Steam users have been hit with staggering price hikes in some regions. Many believe Valve’s store interface has been made too expensive for them…

Steam users in Argentina and Turkey were hit like a cold shower by the portal’s latest wave of price increases. The unpleasant price changes stem from Steam’s recent decision to regionalize game prices in some countries. This fundamentally changes the way some users pay for products.

The move itself occurred due to the consistently wild – but usually downward – fluctuations in the exchange rates of the currencies now targeted by the new policy.

The value of the Argentine peso, for example, fell from $0.00991 in November 2021 to $0.00281 two years later, a 71% drop. Meanwhile, the Turkish lira fell from $0.0742 to $0.0347 over the same period, a more than 53% drop. As a result, game developers who wanted to maintain their profit margins had to adjust their prices constantly to keep up with fluctuations.

Steam game prices in Argentina have increased by up to 4300%!

Valve’s new regional pricing policy went into effect on November 20. Thus, users in Argentina and Turkey will have to pay for addresses in US dollars instead of the local currency. This move raised the prices of countless Steam games. In Argentina, the price increase ranged from about 5% for Hades to nearly 4,300% for Civilization 6. However, some select titles, such as Football Manager 2024 and Diablo IV, have reduced their prices as part of the change. But only because the publishers set the new regional pricing manually.

Can game developers and publishers still save the day?

The fact that many companies haven’t decided on the new regional pricing has prompted Steam to base their Argentina and Turkey listings on at least half of US prices. At least, according to some developers. They turned to social media to give more context to these unpleasant changes.

Based on the aforementioned reports, the current price increases may ease in the coming days as more developers and publishers realize what has happened and adjust their regional listings to make them more affordable for players in Argentina and Turkey.

Meanwhile, many people in affected areas say they’ve been effectively barred from buying games on Steam. According to the World Salaries database, calculated at the November 2023 exchange rate, the average salary in Argentina and Turkey is currently 126 and 277 dollars, respectively. Now, consumers are effectively being asked to spend up to a week’s earnings on a single new PC game at half the typical US price. Therefore, it is unsurprising that many people do not spend more money on Steam.

Steam’s rival, the Epic Games Store, has so far not indicated that it intends to follow suit with a similar regional pricing policy. Thus, for the time being, the Fortnite creator’s store is a significantly more favourable alternative for Argentine and Turkish PC players.

Source: Reddit, World Salaries

Insane comparison prices of Argentinan steam before and after currency change
byu/Relative-Hat-1987 inSteam