Ridiculous exchange rates for Polish Złoty

[szlongster]

it's been going on for, i believe, a little bit over 2 years now, and although Polish communities being all about it for a long time, Valve has shown zero interest in fixing it.
There is absolutely no reason for the exchange rates to be THIS off, meaning Steam is either really lazy to fix its problems or is specifically targeting us.

For foreigners who have no idea on the Polish currency (i don't blame you):
Steam has updated its exchange rates when Polish złoty was on its absolute lowest, all the way back in 2022, when Steam has decided that the exchange rate for 1 USD should be 5 PLN (it's 3,92 PLN at the moment)

This makes prices of AAA games absolutely diabolical, in fact, it makes Polish złoty the MOST expensive currency in the world to buy games in on Steam, paying in American Dollars and Euro turning out CHEAPER than the Polish currency.
Let's take for example, the Hearts of Iron IV: Götterdämmerung DLC, as you can see in https://steamdb.info/app/3152780/
The price for Polish consumers is automatically set to 171,25zł by Steam's automatic exchange system, and 36,99€ for Eurozone consumers, now, in comparison, 36,99€ with current exchange rates would equal to 158,87zł, that's tremendously cheaper than the 171,25zł set automatically by Steam. If we compare it to American dollars, the price is $36.99, which when calculated to Polish Złoty with current exchange rates, the price is as low as 145,04zł.

This has been going on for 2 years now, and as i've said before, Steam STILL hasn't said a word about it.
Thanks, Gaben.

[szlongster]

I forgot to mention the fact that, on top of all this, Polish people make significantly less than Germans or Americans.
The minimum monthly wage is equal to $890 or 814 EUR, a lot less than the countries who use said currencies, Steam still urges us to pay more nonetheless.

[rawWwRrr]

Steam doesn't set prices. It only provides a comparative price for the publisher. It's still the publisher's choice to use that price or their own.

If a game you want is priced too high, ask the publisher to consider reducing it.

[szlongster]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Steam doesn't set prices. It only provides a comparative price for the publisher. It's still the publisher's choice to use that price or their own.

If a game you want is priced too high, ask the publisher to consider reducing it.

Not sure if you even read what i wrote considering you replied so fast, but Steam does set prices automatically if the devs don't bother fixing it themselves. The problem is, the automatic price set by steam is ridiculous, and most developers don't care to fix it. Some legendary developers do acknowledge this problem though.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by marcin:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Steam doesn't set prices. It only provides a comparative price for the publisher. It's still the publisher's choice to use that price or their own.

If a game you want is priced too high, ask the publisher to consider reducing it.

Not sure if you even read what i wrote considering you replied so fast, but Steam does set prices automatically if the devs don't bother fixing it themselves. The problem is, the automatic price set by steam is ridiculous, and most developers don't care to fix it. Some legendary developers do acknowledge this problem though.

Valve only suggests prices for currencies that are available on Steam BUT the game devs/pubs still must enter a price for supported currencies with the exceptions of the new USD regions created last year that default to full USD IF prices were set before the change.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing/currencies

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2720-4EC7-B95A-1D2A

[szlongster]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by marcin:

Not sure if you even read what i wrote considering you replied so fast, but Steam does set prices automatically if the devs don't bother fixing it themselves. The problem is, the automatic price set by steam is ridiculous, and most developers don't care to fix it. Some legendary developers do acknowledge this problem though.

Valve only suggests prices for currencies that are available on Steam BUT the game devs/pubs still must enter a price for supported currencies with the exceptions of the new USD regions created last year that default to full USD IF prices were set before the change.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing/currencies

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2720-4EC7-B95A-1D2A

:nkCool:

does not change the fact that Valve suggests a ridiculous price specifically just for Polish złoty eitherway.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by marcin:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Valve only suggests prices for currencies that are available on Steam BUT the game devs/pubs still must enter a price for supported currencies with the exceptions of the new USD regions created last year that default to full USD IF prices were set before the change.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing/currencies

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2720-4EC7-B95A-1D2A

does not change the fact that Valve suggests a ridiculous price eitherway.

Valve did not.

You can see Valve suggested 161,99 which is 10 less that what the game dev/pubs chose to set the price as.

https://steamdb.info/sub/1119090/

And US prices do not include taxes. We add taxes on top of the listed price per state. Yours includes VAT on the listed price.

[szlongster]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by marcin:

does not change the fact that Valve suggests a ridiculous price eitherway.

Valve did not.

You can see Valve suggested 161,99 which is 10 less that what the game dev/pubs chose to set the price as.

https://steamdb.info/sub/1119090/

And US prices do not include taxes. We add taxes on top of the listed price per state. Yours includes VAT on the listed price.

:nkCool:

the Valve's suggested price is STILL a lot more than the Euro or British Pounds, the price of that DLC being +9% the suggested price of Euro and +6% of suggested price of Złoty, despite Euros being a lot higher htan Valve's suggestion, it is still lower than the price in Złoty, you can see this phenomenon in most titles on steam, except a few that acknowledge this situation, most of them being from Polish devs like Cyberpunk 2077 or the Witcher who go out of their way to fix this issue specifically for Polish consumers as it's been a pretty loud subject in our communities for years at this point.
Still nonetheless none of your answers justify the fact that Steam's exchange rate is extremely high, as it considers 1 USD to be equal to nearly 5 PLN. The exchange rates have been fixed back in 2022, when the value of the Polish złoty was on an all time low. Steam promised to update it every year but it's already been nearly 2 since they touched this subject and the real exchange rates have drastically changed.
This has not been an issue forever, since pre-2022 games in Polish Złoty were actually cheaper than the Euro and the exchange rates were fixed pretty regularly, sadly Valve hasn't touched our currency since we were in the middle of a crisis YEARS ago.

[szlongster]

There's currently a petition going on for this on change.org. It has already gathered 30,000 signatures. I just hope more people wake up and get to know about this issue as we're legitemately tired of it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by marcin:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Valve did not.

You can see Valve suggested 161,99 which is 10 less that what the game dev/pubs chose to set the price as.

https://steamdb.info/sub/1119090/

And US prices do not include taxes. We add taxes on top of the listed price per state. Yours includes VAT on the listed price.

the Valve's suggested price is STILL a lot more than the Euro or British Pounds, the price of that DLC being +9% the suggested price of Euro and +6% of suggested price of Złoty, despite Euros being a lot higher htan Valve's suggestion, it is still lower than the price in Złoty, you can see this phenomenon in most titles on steam, except a few that acknowledge this situation, most of them being from Polish devs like Cyberpunk 2077 or the Witcher who go out of their way to fix this issue specifically for Polish consumers as it's been a pretty loud subject in our communities for years at this point.
Still nonetheless none of your answers justify the fact that Steam's exchange rate is extremely high, as it considers 1 USD to be equal to nearly 5 PLN. The exchange rates have been fixed back in 2022, when the value of the Polish złoty was on an all time low. Steam promised to update it every year but it's already been nearly 2 since they touched this subject and the real exchange rates have drastically changed.
This has not been an issue forever, since pre-2022 games in Polish Złoty were actually cheaper than the Euro and the exchange rates were fixed pretty regularly, sadly Valve hasn't touched our currency since we were in the middle of a crisis YEARS ago.

$40.97 USD converted is on par with US taxes (~$5) applied upon checkout as an average per state. You have VAT included in your price.

Everything checks out.

[szlongster]

Originally posted by marcin:

There's currently a petition going on for this on change.org. It has already gathered 30,000 signatures. I just hope more people wake up and get to know about this issue as we're legitemately tired of it.

https://chng.it/TYgDXsVGTY
https://kursnasteam.pl/?lang=en
it says pretty much everything i'm trying to explain.

[Ben Lubar]

Steam doesn't automatically change prices, so even if they publish new recommendations, its 100% up to the game's developers whether the price of the game should change in any region.

[szlongster]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Steam doesn't automatically change prices, so even if they publish new recommendations, its 100% up to the game's developers whether the price of the game should change in any region.

They haven't published new recommendation since 2022, right around the time when the value of the Polish Złoty was on an all time low. The exchange rates for Polish Złoty are outdated, this is why this and the sheer ignorance of developers is a huge issue for us in the first place.
I recommend checking out https://chng.it/TYgDXsVGTY and https://kursnasteam.pl/?lang=en to get a grip on the whole issue.

[Nx Machina]

Instead of complaining and comparing prices to the Euro, contact your government who chose not to adopt the Euro and ask them to adopt the Euro, if you want Euro prices.

FREE POINTS - thank you.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by marcin:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Steam doesn't set prices. It only provides a comparative price for the publisher. It's still the publisher's choice to use that price or their own.

If a game you want is priced too high, ask the publisher to consider reducing it.

Not sure if you even read what i wrote considering you replied so fast, but Steam does set prices automatically if the devs don't bother fixing it themselves. The problem is, the automatic price set by steam is ridiculous, and most developers don't care to fix it. Some legendary developers do acknowledge this problem though.

I did. And they don't. Valve simply provides a suggested price. Publisher has to agree to it or change it.

Originally posted by marcin:

https://chng.it/TYgDXsVGTY
https://kursnasteam.pl/?lang=en
it says pretty much everything i'm trying to explain.

And each one of those correctly states "suggested prices". That is not the same as automatic pricing. And Valve has suggested new prices on more than one occasion. The process has always been the same.

If you want a game to be cheaper on Steam, go to that game's publisher and petition them about it. The publishers are the only one in control of the prices. Valve will not change them for you.

edit: here is your evidence why it is not "automatic":
https://steamdb.info/sub/921851/

Silent Hill 2 that just released. A lot of prices are different that Valve's suggested price. And a matter of fact, the publisher set Poland's price lower than Valve's suggested.

[szlongster]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by marcin:

Not sure if you even read what i wrote considering you replied so fast, but Steam does set prices automatically if the devs don't bother fixing it themselves. The problem is, the automatic price set by steam is ridiculous, and most developers don't care to fix it. Some legendary developers do acknowledge this problem though.

I did. And they don't. Valve simply provides a suggested price. Publisher has to agree to it or change it.

Originally posted by marcin:

https://chng.it/TYgDXsVGTY
https://kursnasteam.pl/?lang=en
it says pretty much everything i'm trying to explain.

And each one of those correctly states "suggested prices". That is not the same as automatic pricing. And Valve has suggested new prices on more than one occasion. The process has always been the same.

If you want a game to be cheaper on Steam, go to that game's publisher and petition them about it. The publishers are the only one in control of the prices. Valve will not change them for you.

edit: here is your evidence why it is not "automatic":
https://steamdb.info/sub/921851/

Silent Hill 2 that just released. A lot of prices are different that Valve's suggested price. And a matter of fact, the publisher set Poland's price lower than Valve's suggested.

Yes, the #PolishOurPrices community is actively informing developers on the issue with many of them listening and manually lowering the prices for Polish consumers despite Steam recommending not to do so. Silent Hill 2 is actually included in the list of "Successes" on the action's website. The problem is the fact that Steam recommends prices with outdated exchange rates. So, while we can't really hope for Steam fixing it anytime soon, we're trying as hard as we can to inform as many devs as possible on our issue.

Silent Hill 2 used to actually cost 330zł before it was lowered to 299zł thanks to our beloved community. That's an 8 american dollar difference, while it may not sound like much for an American, in Poland this kind of money isn't really something you'd just throw out without thinking. In some cases, the difference can be way over 10 dollars, which is just ridiculous..