Discussion to add Lebanese Pound to Steam

[MassiveMario]

Hello everyone.

I am not sure if you already know, but ever since the end of 2019, Lebanon has been in an ongoing financial crisis. I know most of you don't care about that and all, but everything priced in USD has been extremely difficult for people here to buy, especially with banks closing and denying all requests to open a new bank account, there are a few ways of buying steam gift cards, but even with all that, steam games are still VERY expensive. For example, a normal job pays around 10$ a day, so Imagine working 6 days just to buy 1 game for 60$, that is if you are not spending any money on gas, food, etc...

I don't want to talk too much in details about it, now that everyone has an idea, but here's a reddit post submitted to r/Lebanon which got the attention of many Lebanese gamers, and I hope we could make it possible so that the Lebanese Lira could be potentially added to steam one day.

Here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/14sd28r/to_all_gamers_in_or_outside_of_lebanon_we_need_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

I sincerely hope we can make this happen, hopefully with the help of the steam community. Adding the Lebanese Lira will help everyone, and it does not have any negative side effects (at least that I could think about). Please, do check out the reddit post.

Thank you!

[rawWwRrr]

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/lebanon-trade-financing

Lebanon’s banks are insolvent.

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/lebanon-market-challenges

Insolvent banks have banned most overseas transfers, meaning that U.S. and other international firms cannot transfer any profits earned overseas. Many U.S. companies have complained about millions of dollars’ worth of deposits – which are impaired and unrecoverable in their current form – stuck in the local financial system.

In order for Valve to accept Lebanon currency, they would need to have a business entity in Lebanon and a bank there to accept those payments. And as you can see, even if they accepted payments into Lebanese banks, they are prevented from taking those deposits out of the country. Every sale would be lost money. Maybe one day they would be able to collect that money but that day is uncertain. Between then and now they'd have to front the money themselves to the publishers for each game sold. Until Lebanon's financial system is stabilized, there probably won't be any consideration to accept Lira.

[Dennis]

> Until Lebanon's financial system is stabilized, there probably won't be any consideration to accept Lira.

Okay...I'm not a financial or bank expert but hear me out. What if we lowered the price of games in USD? You know instead of a new big budget game being sold for 60$, maybe it should be 30$?

Or a game on sale being 12$. For 6-8$ it would be the perfect price for someone with the average Lebanese income (which is less than 2000$ or even 1000$ for the majority).

I haven't bought a game other than Portal and Left 4 Dead since last year because the LBP currency has lost tons of its value since then, and these two games were less than 2$ on sale.

Even for the games I desire the most, it's difficult to justify dropping 30$ "discount price" on them when 30$ can get me a month's worth of food. These steam summer sales do nothing for me because a game I want, even discounted for 12 bucks, makes up 15% of my own current source income.

Again, not a financial expert. But the Lebanese store has always been as much as a US or European store with little to no difference. It made sense prior to the crisis because the currency was """strong"""" and matched the stronger global currencies despite it belonging to a small state.

Obviously that's not the case anymore. And the LBP still doesn't deserve to be accepted, but a little bit of price slashing would bring in a portion of Lebanese gamers back to purchasing.

Make the brand new full-priced 60$ games 30$ or at least 40$. Have the games discounted for 12$ be 6$ or at least 8 or 9.

Yeah, why not have the discounts in our stores steep? 80% discount would be a perfect fit for money savers to go on a shopping spree. Probably not going to be a lot like it used to obviously, but it would be way, way better than now.

[Crazy Tiger]

hyber님이 먼저 게시:

What if we lowered the price of games in USD? You know instead of a new big budget game being sold for 60$, maybe it should be 30$?

Or a game on sale being 12$. For 6-8$ it would be the perfect price for someone with the average Lebanese income (which is less than 2000$ or even 1000$ for the majority).

hyber님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah, why not have the discounts in our stores steep? 80% discount would be a perfect fit for money savers to go on a shopping spree. Probably not going to be a lot like it used to obviously, but it would be way, way better than now.

Game developers/publishers set the prices and discounts, not Steam.

As long as the financial system in your country is as it is, don't expect your currency to be added. Even when it's stabilised, that can still take a while. There is a whole line of currencies to be added, Valve will add them as it goes.
Just keep in mind that your market might not be the priority you hope it is.

[Notorious H8]

I think it's a good idea if it does work. Prices have changed so much in the past couple of years and the situation is terrible. I hope we could get a solution like in Turkey and Argentina.

[MassiveMario]

rawWwRrr님이 먼저 게시:

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/lebanon-trade-financing

Lebanon’s banks are insolvent.

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/lebanon-market-challenges

Insolvent banks have banned most overseas transfers, meaning that U.S. and other international firms cannot transfer any profits earned overseas. Many U.S. companies have complained about millions of dollars’ worth of deposits – which are impaired and unrecoverable in their current form – stuck in the local financial system.

In order for Valve to accept Lebanon currency, they would need to have a business entity in Lebanon and a bank there to accept those payments. And as you can see, even if they accepted payments into Lebanese banks, they are prevented from taking those deposits out of the country. Every sale would be lost money. Maybe one day they would be able to collect that money but that day is uncertain. Between then and now they'd have to front the money themselves to the publishers for each game sold. Until Lebanon's financial system is stabilized, there probably won't be any consideration to accept Lira.

But what about the turkish lira then? I'm not sure about their banks, but if their lira isn't stable and still going down, how can they have their own currency? I know turkey is a big country, but i'm just wondering if the banks here allow steam to collect their money, would the non stopping downfall of the lira make it impossible to get the currency on the platform?

[PIP]

Its hard to belive that some guys can see their salary on a game price tag.

[MassiveMario]

PIP님이 먼저 게시:

Its hard to belive that some guys can see their salary on a game price tag.

took me back 2 years when i worked an entire month full time to get a razer deathadder v2
still the same now.

[Nithragal]

Yall are high af.

[Tax Evader]

I fully agree ( I CAN'T PLAY GAMES WITH MY LEB FRIENDS BCZ PRICES ARE TOO MUCH)

[nullable]

Regional pricing and such is nice and all. But I don't think it exists to help volatile currencies cope. So I wouldn't hold my breath over Valve adding it while your currency is struggling and in crisis.

I somehow don't think Valve wants another Argentina/Turkey so I don't think they'll go out of their way to add a currency in the same boat.

[SICTOM]

100% need that in lebanon considering the crisis, it doesnt have to be way cheaper but any lowering in prices for lebanon would help and encourage a lot of people to invest more money in steam.

[nullable]

Well Valve didn't forget Lebanon exists, so at the moment it seems like they have the system they want.