Why are the Prices for Games in other countries (especially India) very inconsistent?

[Sonic2024]

EDIT: I already got the answer. So there isn't any need to continue posting. But if you just wanna read this thread then by all means, go ahead :)

Regional Pricing was introduced by Steam so that Game companies could price their game according to the cost of a country's living, so that it could be favourable to both the customers as well as the Game Devs. But the Prices have been VERY inconsistent, and sometimes much higher.

According to the World Bank's PPP Table, in India, you need Rs. 21.2 to buy the same $1 goods in US. (2021: I am using $ since that's favourable for comparison) Therefore, if you were to buy games, then you just have to multiply 21.2 with whatever the game price is. But that's not the case.

More than 90% of the Game companies don't follow this. They just choose a random price using normal conversion method or follow what other game companies are doing. If I were to afford a $40 game, then the price should be around Rs. 850. But nope. They charge like Bonkers. It's like Rs. 2000 or Rs. 2500.

The Normal Conversion is [$1 = Rs. 74 (As of 2021)] but its not accurate for pricing "Global" Goods. Sometimes they even charge higher than even the normal conversion. Monster Hunter World is only $30 and even after you use the normal conversion method, it comes to Rs. 2200. But in reality, it is Rs. 2500.

What's the problem with this very inconsistent pricing? I think many other countries face this too. The Devs don't even have to break their heads on how and what to price since the source for pricing is already available at the World Bank's site. Why can't they price accordingly? It just makes the point of regional pricing negligible.

Edit: For example, you could see the actual price of Fifa 22 for India and see the price suggested by Valve: https://steamdb.info/sub/531286/
Dark Souls 3: https://steamdb.info/sub/69024/
And many more companies do this. Only a few games like Witcher 3 don't do it.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

because Steam get 30% no matter what the charge is..
and you will be told the prices you are charged are upto
the dev and game makers and not steam..

[Sonic2024]

Цитата допису ragefifty50:

because Steam get 30% no matter what the charge is..
and you will be told the prices you are charged are upto
the dev and game makers and not steam..

That doesn't explain it. This 30% applies to all countries and not just certain countries.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Цитата допису Sonic2021:

What's the problem with this very inconsistent pricing? I think many other countries face this too. The Devs don't even have to break their heads on how and what to price since the source for pricing is already available at the World Bank's site. Why can't they price accordingly? It just makes the point of regional pricing negligible.

Developers/publishers will charge what they feel a market can hold. Steam doesn't own the games that are sold through it's platform

Think of it like a consignment store. The owners of the items put them up for sale in the store for what they feel it will sell for, then give the store a percentage of the sale for the use of the space.

The owner of the item ultimately prices it.

Some developers go by exchange rates, others will do research and decide how much to charge. Valve does provide a suggestion, but the developer/publisher makes the final decision on how much is charged in each region.

In the end, prices are not really converted, but set.

Rs. 2500 may be the set price for the game. It will not change based on exchange rates, unless the developer/publisher decides to update it, if at all. Most will set and forget.

You can check the prices for each region here: https://steamdb.info/ There may be other information you may find interesting there as well, such as changes base prices and lowest prices the game has been on Steam.

Цитата допису Sonic2021:

That doesn't explain it. This 30% applies to all countries and not just certain countries.

Correct. The 30% is not really a factor in the price between different countries.

[rawWwRrr]

Цитата допису Sonic2021:

Цитата допису ragefifty50:

because Steam get 30% no matter what the charge is..
and you will be told the prices you are charged are upto
the dev and game makers and not steam..

That doesn't explain it. This 30% applies to all countries and not just certain countries.

Yeah, it's not the fee Steam collects per sale.

Publishers have their reasons. Are they willing to divulge them, that's the question. I was trying to find the article that discussed 505 Games pricing structure for some of their games. I remember when they were planning to release Control, they got some heat for charging a flat equivalent of $59.99 for many regions. While the price of the game has come down since then, it's still much higher than Steam's suggested price for many regions including India (₹ 2999 vs Steam's suggested price of ₹ 899). They must believe there is some value left in the title.

[Dutchgamer1982]

devolopers are free to set their own prices.
they set the price per region.
(to the point that if no price is made in your region.. the game cannot be bought.. example westwards.. only available in usd)

there is no rule saying what regions must be more expensive and what regions cheaper.

so often you see the lowest price in the region the games dev is in.. and currencies with a higher fluctuation/less trade volume will be priced extra high to cover off that exchange cost and risk.

(and for some reason prices in euro are always the same as the dollar price despire 1 euro being over 10% more than 1 dolla

where there are regions that are cheaper it is at best 2/3ds off and usually less...
so much less so than the gap in purchase power.
do note that games are a luxery product as are the computers to run them.. so those buying them in poorer nations are by default of the wealthier part of their population and can he charged accordingly.

[Sonic2024]

I get that it's the Developers Choice on what price to set since it's their own game and they know better but it's kind of weird and unnecessary actually. If they think the game is more valuable than they think and so charge a very high price for certain countries then it's kind of unfair. It would be like "I would have to pay around $120-$150 for a $60 game." and so, Games don't become affordable. Sometimes even a 50% off won't do any good. Games have more sales in countries such as US and UK since the prices are consistent and fair according to their standards of living.

A converted price would provide more consistency and will be favourable to everyone instead of allowing "choosing" a price for another country. They can choose the base game price, which is in $. If the base game price is $40, then all countries must be priced in such a way that they pay the same $40 too. Such a way that it's not too low or too high in their own respective countries. That's the whole point of regional pricing. But since it's like that, it becomes unfair and negligible to even have regional pricing in the first place.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

in the old way when we would rely on fluctuated USA pricing we
could get some really good deals and the devs depending on where
they are would lose some big dollars.. not a very good business model..

this current way stops the losing of dollars for the devs and
generates more money for steam in the process...

sure i as the customer feels like i am paying more for games
and vigorously wait for bigger discounts on products as its my
choice to buy or not to buy and thats about it... i buy less and wait more... lose lose

but as the next generations arrive on steam they wont know any better and
they will just buy and buy and buy without any real thought on these matters...

[Sonic2024]

Цитата допису ragefifty50:

sure i as the customer feels like i am paying more for games
and vigorously wait for bigger discounts on products as its my
choice to buy or not to buy and thats about it... i buy less and wait more... lose lose

but as the next generations arrive on steam they wont know any better and
they will just buy and buy and buy without any real thought on these matters...

What's the point of regional pricing then? They might as well remove this feature if that's the case. If this is how this feature is going to be implemented then removing it doesn't make much of a difference anyway. Regional Pricing wasn't made to serve that purpose. It was made so that people could buy the same product with a fair price which is set according to their own country's standard of living. That average value is already provided in World Bank's Site. The idea of Regional Pricing is welcomed but the implementation feels wrong.

[Crazy Tiger]

Цитата допису Sonic2021:

It was made so that people could buy the same product with a fair price which is set according to their own country's standard of living.

That's the idea, yes. That however doesn't change that developers/publishers have the choice to decide what they consider a fair selling price for their own products.

[Sonic2024]

Цитата допису Crazy Tiger:

That's the idea, yes. That however doesn't change that developers/publishers have the choice to decide what they consider a fair selling price for their own products.

I already stated that I am not against Developers having the choice to set their own prices. The idea is fine but the implementation feels wrong. Regional Pricing was introduced to help customers so that they could buy the same product at affordable prices. That price is approximately determined according to a country's standard of living. Suppose I want to buy a $60 game here, it feels like I am spending $120 or $150 for a $60 game. Suppose a game came from the UK and is priced 50 pounds, but with the help of regional pricing if it is priced $100 in the US, then of course people will find that unfair. That's what I am pointing out.

Some developers follow regional pricing correctly and price their games fairly [Example, Witcher 3, Forza Horizon 4 etc..,] but more than 90% of the game developers don't do that here. That's why I suggested simply converting the price according to the data provided by the World Bank since that would eliminate such things and would provide more consistent results. But of course, if the Game developers themselves learn this and price accordingly, then there is no need to introduce such systems and I will be more than happy with this itself.

Edit: IDK how they messed up the pricing of Forza Horizon 5 if they did well with Forza Horizon 4, considering that it's the same developer and publisher, and that too "for the same $60". This is what I was pointing out. That's why a conversion system would eliminate these kind of unfair means. I hope there will be a proper implementation of this feature someday.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

considering there is no shipping and packaging anymore
it is hard to justify some of the variances but the range in
prices arent as far apart as your presenting..

https://steamdb.info/app/292030/

do devs have to specify what they charge each country
and
if you can afford a computer to play these games on
then why does that effect quality of living and wages
earned in the setting of prices.. that seems like a oddity as well..

the other thing that might be taken into consideration is
creating incentives not to get games illegally.. as it might
be better to have lower profits instead of no profits..

[Nx Machina]

@ Sonic 2021

Battlefield 2042

Cost India - 2999 which is £29.94 (UK) - which in turn is 40.09% cheaper than the UK

Cost UK - £49.99

UK gamers paying 40.09% more for the game is obviously acceptable to you.

[Sonic2024]

Цитата допису ragefifty50:

do devs have to specify what they charge each country
and
if you can afford a computer to play these games on
then why does that effect quality of living and wages
earned in the setting of prices.. that seems like a oddity as well..

But those are Physical Global things though! Physical Global Goods obviously cost more. Simply because people can save up money and buy those physical things doesn't mean that people should also save money for a long time for digital things as well. Physical Global things has manufacturing costs from the country it is manufactured in and thus, to make up for those costs, you keep a price for this from this country. But this price might sound cheap to some countries and high to others. (Because this is where normal conversion is used.) But for Digital ones, you don't have to manufacture anything. You have unlimited copies and thus, you won't be facing losses and there won't be any manufacturing costs. This was why Regional Pricing was introduced in the first place.

Цитата допису ragefifty50:

considering there is no shipping and packaging anymore
it is hard to justify some of the variances but the range in
prices arent as far apart as your presenting..

Цитата допису Nx Machina:

@ Sonic 2021

Battlefield 2042

Cost India - 2999 which is £29.94 (UK) - which in turn is 40.09% cheaper than the UK

Cost UK - £49.99

UK gamers paying 40.09% more for the game is obviously acceptable to you.

I was waiting for someone to bring this explanation. That is why Normal Conversion doesn't work for most of the Global Goods and this is one of the reasons why Regional Pricing was introduced. In the UK, the average monthly salary is £1950. But in India, the average monthly salary is £319 only. That is why the price of routine goods such as milk, books etc.., will be cheaper here when you compare it to your country. By Normal conversion, it SOUNDS cheap, but in reality, we are spending the same amount. How? Because that's the price which has been set according to our country's standards of living.

Every 1 Pound you spend is the same as spending Rs. 25 here. Therefore, if you spend 50 pounds, it's like spending Rs. 1250 here. Here is the data from the World Bank for your reference. $ is used for comparing purposes. Note that this might not be applicable to Physical Global Goods, but it is very much applicable for everything else:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PRVT.PP

[Nx Machina]

Цитата допису Sonic2021:

I was waiting for someone to bring this explanation. That is why Normal Conversion doesn't work for Global Goods and this is one of the reasons why Regional Pricing was introduced. In the UK, the average monthly salary is £1950. But in India, the average monthly salary is £319 only. That is why the price of routine goods such as milk etc.., will be cheaper here when you compare it to your country. By Normal conversion, it SOUNDS cheap, but in reality, we are spending the same amount. How? Because that's the price which has been set according to our country's standards of living. Every 1 Pound you spend is the same as spending Rs. 25 here. Here is the data from the World Bank for your reference:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PRVT.PP

And this is where you get it wrong - average salary is based on the income of ALL working people irrespective of salary and is divided by the working population.

For example in the UK a cleaner working 30 hours a week would take home approx £1020.00 per month if they are paid a living wage rate not a minimum wage rate which most cleaners are on.

Average rent in the UK £650.00 per month, Gas/Electric, £80.00 per month, Water £20.00 per month. Council tax £110.00 per month. That is a total of £860.00 per month expenditure before you add on Insurance, Food, Clothing etc.

Secondly 5% percent of India's population own 90% of the wealth.

[Sonic2024]

Цитата допису Nx Machina:

And this is where you get it wrong - average salary is based on the income of ALL working people irrespective of salary and is divided by the working population.

Yes.

Цитата допису Nx Machina:

For example in the UK a cleaner

May I ask why are you taking the example of a "Cleaner" when we are talking about Average Amount? The Average Monthly Salary in UK is £1950. That is the country's monthly salary. Therefore, Goods will be priced according to that. That's why 1 litre of milk might be around £1. In India, it's £319, therefore goods will be priced according to that. That's why 1 litre of milk might be around £0.25.