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Valve announced on October 25 that it has changed its pricing tools and updated its recommended prices for developers selling games on Steam. A new pricing tool simplifies how developers manage the price of their work.
And when updating the recommended price, it seems that the recommended price in some countries varies a lot. The other day, Valve announced a policy to update its recommended price guidelines more frequently than before, and it appears that it will be addressed immediately (linked article).
* Guide to using the pricing tool. Supports Japanese subtitles
Developers for Steam can use a service provided by Valve that automatically converts prices into the currencies of the 39 countries and regions supported by Steam by setting the price of their work in US dollars. The recommended price above is the converted price. It is not simply converted based on the exchange rate, but is calculated based on the local purchasing power parity, consumer price index, etc. as appropriate with the price of entertainment for general consumers in each country / region. Developers can also set their own prices that differ from the recommended prices.
Mommys Best Games developer reports updated recommended prices. The studio said sales of the Game Type shooter were horrible during sales, but hundreds of copies were sold in Argentina and Turkey. Checked the pricing tool and noticed a new recommended price.
The price of the same work in US dollars is $ 2.99 (about 445 yen). Previously, 39.99 Argentine pesos (about 38 yen) were recommended and sold at that price, but now 249 Argentine pesos (about 240 yen) is offered as the recommended price. In other words, in Argentina, the price will be raised to about 6 times.
Reddit also reports new and old recommended prices for each currency for the so-called US$59.99 full price work. Even there, the price in Argentina is about six times higher. In Turkey, it is about 5.5 times higher. As for the Japanese yen, it seems to have been raised from 6290 yen to 6500 yen. As a matter of fact, almost all currencies have had the recommended price increase of varying degrees. It may have been raised across the board due to the impact of the recent strong dollar.
Note that even if the recommended price is raised, the sale price on Steam will not increase immediately. It will apply if the developer voluntarily updates to the new recommended price, so it will be up to the developer each time. However, it is likely that more developers will consider adopting the new recommended prices, especially in countries where significant progress has been made, such as Argentina and Turkey.
As you can see from the Mommys Best Games example mentioned earlier, if you sell at a price below the exchange rate, the profit per game will decrease. In countries like Argentina, the recommended price has been set quite low until now, and such a trend has been remarkable. As a result, a series of users living in other countries who were hiding their residential Steam settings and pretending to be from Argentina to buy games at unreasonably low prices have been considered a problem. Developers may see this updated price recommendation as an opportunity to raise prices in countries like Argentina.
On the other hand, it will be a difficult situation for gamers living in Argentina and elsewhere. Although the price is still lower than the figure calculated based on the exchange rate, the previously recommended price has been considered a reasonable price in the local area, and has the effect of being jump about 6 times. On the aforementioned Reddit, there are posts claiming that a certain title’s price is expensive, citing an example of what percentage of the minimum wage a certain title’s price will be charged to.
In this announcement, Valve said it is working to make it more valuable as a guide by regularly revising the recommended price for developers. In future, we plan to scrutinize the recommended price once a year and adjust it as appropriate. Over the next year, it will be interesting to see how this updated price recommendation affects developers and gamers around the world.
