Steam store for Egypt any time soon?

[Linky]

I have been actively purchasing from steam since 2019 and so far I have been paying in USD (which has always been very high price btw) because steam store does not exist for Egypt, unlike Google play and MS store, so it just defaults to the US one..

The problem is recently all banks in my country started suspending all international purchases with local EGP accounts, which is like 99% of us lol, and I can't just make a USD account and call it for the day, because one, it's not the easiest thing to create, two, I don't have "physical" $ and I can't even convert from EGP to USD because the economical situation in my country doesn't allow so..

It would be a really great move from Valve to consider us, a lot people buy from Egypt, I know it doesn't sound like it, but it's true, I alone have over 92 paid games and lots of account transactions over the years, and it would be really sad for things to end like this..

I really don't want to go with second hand options like buying keys from sketchy websites or having to buy overpriced physical gift cards (which will get even more overpriced soon) but I guess it may be our only options until valve considers us or banks to start allowing international purchases again (which if ever happens would take awhile)

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

引用自 Linky：

引用自 Mad Scientist：

additionally since the currency is not worth very much at all, the chances of prices being adjusted is not likely to happen as Developers like to get paid, and there is a minimum purchase amount now.

Turkey's currency is not very valuable too, but valve supports it, pricing is super cheap there, and it doesn't have to be low price, they can just allow the currency but charge the same amount as if it was USD

Not offering payment in EGP is the problem, and after what the banks did recently the 0.1% will become 0%

Turkey had their currency added ages ago...

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/184967501170366425

...long before the global economic crisis, covid, the war and their government destroyed its value.

[Linky]

引用自 Ghost Rider：

引用自 Linky：

Turkey's currency is not very valuable too, but valve supports it, pricing is super cheap there, and it doesn't have to be low price, they can just allow the currency but charge the same amount as if it was USD

Not offering payment in EGP is the problem, and after what the banks did recently the 0.1% will become 0%

Turkey's currency is not valuable but turkish userbase definitely is.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/steam-users-by-country

According to this map, Turkish steam userbase is 2.8M while Egypt is only 163.8K which is a huge difference. Beside. Valve recently updated all currencies. So new prices are not that low. Half price at best. And except for indie developers, nobody uses steam recommended prices anyway.

I don't think that would worth the investment. But obviously that is up to Valve to decide and not us.

I understand that our country userbase is not very valuable to them, but we are still customers and still higher than a lot of other countries from the total steam userbase, I mean even the UAE is supported while having less userbase than us

And as I said multiple times above, it doesn't have to be cheaper.. they can just charge the same exchange rate of USD but as EGP so 1USD = 30.93 EGP, I don't see how they can lose anything like that, and it has always been like this anyways, because steam is not supported here, it just defaults to the US store, all purchases I made before were in USD, so we were not losing them anything..

Also just another fact about turkey userbase, not all of them actually live in turkey, a lot of people decided to make accounts on turkey via VPNs so they get advantages of the lower price, I even know some people here in my country who did this, but I never did such move and just paid in USD anyways, so users from Egypt that actually stick to the US store were giving valve more money and not losing them anything, they can still keep it like this, but just support the currency, same exchange rate as USD, I don't see how you can lose anything by doing this..

If they did not consider us, the 163.8K will become 0 lol, almost no one can make international purchases here anymore due to the recent move by banks here, something we cannot change by "talking to the government" that's how it is and we have to deal with it, so it would be great if valve considers our existence by supporting the currency while having the same exchange rate as USD so they don't lose anything and in fact, benefits them as it's just more income

[.]

If it were up to me, Steam would only be available in purely democratic countries.

[Linky]

引用自 Garbage：

If it were up to me, Steam would only be available in purely democratic countries.

This is a very controversial opinion you have 👀
In my opinion it should not matter which country you live in, steam is selling to normal customers, not governments lol, it's just digital goods (mostly at least)

Actually, steam should probably care about them more, because people living in such countries want to improve and develop, for example, in my case, I honestly created my steam account because mainly i'm a PC guy and wanted to try out some games, but it quickly developed to more than just that, I bought some general software like game engines mainly as a hobby, this developed even more to one of the engines I bought to be used in my current main job..

So it's not really about the country, as long as they are customers and not losing you anything, you should support them regardless of the race, we are all equal after all lol

Also yea I understand that my country is not exactly democratic, it's anything but that (I won't say much because I don't want to get myself into trouble lol) but this is generally not related to the topic..

It's funny how the discussion developed from me suggesting a currency to political real quick lol

[76561198407601200]

引用自 Garbage：

If it were up to me, Steam would only be available in purely democratic countries.

Thankfully nothing in steam is based on your decisions. Blocked.

[Pocahawtness]

引用自 Linky：

I have been actively purchasing from steam since 2019 and so far I have been paying in USD (which has always been very high price btw) because steam store does not exist for Egypt, unlike Google play and MS store, so it just defaults to the US one..

The problem is recently all banks in my country started suspending all international purchases with local EGP accounts, which is like 99% of us lol, and I can't just make a USD account and call it for the day, because one, it's not the easiest thing to create, two, I don't have "physical" $ and I can't even convert from EGP to USD because the economical situation in my country doesn't allow so..

It would be a really great move from Valve to consider us, a lot people buy from Egypt, I know it doesn't sound like it, but it's true, I alone have over 92 paid games and lots of account transactions over the years, and it would be really sad for things to end like this..

I really don't want to go with second hand options like buying keys from sketchy websites or having to buy overpriced physical gift cards (which will get even more overpriced soon) but I guess it may be our only options until valve considers us or banks to start allowing international purchases again (which if ever happens would take awhile)

I am honestly surprised it doesn't exist for Egypt. Why is gaming so unpopular in Egypt, or is that "fake news"? I thought it was pretty popular the world over?

I guess it's only a question Steam can answer. I wonder if there are any local laws that are an issue?

[Linky]

引用自 Scary👻Pocah：

I am honestly surprised it doesn't exist for Egypt. Why is gaming so unpopular in Egypt, or is that "fake news"? I thought it was pretty popular the world over?

It's kinda popular, of course not all play legally, but there is an amount of (including me of course) who prefer getting there games\software legally..

There could be more users who buy games on steam here if it was actually more accessible, you always had to pay in USD which is very high value compared to our currency, and have a credit\depit card capable of international transactions (recently banks suspended international payments anyways, so even that is not an option anymore)

Thing is, if valve doesn't add the currency to there list, they will lose all of us, and we have to go to second hand options like buying gift cards and keys from 3rd party websites

I think it's really easy and will not cost anything to them to add our currency, developers can just charge the same exchange rate as USD and no one will lose anything

[Ghost Rider]

引用自 Linky：

引用自 Ghost Rider：

Turkey's currency is not valuable but turkish userbase definitely is.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/steam-users-by-country

According to this map, Turkish steam userbase is 2.8M while Egypt is only 163.8K which is a huge difference. Beside. Valve recently updated all currencies. So new prices are not that low. Half price at best. And except for indie developers, nobody uses steam recommended prices anyway.

I don't think that would worth the investment. But obviously that is up to Valve to decide and not us.

I understand that our country userbase is not very valuable to them, but we are still customers and still higher than a lot of other countries from the total steam userbase, I mean even the UAE is supported while having less userbase than us

And as I said multiple times above, it doesn't have to be cheaper.. they can just charge the same exchange rate of USD but as EGP so 1USD = 30.93 EGP, I don't see how they can lose anything like that, and it has always been like this anyways, because steam is not supported here, it just defaults to the US store, all purchases I made before were in USD, so we were not losing them anything..

Also just another fact about turkey userbase, not all of them actually live in turkey, a lot of people decided to make accounts on turkey via VPNs so they get advantages of the lower price, I even know some people here in my country who did this, but I never did such move and just paid in USD anyways, so users from Egypt that actually stick to the US store were giving valve more money and not losing them anything, they can still keep it like this, but just support the currency, same exchange rate as USD, I don't see how you can lose anything by doing this..

If they did not consider us, the 163.8K will become 0 lol, almost no one can make international purchases here anymore due to the recent move by banks here, something we cannot change by "talking to the government" that's how it is and we have to deal with it, so it would be great if valve considers our existence by supporting the currency while having the same exchange rate as USD so they don't lose anything and in fact, benefits them as it's just more income

Turkish userbase is actually pretty high. It's always been high even before Steam added currency support and that's why Steam added Turkish currency. Low price thing and VPN users are a recent thing and it has no effect over currency support.

[Linky]

All I wish is valve to consider us because options are very limited right now after the recent events..

[HikariLight]

引用自 Ghost Rider：

引用自 Linky：

I understand that our country userbase is not very valuable to them, but we are still customers and still higher than a lot of other countries from the total steam userbase, I mean even the UAE is supported while having less userbase than us

And as I said multiple times above, it doesn't have to be cheaper.. they can just charge the same exchange rate of USD but as EGP so 1USD = 30.93 EGP, I don't see how they can lose anything like that, and it has always been like this anyways, because steam is not supported here, it just defaults to the US store, all purchases I made before were in USD, so we were not losing them anything..

Also just another fact about turkey userbase, not all of them actually live in turkey, a lot of people decided to make accounts on turkey via VPNs so they get advantages of the lower price, I even know some people here in my country who did this, but I never did such move and just paid in USD anyways, so users from Egypt that actually stick to the US store were giving valve more money and not losing them anything, they can still keep it like this, but just support the currency, same exchange rate as USD, I don't see how you can lose anything by doing this..

If they did not consider us, the 163.8K will become 0 lol, almost no one can make international purchases here anymore due to the recent move by banks here, something we cannot change by "talking to the government" that's how it is and we have to deal with it, so it would be great if valve considers our existence by supporting the currency while having the same exchange rate as USD so they don't lose anything and in fact, benefits them as it's just more income

Turkish userbase is actually pretty high. It's always been high even before Steam added currency support and that's why Steam added Turkish currency. Low price thing and VPN users are a recent thing and it has no effect over currency support.

The Turkish currency was also at a higher value when it was first added too.
After the current leadership got elected, the value plummeted due to their decisions.

[HikariLight]

引用自 Linky：

引用自 Scary👻Pocah：

I am honestly surprised it doesn't exist for Egypt. Why is gaming so unpopular in Egypt, or is that "fake news"? I thought it was pretty popular the world over?

It's kinda popular, of course not all play legally, but there is an amount of (including me of course) who prefer getting there games\software legally..

There could be more users who buy games on steam here if it was actually more accessible, you always had to pay in USD which is very high value compared to our currency, and have a credit\depit card capable of international transactions (recently banks suspended international payments anyways, so even that is not an option anymore)

Thing is, if valve doesn't add the currency to there list, they will lose all of us, and we have to go to second hand options like buying gift cards and keys from 3rd party websites

I think it's really easy and will not cost anything to them to add our currency, developers can just charge the same exchange rate as USD and no one will lose anything

1 Egyptian pound is equal to 0.032 USD.
The games devs would lose a ton of money, as compared to USD, the Egyptian pound is worth less than 4 cents.

[haytham.med]

You can also add fawry pay options or Meeza card to payment options, that would suffice.
These are local payment options used in Egypt.

[Linky]

引用自 HikariLight：

引用自 Linky：

It's kinda popular, of course not all play legally, but there is an amount of (including me of course) who prefer getting there games\software legally..

There could be more users who buy games on steam here if it was actually more accessible, you always had to pay in USD which is very high value compared to our currency, and have a credit\depit card capable of international transactions (recently banks suspended international payments anyways, so even that is not an option anymore)

Thing is, if valve doesn't add the currency to there list, they will lose all of us, and we have to go to second hand options like buying gift cards and keys from 3rd party websites

I think it's really easy and will not cost anything to them to add our currency, developers can just charge the same exchange rate as USD and no one will lose anything

1 Egyptian pound is equal to 0.032 USD.
The games devs would lose a ton of money, as compared to USD, the Egyptian pound is worth less than 4 cents.

I think a lot of people did not read my posts carefully, I said multiple times, that it shouldn't be priced like this, it wouldn't make any sense

They can charge the same exchange rate of USD, so 1USD = 30.93EGP, they will not be losing anything like that

[Linky]

引用自 haytham.med：

You can also add fawry pay options or Meeza card to payment options, that would suffice.
These are local payment options used in Egypt.

Sorry but what do you mean? They are not an option for me, I only have options to pay in Mastercard, PayPal, Visa..etc

I always paid with Mastercard, they always allowed international payments, but recently all banks suspended international purchases with foreign currencies, so I can no longer buy from steam unless:
- Valve decides to add our currency
- Buying gift cards\keys from 3rd party websites, usually very overpriced and not the safest thing

[haytham.med]

I was asking Steam that this option was available too, to add these cards to the payment methods like Amazon did

Btw: i'm not sure if vodafone/etisalat virtual credit cards will work