Is (Turkish) Lira a bad currency? (Now designated under: MENA-US Dollar).

[Shadow-79]

At one point, the Lira (₺ / TL) was supported for regional pricing but not anymore either due to people taking advantage on how "cheap" game prices were in Turkey or simply because of inflation since the currency is extremely volatile never having a fixed exchange rate. (Now games over there are priced in USD).

It's the same with Argentina too, as the Peso (ARS$) has been replaced with LATAM-US Dollar which basically rips off people living there who want to buy games using their own currency paying in Pesos, but that is no longer the case since they have to deal with being charged in USD.

[Brian9824]

It was changed because the value of the Lira fluctuated so much that it was extremely difficult for developers to price their games. If they wanted to price it at say the equivalent of $5 in Lira then one day it might be $5, the next day it might be $3, then $8, then $2, etc

So its priced in USD which is stable, but it still has its own price that can be set that is different then the US price.

So if 100 lira = $1, the only difference is if a game is $5 instead of being priced at 500 lira, its priced at $5. The issue is many developers never updated their prices after they did the change so it defaulted to a higher price.

[ReBoot]

Well, yeah, extremely volatile currencies mean catering to that market specifically doesn't pay off. Exchange rates, price adjustments, all of this costs more (time, money & nerves), the more volatile a currency is.

Funny thing is, I remember a poster defending the Turkish government tooth and nail while also complaining about said volatile currency.

[nullable]

İlk olarak Shadow-79 tarafından gönderildi:

Is (Turkish) Lira a bad currency? (Now designated under: MENA-US Dollar).

It's a currency that many foreign entities would rather not deal with. If that falls under your a definition of bad, then the answer is yes.

İlk olarak Shadow-79 tarafından gönderildi:

At one point, the Lira (₺ / TL) was supported for regional pricing but not anymore either due to people taking advantage on how "cheap" game prices were in Turkey or simply because of inflation since the currency is extremely volatile never having a fixed exchange rate. (Now games over there are priced in USD).

It's the same with Argentina too, as the Peso (AR$) has been replaced with LATAM-US Dollar which basically rips off people living there who want to buy games using their own currency paying in Pesos, but that is no longer the case since they have to deal with being charged in USD.

The lira and peso are volatile low value currencies that were a burden on developers and publishers to deal with. The MENA and LATM regions address that by shifting the burden onto the currencies users.

If you want to look at it as being ripped off, just remember that the issues you have with the burden being on you were carried by developers and publishers previously. Why exactly should they be getting ripped off for the privilege of having to accept crummy low value currencies that rapidly lose value? And given a choice who should bear that burden, I don't think it's unfair for the currency users to bear it.

End of the day no one is being forced to buy PC games on Steam. If you don't like the pricing set on Steam, then shop at another store that's more favorable to using your currency.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

You can read the official FAQ...

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

And the Steamworks Partner announcement...

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/3728476412305766958

[RPG Gamer Man]

unfortanetly, many VPN users were also abusing the price in turkey to try to buy cheaper games. This also effected the sales on steam, so steam changed it to usd, not only for stability of the currency, but also because of abuse by steam users finding a loophole to get cheaper games using bypass region vpn's.

So i would say it is partially the people using vpn's to abuse regional bypass pricing and half for stability.

[Brian9824]

İlk olarak RPG Gamer Man tarafından gönderildi:

unfortanetly, many VPN users were also abusing the price in turkey to try to buy cheaper games. This also effected the sales on steam, so steam changed it to usd, not only for stability of the currency, but also because of abuse by steam users finding a loophole to get cheaper games using bypass region vpn's.

So i would say it is partially the people using vpn's to abuse regional bypass pricing and half for stability.

That really wasn't a factor, VPN's haven't been an issue for the store for YEARS now. The change had nothing to with region hoping, it was because of the exchange rates and difficulty pricing the games and having them stay at that price

[Heraclius Caesar]

İlk olarak Shadow-79 tarafından gönderildi:

Is (Turkish) Lira a bad currency?

Yes.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Its an extremely weak and volatile currency anyway. Id agree that makes it "bad".