Something is rotten in the state of SWTOR/Steam Pricing System

[Hurdrax]

(Mirror Post from the SWTOR Forums)

Let me preface this post by saying that I take full responsibility for what happened given that, legally speaking, I had all the necessary information in front of me, so any formal charge against Steam would not only be immaterial, but misguided.

My goal with this post is seeking help to try and understand the bizarre logic behind Cartel Coins prices on Steam. Hopefully, someone from EA/Bioware can elucidate this, since SWTOR phone support was polite as usual, but couldn’t explain why this is happening.

Also, in that respect, I need help from players that live in countries other than mine (Brasil) so I can confirm how widespread is this practice with other currencies, if at all. Thanks in advance if any of you guys can help me out with this.

--

I recently came back to SWTOR through my Steam account. Everything went very smooth, from linking my old account to Steam all the way to patching and subscription purchase.
Afterwards, I made a purchase of 14.500 Cartel Coins through Steam for the cost of R$300,00 (the brazilian currency).

The reason I made the 14.500 purchase right off the bat is because, as it’s the standard pricing practice, it usually means getting more bang for your buck. Subscription prices, for example, work exactly like that, at least here in Brasil: the more time you buy in a single purchase, the bigger the discount.

If only things were so simple...

Now, look at the Cartel Coins price progression on Steam, guys. Do some simple math and try to find the stinker.

250 CC – R$4,79
450 CC – R$8,00
1050 CC – R$16,00
2400 CC – R$35,00
5500 CC – R$70,00
14500 CC – R$300,00

This doesn’t make any sense. If I had purchased 5500 CC 4 times, for example, I would get 22.000 CC for R$280,00. R$20,00 LESS for getting an extra 5.500 on top of it, compared to a purchase of 14.500 for R$300,00.

I’m at a loss as to why they are doing this. Like I said in the beginning, it was my fault for not paying attention, so no biggie there.

Still, if any of you guys can help me confirm if this price progression is the same with other currencies, I’d appreciate it a lot.

If I confirm that this is only a brazilian issue, I intend to take this further with Steam HQ here in São Paulo. This may not be illegal, but it’s certainly a misleading business practice, to say the least.

Best regards from Brasil.

[Misfiticus]

Ola This is a Brazilian currency issue.
Price in US Dollars is scaled properly: $40 = 5500 coins, $100 = 14500 coins.

[Drakira]

For EU it's 5500CC is 35 euro. 14500 is 87.50euro.

[Hurdrax]

Originally posted by MisfitToy:

Ola :Hiii: This is a Brazilian currency issue.
Price in US Dollars is scaled properly: $40 = 5500 coins, $100 = 14500 coins.

Originally posted by Drakira:

For EU it's 5500CC is 35 euro. 14500 is 87.50euro.

Thank you MisfitToy and Drakira for taking the time, my friends. EU and US scale properly, following common sense business practices. It is as I suspected, unfortunately.