Swiss francs comming to steam - Thank you !

[Alzzary]

So, I just received the following mail :

"Dear Steam User,

Steam will soon be priced in Swiss Francs!

If your Steam wallet has any money in it on November 17th, 2015, your U.S. Dollar balance will be converted to Francs, at a conversion rate dictated by market value at the time of conversion.

To view your account balance, simply log into your Steam client or the Steam website at http://www.steampowered.com. Once you have logged in, you will see your balance in the upper-right corner next to your account name.

Thanks,

The Steam Support Team"

First, I would like to thank Valve for this simple but useful feature.

But not only. This was the first time I received an e-mail that was translated in our 3 main national languages (german, french, italian). For more than 10 years I always had video games company sending me e-mails in german when they didn't know if I was french, italian or german speaking (hello Wargaming, hello SOE, hello Nvidia, hello Gaijin...etc) and I would like to simply thank you for taking your time and making this very simple - but very kind - effort : knowing that not all swiss people speak german.

[Nara_Kataq]

"Steam will soon be priced in Swiss Francs!"

That's what's in my email and it obviously means the store. Steam is a store, not just a wallet. The 2nd part of the email is clarifying details about the wallet.

[zepisco83]

引用自 Nara / Kataq：

"Steam will soon be priced in Swiss Francs!"

That's what's in my email and it obviously means the store. Steam is a store, not just a wallet. The 2nd part of the email is clarifying details about the wallet.

That s what i was saying the date of the steam store update to CHF is not mentionned in the mail, 17th november was just concerning the steam wallet funds conversion.

[Child Prodigy]

You're right, these simple gestures can make a huge difference!

[Nara_Kataq]

I stand corrected, you are right Zepisco83.

[Linerax]

OT but the Franc part of the currency is related to France historically?

[RavusNox]

So... Let's see. I buyed Fallout 4 for 59,99€ before the change, thats 65,23 CHF and now the new price tag on Steam is 74,00 CHF.

So lets see 74,00 CHF = 68,06€

We need to pay nearly 10.00 CHF more now for a Digital Version of the Game, Retail/Box Games costs on http://www.wog.ch/ (one of the bigger stores in switzerland) same price.

But we get the Retail/Box Version, now we need to pay the same price for a Digital Version...

[RavusNox]

引用自 Linerax：

OT but the Franc part of the currency is related to France historically?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franc

The franc (₣) is the name of several currency units. The French franc was the former currency of France until the euro was adopted in 1999 (by law, 2002 de facto). The Swiss franc is a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription francorum rex (Style of the French sovereign: King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century, or from the French franc, meaning "free" (and "frank").

The countries that use francs include Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and most of Francophone Africa. Before the introduction of the euro, francs were also used in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, while Andorra and Monaco accepted the French franc as legal tender (Monegasque franc). The franc was also used within the French Empire's colonies, including Algeria and Cambodia. The franc is sometimes italianised or hispanicised as the franco, for instance in Luccan franco.

One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The French franc symbol was an F with a line through it (₣) or, more frequently, only an F. For practical reasons, the banks and the financial markets used the abbreviation FF for the French franc in order to distinguish it from the Belgian franc (FB), the Luxembourgish franc (FL or FLux) etcetera. (In the Luxembourgish language, the word for franc is Frang, plural form Frangen.)

[Satoru]

引用自 Reflectia ~Eufonius~ (Sonarok)：

So... Let's see. I buyed Fallout 4 for 59,99€ before the change, thats 65,23 CHF and now the new price tag on Steam is 74,00 CHF.

So lets see 74,00 CHF = 68,06€

We need to pay nearly 10.00 CHF more now for a Digital Version of the Game, Retail/Box Games costs on http://www.wog.ch/ (one of the bigger stores in switzerland) same price.

But we get the Retail/Box Version, now we need to pay the same price for a Digital Version...

Does WOG charge VAT at checkout?

ALso note that Fallout 4 is a bizarre outlier for pricing in almost all regions right now. Looking at other AAA titles

Football Manager 16 - 48 Steam/60 WOG
Black OPs 3 - 59 Steam/59 WOG
Fallout 4 season pass - 33 Steam/35WOG

[Radioactive]

引用自 Satoru：

Does WOG charge VAT at checkout?

Swiss consumer prices for pretty much anything always include VAT, due to the "Preisbekanntgabeverordnung" law that we have here. It's only the enterprise goods and services as well as individual contract offers (custom-made furniture and the like) that don't have to include VAT in prices, but retail basically has to make things simple and include VAT.


By the way, our VAT should make our prices ~12% cheaper than EU prices. We have got 8% VAT, the Eurozone averages around 20% (right?).


I'd have liked to celebrate no longer having to pay currency conversion fees on the credit card and the lower VAT, but the price hikes we got instead aren't such a very nice surprise.

[I.D]

xxx

[Sliverik]

Wait wait wait!
I could understand a higher price on some games, because the game companies would think "Make swiss citizen pay more!", but why would some companies refuse to sell in switzerland? I checked my wish list, and three games (Stanley's Parable, Devil's Bluff and Divinity: Original Sin) were actually showing no price at all: I can't buy them anymore!

Concerning the price conversion, I will always check online how much the games cost on other websites now, because it may be cheaper to buy in euros or dollars...

Edit:
I checked random games on the store, and some of them appear to be actually cheaper in swiss francs! Chaos Reborn, for example, is 19CHF while it costs 19.99€! It's not a huge price cut, but if you consider that it should be actually 21.7CHF to be equal... I'm ready to buy games like Fallout 4 on different platforms if it means that some indie games (which I enjoy a lot) can be bought for cheaper!
The final test will be the winter sales...

[Black Blade]

引用自 Sliverik：

Wait wait wait!
I could understand a higher price on some games, because the game companies would think "Make swiss citizen pay more!", but why would some companies refuse to sell in switzerland? I checked my wish list, and three games (Stanley's Parable, Devil's Bluff and Divinity: Original Sin) were actually showing no price at all: I can't buy them anymore!

Concerning the price conversion, I will always check online how much the games cost on other websites now, because it may be cheaper to buy in euros or dollars...

Edit:
I checked random games on the store, and some of them appear to be actually cheaper in swiss francs! Chaos Reborn, for example, is 19CHF while it costs 19.99€! It's not a huge price cut, but if you consider that it should be actually 21.7CHF to be equal... I'm ready to buy games like Fallout 4 on different platforms if it means that some indie games (which I enjoy a lot) can be bought for cheaper!
The final test will be the winter sales...

When publishers do not set a price it's not sold there up to when they do
They had to do it some time ago, so now you need to wait for them to set the price before you can buy

[zepisco83]

And it as started, Fallout 4 74CHF let the exploit begin. A digital product costs more today than a physical CD or DVD 10 years ago, and i am not even counting DLC or season passes or micro transactions or premium editions. Even the steam sales are not the same, AAA titles are rarely on sales now, when you look at the promotions list 90% of the games are indie games or games you never heard of.

[zepisco83]

引用自 Radioactive：

引用自 Satoru：

Does WOG charge VAT at checkout?

Swiss consumer prices for pretty much anything always include VAT, due to the "Preisbekanntgabeverordnung" law that we have here. It's only the enterprise goods and services as well as individual contract offers (custom-made furniture and the like) that don't have to include VAT in prices, but retail basically has to make things simple and include VAT.


By the way, our VAT should make our prices ~12% cheaper than EU prices. We have got 8% VAT, the Eurozone averages around 20% (right?).


I'd have liked to celebrate no longer having to pay currency conversion fees on the credit card and the lower VAT, but the price hikes we got instead aren't such a very nice surprise.

Unfortunatelly you are correct. The crazy thing is if you buy a game on "Pinguin" you don' t even have to pay the 8% VAT because in the site Switzerland is not considered an EU country ( which is correct nonetheless)

But i am not surprised at all, this is what i expected to happen when i received the mail.

[Black Blade]

引用自 zepisco83：

And it as started, Fallout 4 74CHF let the exploit begin. A digital product costs more today than a physical CD or DVD 10 years ago, and i am not even counting DLC or season passes or micro transactions or premium editions. Even the steam sales are not the same, AAA titles are rarely on sales now, when you look at the promotions list 90% of the games are indie games or games you never heard of.

Well I will take a wicked guess that 80% or higher amount of games on Steam are Indie or once you never heard of..
So it's likely you have them more on sale then AAA games