Hey everyone,
Today, we're approving and locking in Steam's latest regional price recommendations on our games. Some of these new prices are a big change (check out the full list
here), so I want to give a little context.
For those who are unaware, Steam doesn't simply use exchange rates to set prices. In a nutshell, they try and consider many factors so that, hopefully, the average consumer pays a fairer price in each country. Read more about their policy
here.
We trust Steam with this; we always have, locking in Steam's recommended prices on all our games since we started publishing on the store back in 2015 - the alternative being to set, manage, and update prices manually across 30+ countries ourselves. As we understand it, Steam's new changes should account for all the crazy fluctuations in the worldwide economy over the past few years.
Special mention to fans in countries where the price changes are more dramatic - Turkey and Argentina, especially: we see you and appreciate you, and apologize if these changes affect you negatively.
What I can say is that we saw a huge increase in sales in your countries last year, but no increase in the number of players. Something like 85% of sales coming "from Argentina and Turkey" seem to be coming from people playing in other countries - people who are chasing the lowest possible price on Steam. This is apparently a widespread problem on Steam, which is why Steam is recommending an especially large increase in your regional prices.
This is not an easy decision, but we do agree with it - the alternative is basically encouraging people to abuse the system and pay far less for our games than we know they're worth. Thanks very much for understanding.
- Rodrigue and the Thunder Lotus Team
p.s. Unrelated but very important side note for y'all: please spare a kind thought for the people of Syria and Turkey, who experienced a devastating earthquake this week! We've made a donation to
The Red Cross to support relief efforts in the region; if you're able, please consider doing the same. To our friends in the region, we hope you're safe and sound. ːstella_heartsː
