Why doesn't steam know how time zones work?

[Alistair]

Waiting for RE2 to unlock and it has been the 25th for over 10 hours in Australia. Why hasn't the game unlocked? Seriously how hard is it to use timezone unlocks? at least by country, Steam makes a fortune, start offering better service before EPIC becomes a real threat.

[Sensei]

Why does everyone assume that international company that operates in the web would use their timezone? Valve works on UTC-8 so wait it out.

Epic may hape stuck their spoon on the soup but it'll have a lot of growing to do to compete with valves pot.

[Alistair]

I understand what you are saying but vertually every other large company operates independently in different regions. Im pretty sure Valve isnt run by the same people in china as in the US and I use the Australian version of Steam that doesn't have some games other regions have ect, so if versions of Steam are region specific why not their timezones?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

So explain to me how hard is it to understand this?
https://steamcommunity.com/games/883710/announcements/detail/1714084842268363126

If you literally visit the store page, and look at the blue banner you will see the countdown timer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/883710/RESIDENT_EVIL_2__BIOHAZARD_RE2/

[Grogwind]

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

I understand what you are saying but vertually every other large company operates independently in different regions. Im pretty sure Valve isnt run by the same people in china as in the US and I use the Australian version of Steam that doesn't have some games other regions have ect, so if versions of Steam are region specific why not their timezones?

It’s your geolocation that restricts your available games/software on the store not a different version of steam.

Release times are normal set by the developers as is the release schedule.

Take it up with the developers about your regions release time.

[Alistair]

I understand that, can you tell me why Steam can't have region specific launch times? The game is still locked in Australia because it isn't the 25th yet in America, that doesn't really make sense, Amazon and other large American based online companies do not operate like that.

[Alistair]

I guess i don't see it being that difficult to have geolocation specific release schedules then. Im pretty sure it's just steam putting in as little effort as possible as appears to be their mantra.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

I understand that, can you tell me why Steam can't have region specific launch times? The game is still locked in Australia because it isn't the 25th yet in America, that doesn't really make sense, Amazon and other large American based online companies do not operate like that.

Take it up with the game dev.

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

I guess i don't see it being that difficult to have geolocation specific release schedules then. Im pretty sure it's just steam putting in as little effort as possible as appears to be their mantra.

Steam isn't doing anything, not sure why you're blaming Steam for something that the game devs done themselves. You do realize Steam didn't make this game, and don't own this game, let alone force anyone to do anything, you do understand that right? So explain to me how is this Steam doing? Steam is a store, just like PSN for SONY which they also do this.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

I understand that, can you tell me why Steam can't have region specific launch times? The game is still locked in Australia because it isn't the 25th yet in America, that doesn't really make sense, Amazon and other large American based online companies do not operate like that.

And Valve does. That's all there is too it. And yes, Steam "China" is run by the same people that run "Steam Europe" and "Steam America". It's the office in Seattle.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by cinedine:

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

I understand that, can you tell me why Steam can't have region specific launch times? The game is still locked in Australia because it isn't the 25th yet in America, that doesn't really make sense, Amazon and other large American based online companies do not operate like that.

And Valve does. That's all there is too it. And yes, Steam "China" is run by the same people that run "Steam Europe" and "Steam America". It's the office in Seattle.

^^^^

It's very assuredly the same single office.

If you live in Australia surely you have ... I dunno, NOTICED that the world does not time things to you? Most of the sales, events, new game drops, etc etc - they operate on a very USA-centric time schedule, and more rarely on European.

It has never operated differently. Yes, we all know that you're the first to be in a new day. No, it simply does not matter. It will drop when it drops.




Is this where I also add, "in before "but this game is so short omg it's not worth that!!!" because speeding through it as fast as trying to get it to drop now-now-now"?

[Mikasa Ackerman]

you just need to know when it that time is in your local time ,for me its 7 pm , so unless a publisher manually releases games at the right times , i know i just need to check the store ( library for preorders ) at 7pm

[Alistair]

Games have a release date, when a timezone hits that date it should be available in that time zone, Valve could do this if they wanted to. Why does nobody here understand that? And to the couple people being condescending, you are the ones missing the point, not me. Other online stores like Amazon can do timezones so why not Steam?

[Alistair]

Why do people keep explaining to me how steam works? that it works on one specific time zone for the whole world, i get that, my question is why not scatter releases based on timezones? surely it wouldn't be that difficult to do.,

[cinedine]

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

Other online stores like Amazon can do timezones so why not Steam?

Because they don't want to. Period.
There are pros and cons for both approaches. The main reason why Steam doesn't have staggered releases are people not faking their store region, which will have implications on Valve's tax stuff, and the little fact there is no one working if anything goes wrong with the release and customers have to wait a whole day for someone to fix it.

[BOZO]

legal, quero insígnia

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by RORSCHACH:

Steam makes a fortune, start offering better service before EPIC becomes a real threat.

Read that sentence carefully and see where the problem is.

As far your question as to why, just as cinedine said it's because they don't want to.