The regional price fixing for Turkey of 1 April

[Maw]

We (me and my partner who've been trying to convince me that we play this game for two years now) just missed the last sale as a couple and saved a bit to get it on the next one since Zomboid was regularly going into sales but then;

https://i.imgur.com/dVs7epY.png

I understand some publishers eventually wanting to ignore the third world currency values if it'll earn them few more dollars in return, I'm submitting this post not for a rant but rather to get information;

Apparently there was another price fixing which was reverted back almost immediately:
https://i.imgur.com/n9iyhN0.png

Do you think it'll happen again? Because if yes, we'd rather to wait it out and buy the game again when we can, as right now it's unrealistic since the price for each now is almost equivalent of a weekly expense to feed a three people family.
If not, we would just go with family sharing from the people that own the game, or whatever other option we can think of.

Again, I'm in no search of ranting as it became a common thing and there's no use to blame anyone since I acknowledge that it's all about the gains part worldwide, it's only natural for publishers to join the trend in the purpose of eliminating individuals who used to exploit the system by creating fake-local accounts to buy games cheaper, I would just like to get the playerbase opinion about how publishers handle things, and I had a second thought since I saw they taking their step back in the past.

Thanks for the inputs

[Lost Latios]

I wouldn't expect a reversal, and in fact expect it to get worse as companies try to maintain their bottom line.

I'm not sure if the devs here can do anything about it either, as I'm not sure if they actually have control over the price regionally. That feels like Steam's domain more then likely.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

you can try and use this but "developing country" pricing are weird

https://isthereanydeal.com/

[Maw]

Yes, I understand that, that's why I tried to mention why and how I acknowledge these factors, these are not really too recent anymore in Steam, it's Steam who are pushing the recommended prices for each region to fight back against the Vpn abusers. As for publishers, their choice is to ignore the recommended price tags and do their researches on their own, or embrace the pre-built recommended prices of Steam.

Yes, currently the game costs 190 Liras, equivalent of about $13.29 while the price of the game is for $ originally is $25.99 (about half of the original cost)
But those alone would work if one would assume that the wages of each regions were in 1:2 ratio
For today's day, the minimal wage for a Canadian citizen would be $16.65 in hourly basis, whereas it's just $3.15 Canadian dollars for a Turk citizen.

But I'm not after that, it comes natural, most of us already cut our expenses on online goods because the inflation is real and things happen, it's usually up to the publishers for games to set their bases, there is no use judging any individual for the decisions, we buy what we can, that's all there is it to it.

I just submitted this topic for opinions about the publishers, and that's only because of my second screenshot in my first message, apparently they once tried the same movement, then to take their steps back, I just wondered if it possibly be the case for the future again, if not, we'll just wait for a huge discount sale such like 90% or have to go with family sharing / anything else.

Thank you for all your inputs guys c:

[Maw]

Originally posted by Khergit Horse Archer:

you can try and use this but "developing country" pricing are weird

https://isthereanydeal.com/

This and alikes don't provide benefit anymore since Steam always offers the lowest price possible, in earlier years we would also use kinds of like humblebundle but no longer due to none of them utilizing the regional pricing formulas

[D O T]

What a bummer, was expecting to get this on the next sale then out of the blue they raised the price in my region.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by D O T:

What a bummer, was expecting to get this on the next sale then out of the blue they raised the price in my region.

Expect regional price raises/changes on many games across Steam- Valve put out new pricing guidelines and are cracking down on regional price abuse. If there are games you or anyone who reads this have been putting off and really want, it'd be wise to get them sooner than later- Especially if you're from any country where your currency is worth significantly less than USD/CA/Euro like the OP's situation.

[_TheBunnymaster_]

Just a curious question: when sales pop up in your region, you don't get an expiration date?

[SteveLosive]

Originally posted by Lost Latios:

I wouldn't expect a reversal, and in fact expect it to get worse as companies try to maintain their bottom line.

I'm not sure if the devs here can do anything about it either, as I'm not sure if they actually have control over the price regionally. That feels like Steam's domain more then likely.

As a Steam partner, I can tell you that they have total control over pricing. Steam just updated the default price for developers who are interested in updating their regional pricing.

[SteveLosive]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

People abuse regional pricing to buy the game at a much lower value, such as through the use of a VPN. Steam flagged the issue with us due to how low some of the prices were, especially during sales, so they had to be increased.

For ref, 92 lira is $6 Canadian, on a game that currently costs 25.99 Canadian. The price increase means the game still sells at less than half what it does in Canada (now costing about $13.50 at full price).

During sales, it would have cost as little as 24 lira, or about a $1.50 CAD. to buy.

People cannot buy from other regions unless they have payment methods from that other region. Plus, VPN does not allow people to change their store region. Plus, Steam gifts from Turkey for example are locked to be redeemed by people who have a Turkish account.
Regional pricing is not there to make you lose money, it'd rather help you make more sales. There will always be those who try to abuse the system and exploit it as much as they could. Take pirates for example, your game is one of the games that's available on piracy websites that gives access to multiplayer features for free. If you are not careful, you might lose an entire region to piracy and will never be able to bring them back. When a certain country has no option but to steal, then they probably wouldn't question their morality when it comes to digital products like video games. Steam could instead make store region changes more strict instead of letting anyone change their store region. Also the new price in Turkey for example 190 TL, is still very cheap to those outside Turkey. They are still gonna buy the game, but now people from Turkey who get their income in TL will not be able to buy your game any time soon.

[pazartesi_gorusuruz]

Hey here is a game guys how do you feel about this one's pricing :D

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846380/Need_for_Speed_Unbound/

[RinKSX]

Originally posted by pazartesi_gorusuruz:

Hey here is a game guys how do you feel about this one's pricing :D

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846380/Need_for_Speed_Unbound/

As a Turk, I want to tell you everything,
The monthly minimum wage in Turkey (37% of the Turkish people work for minimum wage) is 8500 units. If we say that an average Turkish working under the best conditions works 8 hours a day (it can go up to 10 hours because there is no such thing as a ban on working more than 8 hours in Turkey) and takes 2 days off a week, he works a total of 208 hours in 30 days. With these calculations, we see that the average hourly minimum wage in Turkey is 40.85 units. Let's say 41 units flat. I found that the average hourly wage in America is 14 units (correct me if I'm wrong) NFS UNBOUND 1200 units in Turkey, so you need to work 30 hours in Turkey to get this game. According to the information I saw on SteamDB, NFS UNBOUND seems to be 70 units in America, so you can get it by working a total of 5 hours.
Cheap games in Turkey according to you, yes you are right, it is 35% cheaper than you, but because of the inflation rate in Turkey is more than 80%, we as Turks have difficulty in buying a game.
So please, I want you to evaluate some things according to the situation of the country. Yes, it is very cheap in dollars, but despite that, we have to work more than 30 hours to buy it and this is too much for a game. If the game is priced at 70 dollars in Turkey, it is more than 1600TL, and this means 40 hours of work for a Turk. If the production companies follow such a pricing, it is very difficult for them to sell games, even despite the current pricing, there are a lot of pirated game downloads in Turkey.
You are right, we buy very cheaply, but very cheaply according to you.
Thank you if you read to the end and thank you very much if you understand me :)

[Oᴄᴜʟᴀʀ]

Originally posted by Crius:

Originally posted by pazartesi_gorusuruz:

Hey here is a game guys how do you feel about this one's pricing :D

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1846380/Need_for_Speed_Unbound/

As a Turk, I want to tell you everything,
The monthly minimum wage in Turkey (37% of the Turkish people work for minimum wage) is 8500 units. If we say that an average Turkish working under the best conditions works 8 hours a day (it can go up to 10 hours because there is no such thing as a ban on working more than 8 hours in Turkey) and takes 2 days off a week, he works a total of 208 hours in 30 days. With these calculations, we see that the average hourly minimum wage in Turkey is 40.85 units. Let's say 41 units flat. I found that the average hourly wage in America is 14 units (correct me if I'm wrong) NFS UNBOUND 1200 units in Turkey, so you need to work 30 hours in Turkey to get this game. According to the information I saw on SteamDB, NFS UNBOUND seems to be 70 units in America, so you can get it by working a total of 5 hours.
Cheap games in Turkey according to you, yes you are right, it is 35% cheaper than you, but because of the inflation rate in Turkey is more than 80%, we as Turks have difficulty in buying a game.
So please, I want you to evaluate some things according to the situation of the country. Yes, it is very cheap in dollars, but despite that, we have to work more than 30 hours to buy it and this is too much for a game. If the game is priced at 70 dollars in Turkey, it is more than 1600TL, and this means 40 hours of work for a Turk. If the production companies follow such a pricing, it is very difficult for them to sell games, even despite the current pricing, there are a lot of pirated game downloads in Turkey.
You are right, we buy very cheaply, but very cheaply according to you.
Thank you if you read to the end and thank you very much if you understand me :)

Just for reference, which is very similar to the US, in Canada I would have to work about half a day to afford this game.

I try to be happy for what I have and not take things for granted, because there's always someone who has it worse.