It’s not regional pricing that GOG abolished, it was their “fair exchange rate” sort of deal they had where you got money back based on exchange rates. When a publisher set the prices through them to be $60 in the us and 60€ in EU they would dip into their own pockets and give you ~5€ back in gog credit. That’s the program they discontinued earlier this year.
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That’s certainly a change of pace in the discussion. Merry Christmas as cheers to your mom.
Makes me reflect on how fucked Brazil is. Our minimum wage has not been adjusted to reflect the inflation for around the last 20 years or so iirc.
Some of our most renowned economists (such as Ladislau Dowbor, who worked in the United Nations and wrote the brilliant and elucidating “A Era do Capital Improdutivo”) argue it should be at least TWICE what it currently is to ensure families can EAT and pay their bills with dignity. So where it’s currently $240 it should be $480.
GG Brazil.
This is fucked and pisses me off.
One of my most shocking experiences when I travelled to Western Europe was chatting with my friends about wages. But not just wages themselves, but how much things costed compared to their wages.
I remember getting furious at what a small porcentage of their wage would go towards a jug of milk. Meanwhile, even if a poor middle-sized Brazilian family converted their entire month’s wage into the milk they’d need to feed their kids for the month, they wouldn’t be able to cover it.
Yeah, we did the math.
Fuck Capitalism.
Ah, thanks for reminding me of that and for the thorough explanation.
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Selling at reduced prices infrequently or specially is not the same as offering, long term, regional pricing, so that is not an argument against alternative payment methods. I don’t think you understand what I am trying to say here? And several arguments against this has already been put up against you. If you can’t take mine for fact, consider from a business stand point Fraggle’s argument. If they offered games at a considerably lower price in other countries, it would be incentive for people in places where it is expensive to just buy them there (and possible resell them on grey market sites at profit). And that there means a large profit loss for both the company selling them and the devs making them (don’t believe me? Ask a dev how they feel about it). A business is a business first.
And I feel like you are ignoring it at this point, look at GOG (fair pricing (by offering credit back to make up the regional difference), but you get the ppicture, these things are not sustainable) and other examples. They tried and they could not keep up with the increased costs without charging someone, so rather than unfairly charge the user for that cost of keeping it, they got rid of it and kept the DRM-free mindset they are known for.
And I know you never mentioned it, it is important regardless and isn’t “besides the point”. They can’t just put in a payment method and that’s that. Some of these payment methods charges them [stores] to be used. If they have to reach out to all of these countries with said benefits, they have to start offering alternative payment methods for the customer in said countries which charge them a lot of money (which is why I mentioned one Scandinavian country where Steam has to eat costs and lose money). They can either absorb the costs of the charges, lose the costs somewhere in features else/ask the devs if they will absorb the costs (ridiculous but maybe they will) or charge the customer somehow. Steam can afford to do this because absorbing the cost is justified by the profit they make.
Here’s the tweet by Sergey Galyonkin discussing alternative payment methods and how, if they add more, they’d have to start charging you. These payment methods come with regional pricing [hence the context of the tweet thread].
You may then ask why they’d have to start charging customers for that transaction cost. It is because of the price cut in the games they’ve been offering + the regional pricing. A 12% cut was never going to be sustainable and they began to find that out as they branched out. If they put up with the payment methods on top of it, they’d be losing somewhere around 25% on every transaction. That is insane loss for them.
These benefits you want don’t come cheap and like magic. Epic is offering them because they currently can afford to but as shown above, it is becoming way too costly to keep up with it and not even Epic will give you something for free.
I’m just telling you it never works out. One thing gives out and it is always the regional pricing.
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I feel you , but even though that ~400$ might sound like a lot , we also pay same for stuff as Germans or French do whom get something like ~1200$ for a minimum wage.
I’m not THAT familiar with Brazilian history but down here we have really clear culprit for our economical situation and in part i’m sure Brazil was also kissed by ‘socialist dream’ …
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This is so funny. You keep talking about alternative payment options, which has nothing to do with what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about regional pricing. These alternative payment options are not present atm either, yet they charge $60 for the games through paypal and credit cards.
I’m talking about regional pricing with the same payment options.
It says enough that EA, out of all people, is doing it on Epic. They would never do it if it wasn’t getting them profit and costing them money instead. (and the same for Epic, I don’t see why it would cost them money instead of making them money using the same payment methods)
Now I’m also done with this discussion.
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I’m not sure what you are trying to say so forgive me if I misunderstand you here.
It isn’t about someone’s narrative. That is just how it is. A business operates with the intent at making a profit. When something begins to lose them money, and a lot of it, it makes no sense for them to continue whatever it is that is losing them money. They also have no obligation to do so.
We can discuss that is not right or whatever for the consumer, but is it right to that business have to pocket massive losses just to offer things at cheaper prices in multiple countries? It seems like a lose-lose. They can try to be the nice guy and offer it, but eventually they have dilemma on their hands, unless somehow they can turn a profit enough to not have to charge someone or make the difference somewhere else. Which is possible, I guess, just never seen it (anyone else?).
You say that consumers still have have to pay for it. That’s true, in many ways, but remember. It is a business first, not your friend. It is rough, but that is just how it is. It has to look at it through that lens first. What matters to it first and foremost is profit. You, as a customer, having to pay more now without them losing much is better than them offering you a better method at reduced cost to their pockets and at a greater loss to them is a much sweeter deal. Not all companies are like this, that’s true, but most are.
Now I’m not arguing against the idea that people should have these options at all, hopefully people don’t get the wrong idea. I’m just stating why most gaming companies don’t offer it, at least for long, and why it doesn’t make sense to the companies themselves to prolong it.
I’ll answer it.
It is about money purely. Once they see it dropping, they don’t see a reason to continue it. May I ask why you think it is a political matter though? I would be curious as to the answer, if you are willing still (saw you said you’re done, so if you don’t that’s fine of course). 
I’m sensing anger here and there is no reason for it.
I’m trying to tell you that alternative payment options does have everything to do with what you are talking about. You not bringing it up doesn’t mean it doesn’t have relevance here. You just don’t seem to be getting it. When you branch out to regional pricing, you begin to offer foreign alternative payment methods for the consumers. Which, a lot of them, charge businesses to use them for. The two goes hand in hand. I even gave you a twitter discussion of Sergei (of Epic, even) discussing regional pricing having this attached to it and how branching out further would require even further alternative payment methods, which would charge them, and would have to be justified by pushing the expenses off to the customer.
I don’t know how else I can explain it to you.
See above.
???
Please go back and re-read my posts. If EA/Origin offers regional pricing, good for them (considering what they turn offer in a year and what they profit in a year, that would be very surprising but hey, I won’t doubt you (especially since Fallen Order just had a huge issue with regional pricing???)) that is besides my argument. I never said there aren’t companies out there with it (and I even just asked if anyone knew of anymore). I clearly even mentioned GOG as an example (well, fair pricing, but it operated in a similar attempt at it so you get the picture) and clearly discussed Epic currently using it (and am discussing how it clearly will not be using it for long). The problem is that most cannot turn a profit with it. And the fact that Sergei on Twitter was openly discussing pushing charges onto customers proves my point exactly.
You not getting it doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost them money. It comes down to if they can beat it with a profit.
Alright then.
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Fallen Order and Control should be awesome…
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to me they should all be awesome, although for quite different reasons respectively
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Smart move. I’ve been here cussing mildly in my mind reading some of the comments.
I live on an island where our Import, Shipping and major Food suppliers are owned by Monopolies. All of the family are pretty much interrelated too - former Plantation owners to boot - now we’re enslaved by people who set prices as they like, with no one able to call them out, because they are literally a vast percentage of the economy.
Also, unlike the average person bringing a little shipping barrel or receiving a box at the Post Office, these companies DO NOT have to pay certain taxes and they get kickbacks in other ways.
Plain and simple - they could afford to charge better prices, but what they would rather do is maintain low wages and make 300% profit (at least) on every unit of stock they sell. Not exaggerating. Ask @Pylinaer why I had to get my computer parts online rather than locally.
The minimum wage here for a cashier, for instance, is $75 USD, per week.
Like @M00, I simply don’t’ buy that “they can’t afford to keep up regional pricing”. Look at it this way: when a company wants to get rid of stock here, prices are reduced by 50 to 75%. Stuff that was not selling at all, gets bought up. Trick is, considering their mark up, they don’t actually lose profit - they just profit less than they would have liked.
If Steam was constantly losing money by hosting 75 to 90% sales, would they keep doing it? Valve has Accountants that would instantly be like: Hell to the NO! Multiple units at lower prices doesn’t lose these companies money - they just gain less profit. Breaking even versus not making sales is still a win for them, if you want to go that far.
Sorry for being a downer but I live this everyday, in my island paradise, that’s only affordable for Simon Cowelll (who I love don’t get me wrong) and other rich folk who can actually own a little piece of Bimshire, without breaking a sweat, or denting their wallets.
Sure, some companies may have business models that don’t make regional pricing viable - I’m no economist or accountant, don’t know. Generally though, it comes down to how much profit companies are willing to settle for - and in a capitalist economy, we all know how that’s gonna go.
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here it’s basically the people wearing khaki who own everything or at least a share in it (on a national or high level, i mean, not talking about small players [although someone is always taking a share somewhere, somehow, cuz otherwise nothing can get done ever]), and nothing much can happen without their consent (apparent or hidden)
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looks at breakpoint ,looks away,leaves the room
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EA/Publishers has the option to set regional pricing on steam however they wish, the better question you should ask is why they don’t -when they can
My guess is steam/epic lumps your country into a regional group, that differs from each platform respectively, and EA just uses it lazily as a default setting instead of actually setting the regional price (if they are even bothered to be aware)
because it’s not that Publishers can’t give you the same price on steam, they just choose not to /shrug
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I know, I know, but by the time I get around to actually playing it, it will be a great game 
(hopefully)
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Steam puts all these countries in “international”, so that will include both really rich Gulf countries as well as really poor countries
There is not one single regionally priced game on Steam where I live, so it’s not EA’s fault. I think we can all agree that really rich countries shouldn’t be sold these games cheaper.
It’s just one example of things Epic are doing better than Steam atm (and yes, I’ll agree it’s one of the very few things, and Steam is so much better on so many levels; ofc I fully agree, but it seems some ppl can’t ever agree they do a single good thing)
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you have the option to put each and every individual country pricing if you want, or use a premade group, you can set individual price or even a catch all price (the latter is what often happens with indie devs that don’t pay attention to regions/individual countries for instance and just enter “20€”-then steam auto converts it to XY currency for the same 20€ output)
the tools are there, publishers just choose to not bother to apply them “correctly”
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This is the part I want to comment on.
Firstly, not all companies operate let alone perform the same, it isn’t about believing it. Thinking that way doesn’t make it true. Secondly, a company sadly doesn’t owe anyone anything. They operate on the business model of making money. A steady, healthy profit. When it is damage, they rethink things.
Lastly, you say they “can afford to lose” like they don’t have a right to what they are earning, and they say “you can afford to lose” like you don’t have a right to what you earning. People are people. They will always look out for themselves. That’s just how it sadly works.
Just like the publisher who set the Fallen Order prices in Russia to 3x the price (and probably more in other countries) simply because they could.
Yes, exactly. It works for a few, but not most. And sadly it looks like Epic is figuring out 12% cut, buying out exclusives, regional pricing + absorbing the 25% transaction fees on alternative payment methods isn’t working out for them.
Good god…per week? 
I’m afraid to even ask what it costs to survive a week.
They definitely choose not to. They did it for Jedi: Fallen Order, purposely jacking up the prices in multiple countries, like Russia. It was somewhere, I believe, around 3500 RUB on Steam, Origin and EGS. 
EDIT
Yep, it definitely was super jacked up on all clients.
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If that were the case, though, don’t u think there’d be at least 1 game on the whole of Steam that would use that function? Why would EA and Ubisoft both do it on Epic’s launcher but not on Steam, for example, nor any other publisher ever, at all, worldwide?
I don’t think it’s possible to assume that’s the actual case.
@Gnuffi I might be wrong, but from what i can find online by googling, there’s absolutely no separate pricing option on Steam for publishers for Africa; they can’t change the price for Africa or any specific country within it
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“Steam is always working with publishers to adjust prices to be in line with what can be found at local retailers and online shops.At this time, we do not have further information regarding prices or change in currency for your specific region.”
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Heh, sigh Steam. I had a talk with customer service lately, that I won’t go into, but finally I stopped getting generic Mail Merge responses, from a human that said: they’d look into the issue, whatever that means, lol.
I don’t consider a 300% markup profit when not paying even paying import taxes, etc, to be anything other than greedy price gouging. The point of a business is to make profit. Yes. Basic. Bleeding people dry, or invoking classicism so that only certain people can obtain x-items, that’s nothing to do with being a business. It’s something else entirely.
I don’t think companies owe me anything. Don’t care if I can’t buy President Choice cookies in the higher brackets supermarkets, but even the regular businesses apply the same principles on what the Financial Minister would call the “Basic basket of goods”. Case in point, the price of Flour is going up next year. Do you know how much more a whole slew of things are going to cost?
I dunno. I thought businesses, though entities in their own right, were owned by human beings. You know, those creatures that are supposed to be above other animals because of such things like conscience, maybe even caring about their fellow man. Stupid me. (Note, lots of sarcasm there)
I hate being misquoted. I never said that. At any point in anything I wrote. You can interpret my post as you like, but please do not misquote me. I super hate it.
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12% is perfectly sustainable. Just look at Xsolla: they only charge 5%, and they don’t even have any of that Fortnite money.
Steam definitely and obviously wants to be a monopoly. Not just because that’s the optimal market for any for-profit firm—their actions in response to Epic prove it.
Not on every transaction, just the transactions from one specific payment provider.
Corporations are not people.
Again, that’s an outlier percentage.
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