it feels like we are being priced closer to USD / EUR markets. Older games and DLC also seem to be getting pushed up through regional price adjustments, so even sales are not always what they used to be.
The bigger issue is that the global base price keeps moving up too. $60 became $70, and now it feels like the industry is testing how far it can push beyond that. If GTA or some other major release normalises $80, then that eventually becomes the new benchmark. After that, the ZAR conversion just makes the hit even worse for us.
So when I say I am not paying R1,300 for a game, that probably also means I need to stop doing day-one purchases and pre-orders for these games. Otherwise I am complaining about the price while still rewarding the pricing model.
That is probably the only real choice consumers have. Wait, buy on deep sale, use subscriptions where they make sense, support better-priced games, or skip releases entirely. The problem is that “vote with your wallet” only works if enough people do it, and there will always be people with enough money, or enough FOMO, to pay whatever the launch price is.
Game Pass PC is still a decent local deal for now, especially compared to buying some of these games individually on Steam, but I also don’t expect that pricing to stay generous forever. These services usually start as good value while they are trying to pull people in, and then the price changes once enough people are locked in.
So where does this leave SA PC gamers?
Are R1,200–R1,500 launch prices just the new normal now?
Are you still buying day one, waiting for sales, using Game Pass, or just becoming more selective?
