There should be actual counter measures against price-fixing on Steam store

[Erenussocrates]

I have no idea why that is not a thing that had not been considered since it's an actual crime basically anywhere civilization exists.

Make it so that devs can't change the price of their game all willy nilly, make it so that they can only change it at a certain time of the year and likely not more than once a year, AND NOT BEFORE ESTABLISHED BIG SALES.

[davidb11]

Please do not make up false information here regarding Price Fixing on Steam.
That has never been done.

It isn't even how Steam can function.

So, please, don't ever claim impossible things.

[Erenussocrates]

Some of you have wanted the proof, there you have it.

Rimworld Base price before 17/11/2022 : 29.99€ => After 17/11/2022 : 32.99€
Royalty base price before same date : 16.79€ => After same date : 18.99€
Ideology base price before same date : 16.79€ => After same date : 18.99€
Biotech base price before same date : 23.99€ => After same date : 24.49€

This has been elaborately done one month before the Winter Sale.

Then recently they've made a post proclaiming "they've made a discount for a few currencies", which included EUR too. Illusion of a goodwill to put the price back down after their gouging at the sale event. Oh, and guess what, new prices are still above original prices btw, except for Biotech, now at 23.49€, we have an incredible 0.50€ reduction on the base price.

All previous discounts on DLC are made AFTER the gouging of their pricetags, and the discounts are all superior to the original base price. It's not discount, it's price raise before "discount". Just for the record, it's illegal in physical stores in nearly all European countries. Curious about the legal question in European countries about dematerialized store.

Go and look at steamdb yourselves if you don't believe.

[davidb11]

Still not price fixing.
Because that requires complete collusion of multiple companies.
Also, it only applies to major goods, not video games.

It literally is for like gasoline and food in emergencies.

[KalGimpa]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

Some of you have wanted the proof, there you have it.

Rimworld Base price before 17/11/2022 : 29.99€ => After 17/11/2022 : 32.99€
Royalty base price before same date : 16.79€ => After same date : 18.99€
Ideology base price before same date : 16.79€ => After same date : 18.99€
Biotech base price before same date : 23.99€ => After same date : 24.49€

This has been elaborately done one month before the Winter Sale.

Then recently they've made a post proclaiming "they've made a discount for a few currencies", which included EUR too. Illusion of a goodwill to put the price back down after their gouging at the sale event. Oh, and guess what, new prices are still above original prices btw, except for Biotech, now at 23.49€, we have an incredible 0.50€ reduction on the base price.

All previous discounts on DLC are made AFTER the gouging of their pricetags, and the discounts are all superior to the original base price. It's not discount, it's price raise before "discount". Just for the record, it's illegal in physical stores in nearly all European countries. Curious about the legal question in European countries about dematerialized store.

Go and look at steamdb yourselves if you don't believe.

now, take all that info to your local police, or send it to whomever it is that controls this type of sale in your jurisdiction, and see what they do with it

[Chompman]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

Some of you have wanted the proof, there you have it.

Rimworld Base price before 17/11/2022 : 29.99€ => After 17/11/2022 : 32.99€
Royalty base price before same date : 16.79€ => After same date : 18.99€
Ideology base price before same date : 16.79€ => After same date : 18.99€
Biotech base price before same date : 23.99€ => After same date : 24.49€

This has been elaborately done one month before the Winter Sale.

Then recently they've made a post proclaiming "they've made a discount for a few currencies", which included EUR too. Illusion of a goodwill to put the price back down after their gouging at the sale event. Oh, and guess what, new prices are still above original prices btw, except for Biotech, now at 23.49€, we have an incredible 0.50€ reduction on the base price.

All previous discounts on DLC are made AFTER the gouging of their pricetags, and the discounts are all superior to the original base price. It's not discount, it's price raise before "discount". Just for the record, it's illegal in physical stores in nearly all European countries. Curious about the legal question in European countries about dematerialized store.

Go and look at steamdb yourselves if you don't believe.

Except this was a planned increase they talked about:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/294100/view/3422199945667315104

[Erenussocrates]

You call it potato I call it tomato, doesn't change the shadiness of the practice, yes they are not dealing food and gasoline, good for you, touch grass. What do you want to call it, gouging? That surely sounds more ethical /s

[Chompman]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

You call it potato I call it tomato, doesn't change the shadiness of the practice, yes they are not dealing food and gasoline, good for you, touch grass. What do you want to call it, gouging? That surely sounds more ethical /s

When certain countries currencies devalue it's only fair they keep their prices fair for everyone.

Otherwise as we have seen people abuse vpn's for cheaper prices and it devalues their game.

For your comparison you can see how bad the Euro was doing during that timeframe and why it made sense.

[KalGimpa]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

You call it potato I call it tomato, doesn't change the shadiness of the practice, yes they are not dealing food and gasoline, good for you, touch grass. What do you want to call it, gouging? That surely sounds more ethical /s

no, you called it a crime

it is not

slight increases are not that bad either, it is when they jack up the price 200% then give a 75% off sale

the fact that you found all those prices, though, just shows what you get with due diligence in researching a purchase, exactly like you should

[davidb11]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

You call it potato I call it tomato, doesn't change the shadiness of the practice, yes they are not dealing food and gasoline, good for you, touch grass. What do you want to call it, gouging? That surely sounds more ethical /s

You're not allowed to say this though.
As we said.
You can't attach any malice or evil to this, and it makes no sense to do so.
Also please don't be rude.

[ShelLuser]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

This has been elaborately done one month before the Winter Sale.

I appreciate the follow up, nothing between the lines I'm fully honest: I respect your efforts. Period.

Unfortunately...., the Steam database doesn't agree.

Take Rimworld[steamdb.info]. 29,99? If you check history you see it's consistent. YES, afterwards it went up. True.

Wake up call: so did pretty much everything else. There's this war going on in the Ukraine and almost everyone is trying to usurp and use this to their own advantage you see...

And the problem with that is that if enough people push for a change in wages it can have a spiral effect. And that's what you see happening around you. That game going up in price could just as easily be a result of higher gas prices and the devs. demanding that their boss compensated them for it.

As a result now you may be inclined to ask your boss for a raise and what may be the result of that?

My point though: look at the history, look at the steady prices... that's not fixation, that's responding to recent developments.

[Erenussocrates]

引用自 Chompman：

When certain countries currencies devalue it's only fair they keep their prices fair for everyone.

Otherwise as we have seen people abuse vpn's for cheaper prices and it devalues their game.

For your comparison you can see how bad the Euro was doing during that timeframe and why it made sense.

That's an awful lot of convenient for them to decide to do it at such a time isn't it? Also, if we are going to talk "value", I can do that too. It's unrelated, but it'll make them look even worse actually.

And go check prices in southern countries...
For Ideology DLC, Brasil used to be 37.99 R$, and since 17/11/2022 it's 54.99$.
Argentine was 224.99 ARS$, since 17/11/2022 it's 1299 ARS$ (No, I didn't add a number by mistake...)
Uruguay was 429 $U, now 595 $U.
Turkey was 32 Lira, now 169 Lira.
Kazakhstan was 2650T, now 4100T.
Vietnam was 188000 Dong, now 260000 Dong.

Yeah, there is fluctuation in currency conversion because of market fluctuation. But, wow, it's clearly not only that. For Argentine, in 16/11/2022 the conversion was 1€ = 167,9 ARS. Today, 1€ = 206 ARS. Not a x5 rate like they did for the game's new price. So, why did Ideology DLC got a x5 price raise in Argentine? Do you see how bad that looks? They are clearly just hiding behind that excuse to mooch off.

[Erenussocrates]

引用自 KalCuey：

now, take all that info to your local police, or send it to whomever it is that controls this type of sale in your jurisdiction, and see what they do with it

Just for the record, it's illegal in physical stores in nearly all European countries. Curious about the legal question in European countries about dematerialized store.

[davidb11]

PLease don't use offensive slang.
I am autistic, but there is no reason to do this here.

You're wrong about price gouging and price fixing, there was no collusion between a dozen different companies.

Nothing done here was illegal.

[Chompman]

引用自 Erenussocrates：

引用自 Chompman：

When certain countries currencies devalue it's only fair they keep their prices fair for everyone.

Otherwise as we have seen people abuse vpn's for cheaper prices and it devalues their game.

For your comparison you can see how bad the Euro was doing during that timeframe and why it made sense.

That's an awful lot of convenient for them to decide to do it at such a time isn't it? Also, if we are going to talk "value", I can do that too. It's unrelated, but it'll make them look even worse actually.

And go check prices in southern countries...
For Ideology DLC, Brasil used to be 37.99 R$, and since 17/11/2022 it's 54.99$.
Argentine was 224.99 ARS$, since 17/11/2022 it's 1299 ARS$ (No, I didn't add a number by mistake...)
Uruguay was 429 $U, now 595 $U.
Turkey was 32 Lira, now 169 Lira.
Kazakhstan was 2650T, now 4100T.
Vietnam was 188000 Dong, now 260000 Dong.

Yeah, there is fluctuation in currency conversion because of market fluctuation. But, wow, it's clearly not only that. For Argentine, in 16/11/2022 the conversion was 1€ = 167,9 ARS. Today, 1€ = 206 ARS. Not a x5 rate like they did for the game's new price. So, why did Ideology DLC got a x5 price raise in Argentine? Do you see how bad that looks? They are clearly just hiding behind that excuse to mooch off.

That time frame you talked about was when steam changed their "suggested prices" for games as you can see here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3314110913449340510

A lot of games "Adjusted" their prices to adjust with what steam suggested because of updated values and not every game dev is going to do this on their own without being informed of these issues.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

when there was no online... we did seem to get more bargain bin pricing

now that we are online with even less overheads the pricing does
seem to remain a lot more consistent when you look at the steamdb stats..

i have 5 year and older stuff on my wishlist... like clockwork.. price stays the same...
then goes to discount price the back to same price then same discount
for a lot more years than before...

no packaging no store workers no delivery

seems like price fixing to me...