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[JaseC]

Most likely right.

I think it has everything to do with stamping out the reselling of gifts, not exploitative cross-region gifting. Valve took a baseball bat to the latter in early 2015, when, to discourage VPN activations, it added a runtime restriction on top of the activation restriction attached to gifts purchased in regions that have notably cheaper prices by default and, unlike before, applied this to all spare gifts retroactively. Traders with older, say, RU-purchased gifts that were previously region-free woke up to find themselves with a collection of digital paperweights as they were now only of use to Russian users.

 

[madjoki]

I'd say that's secondary to Valve forgetting to remove discounts before a sale period kicks off. So much so, in fact, that, on the eve of a sale, it's actually a good idea to make note of anything you want with a discount period that encroaches into the sale period as the two will likely be added together. The majority of the games I bookmarked prior to the beginning of the 2015 Winter Sale had an erroneous discount, for instance.

I do think that's fixed now tho, Valve made discounting more "robust" last year by making accidental errors harder.

Euro prices are totally screwed up on Steam, it's not exclusive to poor Eastern European countries. I'm in Finland, one of the most expensive countries in Europe. I got a physical pre-order pack of Doom that included a cacodemon stress toy for €48 day 1, also included the pre-order DLC. There was also a regular version for €45 but I thought I'll get that cacodemon for €3 extra.

It would have been €60 for the game alone on Steam. What the fuck.

Yeah, only reason Steam prices are bad, is because Europe does have physical copies that are much cheaper.

Physical copies have bigger margins, so they get discounted more. And Valve never discounts anything. (Like most other digital sellers do pursue best deals, reducing their own cut).

 

[M3d10n]

Valve says it's to remove friction, but by axing email gifting they make it impossible to gift to someone who doesn't already have a Steam account, increasing friction.

They're showing regional prices. The first picture is Valve's recommended conversion rates, so a US$60 game is, for example, in Chile CLP$26,000, which is equivalent to US$39.62. Valve recommended those prices because poorer countries have lower income, and that way they can create a market in those poorer countries.

Most big publishers decided to ignore Valve's guidelines and up the prices of their games for no reason, so, same example, a US$60 game is now CLP$44,900, or US$67.12 in Chile, for no apparent reason. Which, again, makes no sense because of the lower income.

Before this you would ask someone from the US to buy the game for you and you paid him with PayPal, so you would pay US$60, but now you can't do that.

The reason is very apparent, actually: big publishers are matching their console games' pricing in each country. Console gaming has been growing in developing countries and big publishers want every cent of profits they can get.

 

[JaseC]

I do think that's fixed now tho, Valve made discounting more "robust" last year by making accidental errors harder.

Quite possibly. Fortunately, the Summer Sale is only around the corner.

Edit: It's still up to publishers to be mindful of overlapping discount periods as per the Steamworks documentation site.

 

[BONKERS]

Well this is shit.

Whenever Trails in The Sky FC & SC go on sale. I buy both to gift someone.
(Because I am a bad bad Falcom fanboy.)

This will make this more difficult if I dont' already have someone who is interested lined up.

It's easier to gift directly, but if I don't. Then straight to inventory so I can gift it later. Thanks Valve!

How about something like changing the review system so we can something in between simply a "Yes" vote. Or "No vote?
How about stopping the hate train on singling out people who choose to buy games outside Steam by making their reviews not count. You should make the joke reviews, the ones that have no obvious merit and review bombing reviews not count.

 

[Quadraphonic]

Quite possibly. Fortunately, the Summer Sale is only around the corner.

I can't wait to not wait for the dailies.

 

[eot]

Sorry for the bumb but I completely missed this.

What a disappointing change, I've stocked up on gift copies of games a few times (to gift here on GAF for example) and I don't see what's wrong with it. If people sell them for a profit then maybe that's a separate issue, but a) not really, free market so fuck off b) deal with those people, not everyone else.

 

[mrlion]

No more Modbot giveaways though.

ModBot giveaways aren't gifts though they are steam keys...so don't worry we'll still have them.

 

[Yayate]

I've bought multiple copies of games I really love on sale, so I can force them onto new friends and have them go play it. This really sucks.

 

[KurtFehl]

This change sucks. Why are we just accepting it? Why is Valve simply implementing it? Anything we can do?

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Yeah, this is going to curtail my impulse purchases and gifting unless i have people lined up in which case it's not an impulse purchase.

Oh well, my wallet will be happier by my selfishness at least, result?

 

[eot]

I wonder if this will actually be a net benefit to developers / publishers. I imagine a lot of gift copies are never played, people simply gift them out of enthusiasm for that particular game. The recipients would likely not have bought the game themselves.

 

[Azure Phoenix]

Well that sucks, I usually stock up on copies of niche VNs when they go on sale and give them out at Christmas.

 

[JaseC]

ModBot giveaways aren't gifts though they are steam keys...so don't worry we'll still have them.

People gave away gifts through ModBot all the time by way of using the gift redemption link in the e-mail notification as the "key", which is no longer possible as said links are now account-bound -- they're only valid for the intended recipient. It's still possible to give away gifts in the roundabout way of using nonsense as the key, adding the winner to your friends list, and finally sending them the actual game, but there's a caveat here in that you cannot send somebody a gift if the game is cheaper in your region and the price difference is higher than ~10%, regardless of whether or not Valve's default measures against exploitative cross-region gifting apply. For example, it's no longer possible for New Zealanders to gift Australian users Dirt 4 due to the price difference of ~15%.

I wonder if this will actually be a net benefit to developers / publishers. I imagine a lot of gift copies are never played, people simply gift them out of enthusiasm for that particular game. The recipients would likely not have bought the game themselves.

As the new system guarantees that nobody is purchasing gifts for later use, I'm confident Valve's move here has everything to do with snuffing out the reselling of gifts.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Hmm so cross region is still possible, except it should be an expensive country gifting to a less expensive country?

Like say, American friend can gift me, a Southeast Asian, a game but I can't gift an American friend a game?

 

[Sarcasm]

Hmm so cross region is still possible, except it should be an expensive country gifting to a less expensive country?

Like say, American friend can gift me, a Southeast Asian, a game but I can't gift an American friend a game?

This was the case before the change. You could gift from high to low but not the other way around.

I haven't stayed with the topic recently and the last time I read they broke that as well.

 

[JaseC]

Hmm so cross region is still possible, except it should be an expensive country gifting to a less expensive country?

Like say, American friend can gift me, a Southeast Asian, a game but I can't gift an American friend a game?

Well, as Sarcasm said, SEA is one of Valve's trade-restricted regions, in which gifts purchased are only of use to someone in the same region. That hasn't changed under the new system, but now, if something is actually ~10%+ cheaper in the US than your country, a US friend can no longer gift it to you despite said gift being region-free.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Well, as Sarcasm said, SEA is one of Valve's trade-restricted regions, in which gifts purchased are only of use to someone in the same region. That hasn't changed under the new system, but now, if something is actually ~10%+ cheaper in the US than your country, a US friend can no longer gift it to you despite said gift being region-free.

gaaah

at least keys still work huh?

This was the case before the change. You could gift from high to low but not the other way around.

I haven't stayed with the topic recently and the last time I read they broke that as well.

man this blows, I used to get gifts from a EU friend after doing stuff from him as some sort of token of appreciation

 

[JaseC]

gaaah

at least keys still work huh?

Yeah, nothing has changed as far as key activation is concerned.