Valve increases Steam recommended regional prices, with Turkey and Argentina up over 450%
Valve has improved its pricing tool for Steam to help developers better manage selling their games in different currencies. The company also updated its recommendations, with significant price increases in certain regions.
In a new blog post, Valve noted that the updated pricing tool makes it easier to control the timing of price changes and manage game prices in all 39 currencies supported by Steam.
Developers can now review their prices for different errors. “For instance, if you accidentally typed in a price of €500 when the rest of your currency prices are closer to €5,” Valve explained.
The company recently pledged to update its regional pricing recommendations more frequently to reflect economic changes. You can find more information about how this system works in our report.
Valve detailed all the changes in a video on YouTube, showing how the updated pricing tool works.
How has recommended regional prices changed?
Update (October 26): Some publishers, including Valve and Devolver Digital, have already adjusted regional prices for their games in line with new recommendations.
Steam increased recommended regional prices in almost all countries, except Kuwait, Israel, Costa Rica, Singapore, UAE, and the ones using the US dollar.
It is worth noting that Valve takes the base price in US dollars and adjusts it for other regions based on exchange rates, purchasing power parity in certain countries, and other factors.
When looking at the standard $59.99 price (used for most AAA releases), Argentina and Turkey experienced the biggest increases. According to SteamDB, recommended prices in these regions rose by 485% and 454% to ARS$3,800 (up from ARS$649,99) and ₺510 (up from ₺92), respectively.
Recommended regional prices for $60 games also significantly increased in Kazakhstan (up 97%), India (up 85%), Indonesia (up 80%), Russia (up 75%), Norway (up 63%), and Ukraine (up 61%).
Steam recommended regional pricing for a $59.99 game (Currency → Old price → New price → Difference)
It is worth noting that developers and publishers are free to decide what prices to set for their games in different countries. Valve just offers its recommendations. However, players will definitely get more expensive games, especially the ones from AAA publishers, due to the weakening of some currencies against the US dollar, as well as other economic and geopolitical factors.
All changes for each price point in the Steam matrix (from $0.99 to $199.99) can be found here.
