Steam store pricing

[Bryn]

Issue I have is that the steam system is just so much more convenient than GOG. I have a few titles on GOG but having to DL and install them manually is a lot more hassle for me than the steam library system. Also helps that I tend to play games that are older than 2 years, or are on a crazy special so the pricing is fairly low regardless for me.

What are you talking about? GOG has a desktop client - GOG Galaxy. It’s as automatic as Steam.

 

[RogerWilcoZA]

It works <> legit

See here for lengthy write-up as to why grey market resellers are a problem:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/2yhlw4/key_resellers_and_what_they_mean_for_you/

Thanks for the share. I hear what you're saying (It works), but the thing is, if I can save a significant amount on a game priced at R800-R1000 these days, I'll keep using them. From the article:

A common misconception is that keys bought from resellers are cheaper because they're "bought in bulk", and they can pass the savings on to the consumer. This is not the case. Instead, these keys typically come from regions where they've been priced for that economic climate.

Understood, so they're doing what virtually every profitable trading business has done throughout history by buying something cheap in one place and selling it for profit somewhere else? How is that different from the clothing industry or buying virtually anything made in China? From an ethical point of view, doesn't seem so shady to me.

When we buy from sites that resell these keys, we are actively encouraging publishers to increase those regional prices or implement region locks on their games. To dodge the region lock, many resellers now request/require buyers to use a VPN or proxy to activate and play the purchase. This is more than just an inconvenience, it is a violation of the Steam subscriber agreement and could get your account banned.

Are we though? With regards to using a VPN or proxy, I've never had to do this with cdkeys. Every game I've bought has been on a steam global basis. Also out of interest, where is the risk of account banning stated in the Steam subscriber agreement?

Furthermore, fraudulent keys can be retroactively removed from your online accounts. We've seen incidents where developers have invalidated keys after being purchased with stolen credit cards.

Obviously if keys are sourced from stolen credit cards, the buyer deserves to have his game removed and the 3rd party vendor deserves to be shut down. Personally I've never experienced this with cdkeys and would be interested to hear if anyone else has either.

 

[mr_norris]

Source blocked as spam lol.

Your source seems dodgy.

I can't explain that. It opens for me on Opera at work, Chrome and Edge on my home laptop, and Firefox on my phone.

 

[Bryn]

Thanks for the share. I hear what you're saying (It works), but the thing is, if I can save a significant amount on a game priced at R800-R1000 these days, I'll keep using them. From the article:



Understood, so they're doing what virtually every profitable trading business has done throughout history by buying something cheap in one place and selling it for profit somewhere else? How is that different from the clothing industry or buying virtually anything made in China? From an ethical point of view, doesn't seem so shady to me.



Are we though? With regards to using a VPN or proxy, I've never had to do this with cdkeys. Every game I've bought has been on a steam global basis. Also out of interest, where is the risk of account banning stated in the Steam subscriber agreement?



Obviously if keys are sourced from stolen credit cards, the buyer deserves to have his game removed and the 3rd party vendor deserves to be shut down. Personally I've never experienced this with cdkeys and would be interested to hear if anyone else has either.

I'm surprised anyone could be confused as to how a site like CDKeys works. I always thought it was a safe assumption that the keys come from the cheapest countries within major regions. It certainly does suck when those markets get their prices ramped up to combat online resellers, but at the end of the day if a better price is available then most people will opt for it.

SA got royally screwed by Origin and Steam, so if some other country gets screwed by CDKeys then that's just too bad. Man how I miss the days of all new games on Origin being R599.

Chances of having a key purchased from CDKeys reversed must be close to zero. I've had two G2A GOG keys revoked though - never used G2A again after that.

 

[HavocXphere]

SA got royally screwed by Origin and Steam, so if some other country gets screwed by CDKeys then that's just too bad.

You realise SA got screwed because SA was one of the lower cost regions? Until that diff got arbitraged to hell...hence SA prices now being less fun. The irony is strong...:crylaugh:

Understood, so they're doing what virtually every profitable trading business has done throughout history by buying something cheap in one place and selling it for profit somewhere else? How is that different from the clothing industry or buying virtually anything made in China? From an ethical point of view, doesn't seem so shady to me.

This isn't a physical product being produced in a low cost region and sold in a high cost region. Quite the opposite - this is produced in a high cost region and the producer is trying to make it accessible to low cost regions by cross-subsidise between regions.

Well let me try and have a shot at explaining why I think it's questionable:

Suppose a company sells say chocolate milk in America and in India. To make a good profit overall they need to sell them at R10 average. Nobody in India has that kind of money though so they opt to sell it for R15 in America and R5 in India...and they still hit their R10 avg.

Right then the price arbitrage starts...people start buying choc milk in India for R5 and sell it in the USA for R12 and pocket the difference. Milk company takes one look at this and has too option: Region lock the milk or set a global price.

Region lock sucks. Set a global price and you kill the India Milk scene dead overnight (since the global price is the avg R10 and they can only afford R5). If enough people buy keys in cheaper regions then those are literally the only two options available. Taking actions that directly lead to that outcome seems questionable to me.

I should add that I've bought keys myself...so not trying to preach from a high horse here...just pointing out that there is a questionable dynamic at play: A good dynamic (affordable stuff for poor people) is being actively undermined.

 

[Kosmik]

Free market , if it's cheaper elsewhere, people will buy it elsewhere simple. Otherwise PC gaming will degenerate quickly back into major piracy. Steam and other helped reduce piracy by offering a stable platform and games at affordable rates. That goodwill is now being overturned. I have a huge steam collection ( been on for many years ) but in the last six - ten months I haven't bought directly from steam. I've either bought via cdkeys, humble ( both store and monthly bundle ) or GOG. Just been too expensive.

 

[Bryn]

You realise SA got screwed because SA was one of the lower cost regions? Until that diff got arbitraged to hell...hence SA prices now being less fun. The irony is strong...:crylaugh:


This isn't a physical product being produced in a low cost region and sold in a high cost region. Quite the opposite - this is produced in a high cost region and the producer is trying to make it accessible to low cost regions by cross-subsidise between regions.

Well let me try and have a shot at explaining why I think it's questionable:

Suppose a company sells say chocolate milk in America and in India. To make a good profit overall they need to sell them at R10 average. Nobody in India has that kind of money though so they opt to sell it for R15 in America and R5 in India...and they still hit their R10 avg.

Right then the price arbitrage starts...people start buying choc milk in India for R5 and sell it in the USA for R12 and pocket the difference. Milk company takes one look at this and has too option: Region lock the milk or set a global price.

Region lock sucks. Set a global price and you kill the India Milk scene dead overnight (since the global price is the avg R10 and they can only afford R5). If enough people buy keys in cheaper regions then those are literally the only two options available. Taking actions that directly lead to that outcome seems questionable to me.

I should add that I've bought keys myself...so not trying to preach from a high horse here...just pointing out that there is a questionable dynamic at play: A good dynamic (affordable stuff for poor people) is being actively undermined.

I'm aware of the hypocrisy, hence my wording. Seeing as we've been screwed already, I don't especially mind getting the CDKeys prices that we used to get locally.

 

[RogerWilcoZA]

You realise SA got screwed because SA was one of the lower cost regions? Until that diff got arbitraged to hell...hence SA prices now being less fun. The irony is strong...:crylaugh:


This isn't a physical product being produced in a low cost region and sold in a high cost region. Quite the opposite - this is produced in a high cost region and the producer is trying to make it accessible to low cost regions by cross-subsidise between regions.

Well let me try and have a shot at explaining why I think it's questionable:

Suppose a company sells say chocolate milk in America and in India. To make a good profit overall they need to sell them at R10 average. Nobody in India has that kind of money though so they opt to sell it for R15 in America and R5 in India...and they still hit their R10 avg.

Right then the price arbitrage starts...people start buying choc milk in India for R5 and sell it in the USA for R12 and pocket the difference. Milk company takes one look at this and has too option: Region lock the milk or set a global price.

Region lock sucks. Set a global price and you kill the India Milk scene dead overnight (since the global price is the avg R10 and they can only afford R5). If enough people buy keys in cheaper regions then those are literally the only two options available. Taking actions that directly lead to that outcome seems questionable to me.

I should add that I've bought keys myself...so not trying to preach from a high horse here...just pointing out that there is a questionable dynamic at play: A good dynamic (affordable stuff for poor people) is being actively undermined.

Sure but using your example, we're India paying R12 for a chocolate milk, while the USA is paying R5...just saying that when we're essentially paying $85 for a game here that sells for $60 in the states, it's more a case of us paying inflated prices for a game which should be cheaper - and if distributors like Origin want to sell me FIFA 18 for R950, I'll for sure get it on CDkeys for R593 while supplies last. So for that reasoning I don't see any problem at all.

 

[HavocXphere]

Sure but using your example, we're India paying R12 for a chocolate milk, while the USA is paying R5...just saying that when we're essentially paying $85 for a game here that sells for $60 in the states, it's more a case of us paying inflated prices for a game which should be cheaper - and if distributors like Origin want to sell me FIFA 18 for R950, I'll for sure get it on CDkeys for R593 while supplies last. So for that reasoning I don't see any problem at all.

I was commenting on grey market resellers in general.

The motivation/logic ultimately doesn't matter though - any large scale exploitation of regional differences will have the effect I mentioned: Region locks and/or removal of favourable pricing.

The current SA pricing is a side effect of the ZAR being strong. SA gamers wanted ZAR pricing. They got it...and now they're upset about the consequences.

But yeah people will keep buying whatever is the cheapest as you say & we'll continue to see game companies putting more DRM, region locks and the like in place as a result. Oh well.

 

[Scary_Turtle]

I was commenting on grey market resellers in general.

The motivation/logic ultimately doesn't matter though - any large scale exploitation of regional differences will have the effect I mentioned: Region locks and/or removal of favourable pricing.

The current SA pricing is a side effect of the ZAR being strong. SA gamers wanted ZAR pricing. They got it...and now they're upset about the consequences.

But yeah people will keep buying whatever is the cheapest as you say & we'll continue to see game companies putting more DRM, region locks and the like in place as a result. Oh well.

I don't think any of us wanted the store to change from dollars to rand, it was forced on it when the S.A government introduced VAT to games if I remember correctly.

 

[HavocXphere]

I don't think any of us wanted the store to change from dollars to rand, it was forced on it when the S.A government introduced VAT to games if I remember correctly.

It was quite popular at the time:

https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showth...e-rand-support-now-with-cheaper-digital-games

As I said...the FX just turned against SA since.

And no wasn't because of VAT...Valve rolled out a couple other regions at the same time.

 

[Bryn]

I was commenting on grey market resellers in general.

The motivation/logic ultimately doesn't matter though - any large scale exploitation of regional differences will have the effect I mentioned: Region locks and/or removal of favourable pricing.

The current SA pricing is a side effect of the ZAR being strong. SA gamers wanted ZAR pricing. They got it...and now they're upset about the consequences.

But yeah people will keep buying whatever is the cheapest as you say & we'll continue to see game companies putting more DRM, region locks and the like in place as a result. Oh well.

Except CD Projekt Red released Witcher 3 DRM-free on GOG and that game was a raging financial success. Companies don't have to feel obligated to chase DRM solutions.

I don't think any of us wanted the store to change from dollars to rand, it was forced on it when the S.A government introduced VAT to games if I remember correctly.

Yep. No one wanted that crap and many complained when it happened. It was also weird how some AAA titles had great prices and others went to the dogs.

 

[-Misfit-]

Blame publishers more than Steam. I'm sure there is a default exchange rate that can be applied, but it's up to the publishers of the games to set regional pricing. Now that the Rand is getting stronger, it just seems like the pricing is inflated compared to other regions. But publishers have not updated their pricing yet, nor do they have much incentive to do so.

As others have pointed out, sometimes the pricing works in our favour. See Nioh. R269 for a $49.99 game. This also confirms that Steam is not the one setting the pricing. If they were, then we would not have such a big "discount" on some games.

Also to echo what others have said, grey market key sellers can be shady, if only for the fact that they often cannot source their keys. G2A gets a lot of flack because of their practices and companies that have spoken out against them, showing that they are actually making losses from credit card charge backs. This does not mean cdkeys.com is good, nor does it mean it's bad, but I would not personally use them if I knew there was a chance that it would hurt developers.

It's not just about using the regional pricing and cutting into a dev's profits (although I agree with the points @HavocXphere makes), but because the company can potentially lose money because of these practices.

 

[cavedog]

People keep on saying that ZA steam store has it advantages in pricing but I only hear about 1 game. Nioh....

The rest is all mor expensive even if you look at the history of the rand dollar exchange...

 

[StoneCold]

People keep on saying that ZA steam store has it advantages in pricing but I only hear about 1 game. Nioh....

The rest is all mor expensive even if you look at the history of the rand dollar exchange...

True dat.

Nioh is the only game that I have also noticed having lower pricing in Rand compared to other currencies. But that's where it ends, any other AAA publisher pricing is ridiculous to say the least. Buying it elsewhere is not only cheaper, but the smarter choice overall (if you want to save some money)

 

[Ho3n3r]

People keep on saying that ZA steam store has it advantages in pricing but I only hear about 1 game. Nioh....

The rest is all mor expensive even if you look at the history of the rand dollar exchange...

It's definitely not the only game. There are many.

 

[-Misfit-]

Nioh is brought up because it's an example of a big difference, but there are plenty of games that are either on par with the dollar or have some slight discounts. Just from searching around a bit I've found the following:

Rocket League - R219 vs $19.99
Darkwood - R159 vs $14.99
Killing Floor 2 - R319 vs $29.99
Skyrim - R219 vs $19.99
PUBG - R319 vs $29.99
Squad - R409 vs #39.99
CS:GO - R159 vs $14.99

I'm sure you can find similar results.

 

[bboy]

Kingdom_Come_Deliverance R589 vs $60

 

[BeerIsNotGood...]

Cdkeys.com

PirateBay.com

 

[Ho3n3r]

Nioh is brought up because it's an example of a big difference, but there are plenty of games that are either on par with the dollar or have some slight discounts. Just from searching around a bit I've found the following:

Rocket League - R219 vs $19.99
Darkwood - R159 vs $14.99
Killing Floor 2 - R319 vs $29.99
Skyrim - R219 vs $19.99
PUBG - R319 vs $29.99
Squad - R409 vs #39.99
CS:GO - R159 vs $14.99

I'm sure you can find similar results.

Assetto Corsa: https://steamdb.info/app/244210/ (-49.71%)
rFactor 2: https://steamdb.info/app/365960/ (-48.81%)