Ban a game-developer based on its country

[df1307]

Why game-developer can ban players from buying game based on country of players but players can't do the same to game-developer?

[rawWwRrr]

Publicado originalmente por ShelLuser:

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

Why game-developer can ban players from buying game based on country of players but players can't do the same to game-developer?

A game developer who publishes on Steam doesn't control who they can sell to, that's up to Steam. So.. within this context: no, a game developer does not "ban" people from buying. They can of course ban people from interacting with their gamehub (forum, screenshots, guides, etc.) but that doesn't affect the store page.

Developers and publishers can certainly restrict who their game is sold to on Steam. There are many examples of games that are only available in certain regions or restricted from specific regions. There are multiple reasons why they do this. Either they don't have publishing rights for the game, or they have different versions of a game. Some do it for more control over regional pricing or restrict gifting to certain parts of the world.

In this context, a lot of publishers just went ahead and delisted their games from having a Ruble price. Dead Space that just game out doesn't have a Russian Ruble price.
https://steamdb.info/app/1693980/
This effectively prevents anyone with their store set to Ruble from being able to purchase the game without having to set a specific ban on the country.

For example that has restricted (or banned) countries from buying their game, we can look at Call of Duty - Black Ops 2.
https://steamdb.info/sub/16361/info/
That package specifically cannot be purchased in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, and Japan. One reason they do this is because they have multiple packages for the same game specifically for certain countries.
https://steamdb.info/sub/16363/info/
This one can *only* be purchased in Austria and Switzerland.
https://steamdb.info/sub/16364/info/
This one is only for Australia.

There is also a Russian package of Black Ops 2:
https://steamdb.info/sub/18053/info/
And it lists that it can only be bought in Russian and the old soviet republics, and it can *only* be played in those specific countries. Unfortunately for anyone in this group who are on Rubles, they still can't buy it, but Kazakhstani Tenge and Ukrainian Hryvnia is still supported as well as the countries that are represented in the CIS - US Dollar store region.

My point is.... The Steam Store allows a LOT of granularity when it comes to allowing who can buy and play a game on the Steam Store.

[df1307]

Publicado originalmente por nullable:

Why is it Valve's job to provide you random trivia?

Just curious, do you understand that players are paying to valve, not otherwise?

[fluxtorrent]

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

Publicado originalmente por nullable:

Why is it Valve's job to provide you random trivia?

Just curious, do you understand that players are paying to valve, not otherwise?

You aren't paying them for a brain replacement though... Might be a service they should consider though, I'm sure there would be a market

[rawWwRrr]

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

Publicado originalmente por nullable:

Why is it Valve's job to provide you random trivia?

Just curious, do you understand that players are paying to valve, not otherwise?

You do understand that you are not a customer of Valve's but the game developers and publishers are? You are a user.

[df1307]

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

Just curious, do you understand that players are paying to valve, not otherwise?

You do understand that you are not a customer of Valve's but the game developers and publishers are? You are a user.

in case you' re just connected to internet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-sided_market

[fluxtorrent]

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

You do understand that you are not a customer of Valve's but the game developers and publishers are? You are a user.

in case you' re just connected to internet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-sided_market

Tell us you didn't actually read the link and don't understand what it means, without telling us.

[Hammer Of Evil]

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

the problem that steam knows the country of gamedev but isn't showing it to us

excuse me. if you research the publisher / developer, you can also find the company / country of origin where it is registered.

this is not a hidden piece of news. sure, its not on the steam storefront page, but it doesn't have to be. its freely available for you to search.

[ShelLuser]

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Actually, notable developers/publishers that pulled their games from sale in Russia and Belarus on Steam and all other services are...

Microsoft (includes Bethesda, Mojang Studios), Activision-Blizzard, Rockstar, CDPR, 4A, GSC Game World (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and a big RIP to Vladimir "Fresh" Yezhov who passed away in the war), Ubisoft, SEGA, Behaviour Interactive, Supercell, FromSoftware, Sony (Bungie), Bloober Team and 2K (Firaxis Games).

Gifting on Steam is also disabled for those games.

Interesting, because I happen to have a Steam friend who resides in the Russian Federation (according to his profile) and nothing is blocking me from gifting a random Sega game. I make it all the way to the payment methods. I then also tried this with Forza (only one of MS' biggest title): same deal.

Thing is: if you're blocked from gifting a game you'll be told long before the payment information gets involved. I've experienced this myself one time when I couldn't gift a game due to regional pricing.

So... something doesn't add up here for me.

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

Developers and publishers can certainly restrict who their game is sold to on Steam. There are many examples of games that are only available in certain regions or restricted from specific regions.

But that doesn't proof that it was the publisher/developer or Valve/Steam who pulled those strings. For example I'm aware of several adult games which are not sold in Germany and Australia. Not because the developer wishes so but because the local laws prevent it and thus Steam has pulled the game in those regions.

But just because the game can't be sold there anymore doesn't proof that the developer can set this up.

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

In this context, a lot of publishers just went ahead and delisted their games from having a Ruble price. Dead Space that just game out doesn't have a Russian Ruble price.
https://steamdb.info/app/1693980/

It doesn't have a price or this price can only be seen over there. Let's not forget that there are several parts of censorship in effect right now which prevents us from taking note of Russian information. This focusses on Russian Youtube channels, websites and broadcasts but I could easily imagine that price information is a part of all this.

I looked up Dead Space on Steam and I tried the same method I mentioned above to Hotsauce. Lo and behold: I can make it all the way to the purchase page. Ergo: I can easily gift that game to a Russian friend.

As above... something doesn't quite add up for me.

[JVC]

Publicado originalmente por ShelLuser:

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Actually, notable developers/publishers that pulled their games from sale in Russia and Belarus on Steam and all other services are...



Gifting on Steam is also disabled for those games.

Interesting, because I happen to have a Steam friend who resides in the Russian Federation (according to his profile) and nothing is blocking me from gifting a random Sega game. I make it all the way to the payment methods. I then also tried this with Forza (only one of MS' biggest title): same deal.

Thing is: if you're blocked from gifting a game you'll be told long before the payment information gets involved. I've experienced this myself one time when I couldn't gift a game due to regional pricing.

So... something doesn't add up here for me.

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

Developers and publishers can certainly restrict who their game is sold to on Steam. There are many examples of games that are only available in certain regions or restricted from specific regions.

But that doesn't proof that it was the publisher/developer or Valve/Steam who pulled those strings. For example I'm aware of several adult games which are not sold in Germany and Australia. Not because the developer wishes so but because the local laws prevent it and thus Steam has pulled the game in those regions.

But just because the game can't be sold there anymore doesn't proof that the developer can set this up.

Publicado originalmente por rawWwRrr:

In this context, a lot of publishers just went ahead and delisted their games from having a Ruble price. Dead Space that just game out doesn't have a Russian Ruble price.
https://steamdb.info/app/1693980/

It doesn't have a price or this price can only be seen over there. Let's not forget that there are several parts of censorship in effect right now which prevents us from taking note of Russian information. This focusses on Russian Youtube channels, websites and broadcasts but I could easily imagine that price information is a part of all this.

I looked up Dead Space on Steam and I tried the same method I mentioned above to Hotsauce. Lo and behold: I can make it all the way to the purchase page. Ergo: I can easily gift that game to a Russian friend.

As above... something doesn't quite add up for me.

Actually it makes a lot of sense. When game companies sell to customers in e.g. an EU country, Steam collects sales tax on behalf of that country. All receipts I receive from steam include my national value added tax, not a sales tax in the US.

In all likelihood that also applies for Russian customers. So by stopping sales to those the game company stops generating value added tax or sales tax on behalf of Russia. So steam won't be collecting any funds on behalf of the Russian tax authorities.

If you're in the EU and buy a gaming license for your friend, your local value added tax applies for the sale, so the Russian government isn't receiving any revenue from that sale. Your local tax authority receives your VAT.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Publicado originalmente por ShelLuser:

Publicado originalmente por cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Actually, notable developers/publishers that pulled their games from sale in Russia and Belarus on Steam and all other services are...



Gifting on Steam is also disabled for those games.

Interesting, because I happen to have a Steam friend who resides in the Russian Federation (according to his profile) and nothing is blocking me from gifting a random Sega game. I make it all the way to the payment methods. I then also tried this with Forza (only one of MS' biggest title): same deal.

Thing is: if you're blocked from gifting a game you'll be told long before the payment information gets involved. I've experienced this myself one time when I couldn't gift a game due to regional pricing.

So... something doesn't add up here for me.

Not all titles have gifting turned off.

Publicado originalmente por ShelLuser:

But that doesn't proof that it was the publisher/developer or Valve/Steam who pulled those strings. For example I'm aware of several adult games which are not sold in Germany and Australia. Not because the developer wishes so but because the local laws prevent it and thus Steam has pulled the game in those regions.

But just because the game can't be sold there anymore doesn't proof that the developer can set this up.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/03/ukraine-asks-game-industry-to-block-russian-accounts-as-punishment-for-invasion/

https://mashable.com/article/microsoft-suspends-sales-russia

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-07/ubisoft-stopping-sales-in-russia-following-major-rivals

https://mashable.com/article/video-game-developers-publishers-russia-ukraine-war-sanctions

https://activisionblizzard.com/newsroom/2022/03/supporting-the-ukrainian-people

https://www.wired.com/story/gaming-industry-unites-russia/

https://www.polygon.com/22961678/electronic-arts-stopping-sales-russia-belarus-sanctions-ukraine

https://www.engadget.com/cd-projekt-red-russia-belarus-ukraine-cyberpunk-2077-151853498.html

[Crazy Tiger]

Publicado originalmente por ShelLuser:

But just because the game can't be sold there anymore doesn't proof that the developer can set this up.

Developers fully control where they release their games.

Example news post of a developer about pulling games from Russia and Belarus:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/449960/view/3113680716517684281

Since then we have joined other studios and halted sales of Book of Demons in Russia and Belarus until further notice.

[Богей]

Why? Is this how you pretend care? Hating a country without knowing anything about it or what is actually happening there? By wanting to "ban" a video game producer because your corrupt war mongering politicians told you to - as if you're their puppet.

Maybe you should stop buying the BS instead.

[Prof.Jackie]

Publicado originalmente por fluxtorrent:

Publicado originalmente por df1307:

Just curious, do you understand that players are paying to valve, not otherwise?

You aren't paying them for a brain replacement though... Might be a service they should consider though, I'm sure there would be a market

Thing is, that market would opnly make money by selling gits, because the people that relly need it don't realize it.

[happy]

Publicado originalmente por xAlphaStarOmegax:

How are ordinary Russian citizens instigating Ukraine by wanting to buy games just like the rest of us? I don't see how that is instigating anything. Russian citizens shouldn't even be being punished because of a war that isn't in their control. All of it is downright absurd to me. Right now, it's Russia and Belarus that are being treated this way; next up, it could be any other country or targeted individual(s); it's all a slippery slope, really.

Purchasing Items as a Russian Citizen is fueling your Country's Economy, that should be pretty logical.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Well, it's not always due to war. Could also be licensing issues or the game ran afoul of some evil ratings board.