Price Difference vs. Gifting, what were y'all thinking?!

[DirectorHawke]

So, I'm Canadian, and instantly there's always going to be a "more than 10% difference" in the price between games for me and all my american friends, and now you're saying because of that globally economic difference that steam has 0 control over, I can no longer gift my friends games?!

What kind of dumb business move was this? Because all it's doing is crippling your sales for people buying games for their friends, as a Canadian I can no longer gift any games to any of my friends outside of Canada because of this silly price difference thing you have set up and basically backed us all into. I'm wondering if this is clause for a lawsuit considering you don't really STATE anywhere in the community helpline that there is this price issue, which leads people to think they can gift games, when in reality they cannot.

For those of you wondering how I came across this 10% difference issue; I was trying to gift my friend a copy of UNLOVED because I had the money at the time, he lives in the US, it's a 10.99 game for me, not for him, and because the difference was literally a penny more than a dollar, I couldn't give him the game, I ended up almost wasting $10 only to find out that I'd have a stagnant copy until I make a Canadian friend here on steam, thank god for refunds. But seriously, what were you people thinking up there in Valve headquarters when you made this decision? Cause it seems to me like you weren't.

I will now be buying all of my friends games through other platforms and other media until this is fixed. -_-

[Kargor]

Originally posted by }DQE{Broken Heart Syndrome 11:

So, I'm Canadian, and instantly there's always going to be a "more than 10% difference" in the price between games for me and all my american friends, and now you're saying because of that globally economic difference that steam has 0 control over, I can no longer gift my friends games?!

Yes. The basic assumption from Steam, no matter the subject, is that you're trying to screw them. Thus, if you gift something from a cheaper store to a more expensive one, Steam assumes you're not actually gifting but you're helping your friend screw Steam.

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by }DQE{Broken Heart Syndrome 11:

So, I'm Canadian, and instantly there's always going to be a "more than 10% difference" in the price between games for me and all my american friends, and now you're saying because of that globally economic difference that steam has 0 control over, I can no longer gift my friends games?!

Yes. The basic assumption from Steam, no matter the subject, is that you're trying to screw them. Thus, if you gift something from a cheaper store to a more expensive one, Steam assumes you're not actually gifting but you're helping your friend screw Steam.

It's probably because valve doesn't bother making games anymore, so much for a team of highly skilled developers... they have to rely on sales of other peoples' games and their cut of the share for profit now, and because of that they are trying to tighten margins, but this is a seriously stupid way of going about it. This literally cuts out an entire portion of their market, which is not exactly a good way to boost revenue, I mean nothing about this makes sense, they are literally ALWAYS making money off of us, and now they are not, they've basically cut Canadian buyers out for gifting so now we all go elsewhere. They are going see a large dip in their revenue as a result of this poor decision.

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by }DQE{Broken Heart Syndrome 11:

So, I'm Canadian, and instantly there's always going to be a "more than 10% difference" in the price between games for me and all my american friends, and now you're saying because of that globally economic difference that steam has 0 control over, I can no longer gift my friends games?!

Yes. The basic assumption from Steam, no matter the subject, is that you're trying to screw them. Thus, if you gift something from a cheaper store to a more expensive one, Steam assumes you're not actually gifting but you're helping your friend screw Steam.

They are literally screwing themselves by assuming we are trying to screw them.

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by Toast:

Honestly, I wonder what the hell they were thinking when they introduced gifting in the first place. They should have expected it to be abused when there were no restrictions on cross region gifting.

Easily fixed with a conversion tax. Oh wait... that's beyond their computing skills because it requires a THIRD stage of calculation.

[wuddih]

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

They are literally screwing themselves by assuming we are trying to screw them.

that is a very assumptious assumption. it limited resellers of steam gifts to get retail keys instead of buying steam gifts in bulk on sale. keys are harder to get for games that actually someone wants and you can make profit with.

believe me when i am saying that i have seen Steam inventories with 5000+ steam gifts. some are still living of these stocks.

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

Originally posted by Toast:

Honestly, I wonder what the hell they were thinking when they introduced gifting in the first place. They should have expected it to be abused when there were no restrictions on cross region gifting.

Easily fixed with a conversion tax. Oh wait... that's beyond their computing skills because it requires a THIRD stage of calculation.

conversion tax? no.
taxation on this is not clear and highly complicated and has nothing to do with any conversion. just paying the difference or target price is not even legal.

[PocketYoda]

Buy the games from resellers and give your friends the keys.. I can't do that mostly as aussie because all the games activate here now and not the US...

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by wuddih:

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

They are literally screwing themselves by assuming we are trying to screw them.

that is a very assumptious assumption. it limited resellers of steam gifts to get retail keys instead of buying steam gifts in bulk on sale. keys are harder to get for games that actually someone wants and you can make profit with.

believe me when i am saying that i have seen Steam inventories with 5000+ steam gifts. some are still living of these stocks.

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

Easily fixed with a conversion tax. Oh wait... that's beyond their computing skills because it requires a THIRD stage of calculation.

conversion tax? no.
taxation on this is not clear and highly complicated and has nothing to do with any conversion. just paying the difference or target price is not even legal.

Clearly it is a process they are capable of doing, because it's almost like it's as easy as making me pay the american price in the first place? Cause I get my keys and gift copies elsewhere now, and they are losing out on sales because of it as I'm sure I'm not the only one. I mean almost everything, but especially Canadian to American dollars have a fairly simple ratio to keep up with economically, even if you don't make me pay a tax, make me pay the properly converted price instead? I mean it is steam who ultimately controls the price in the end, no?

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Buy the games from resellers and give your friends the keys.. I can't do that mostly as aussie because all the games activate here now and not the US...

I do that indeed, places I won't name so that moderators and employees trawling the forums won't go and single and back those places into corners as well and prevent me from ever really buying games for my friends again unless I go to a totally seperate platform.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Buy the games from resellers and give your friends the keys.. I can't do that mostly as aussie because all the games activate here now and not the US...

I do that indeed, places I won't name so that moderators and employees trawling the forums won't go and single and back those places into corners as well and prevent me from ever really buying games for my friends again unless I go to a totally seperate platform.

I'm not sure steam has any control over resellers as many of them are in the UK, that said We aussies are forced to buy games on steam in USD O.o so it has zero to do with taxes and more to do with cherry picking to force customers to pay more...

[wuddih]

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

I mean it is steam who ultimately controls the price in the end, no?

that is the thing, they dont. the product owner sets and changes the price for every currency.

the smaller stores you buy from probably give a giant turd on proper taxation and then something like this might happen.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by wuddih:

Originally posted by }DQE{ Unholy Bloodlust 11:

I mean it is steam who ultimately controls the price in the end, no?

that is the thing, they dont. the product owner sets and changes the price for every currency.

the smaller stores you buy from probably give a giant turd on proper taxation and then something like this might happen.

Steam still owns what currency countries pay in.. and how much mark up that brings them..

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Originally posted by wuddih:

that is the thing, they dont. the product owner sets and changes the price for every currency.

the smaller stores you buy from probably give a giant turd on proper taxation and then something like this might happen.

Steam still owns what currency countries pay in.. and how much mark up that brings them..

So indeed they would control whether I paid 10.99 CAD for UNLOVED or the Canadian equivalent to the American price, yes?

[Drab]

You should start a competing service to Steam, since you are way better at their business than they are.

You don't really think they changed gifting without have a good idea of the financial repercussions do you?

They didn't change it back, so your assertion that they are "screwing themselves" is obviously not true.

[DirectorHawke]

Originally posted by Drab:

You should start a competing service to Steam, since you are way better at their business than they are.

You don't really think they changed gifting without have a good idea of the financial repercussions do you?

They didn't change it back, so your assertion that they are "screwing themselves" is obviously not true.

You show me how they aren't shooting themselves in the foot economically by screwing over regional exchange, they had years to fix the loopholes for abuse and they instead crippled an entire area of sales.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by Nthsideplaya:

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

I'm not sure steam has any control over resellers as many of them are in the UK, that said We aussies are forced to buy games on steam in USD O.o so it has zero to do with taxes and more to do with cherry picking to force customers to pay more...

LOL wait until steam start charging Australians in Australian dollars, you will be paying even more than we are now. Just be thankful you can purchase games cheaper now than we will be paying when that happens.

It's the publishers that decide the price not valve.

No we wont if they charged us in AU we'd be paying less.. AAA games on steam cost between $60-150 US over here retail its cheaper at $69.95 to $120 AU

Its why i buy off resellers as they mark down slightly below retail here..