Earlier today, Valve introduced an update to the pricing conversion tools on Steam, adding two new conversion methods that might impact the regional price tags on games throughout the globe.
Additionally, the pricing conversion data on Steam has also been updated to “better reflect current market conditions around the world.” According to Steam’s official blog post, these improvements have been made to help game devs on the platform price their titles in 35 currencies and 4 region groups worldwide.
Steam Adds New Pricing Conversion Tools for Game Devs
Following the update, Steam features three different conversion methods for devs to pick from when publishing games on the platform:
- Exchange Rate Conversion – This method uses simple currency exchange.
- Purchasing Power Conversion – This method takes into account public data about the average purchasing power of customers in the region.
- Multi-variable Conversion – This method uses multiple data sources for each currency, including factors like local purchasing power, expected cost of comparable entertainment goods, and exchange rates.
“These conversion methods are intended to help developers make informed decisions about pricing and to choose the option that best fits their goals,” Steam said in a statement. “Some developers may choose to use a mix of methods for their games or manually set prices for one or more currencies.”
Readers can check out Steam’s regional pricing page to check out how each of these pricing methods converts to all supported currencies for each major USD price point.
Will This Impact Video Game Prices?
Valve has also reassured gamers and game devs that the company won’t be altering the price tags on any games on Steam. Publishers will still set their own prices on the platform, and game prices won’t change unless they manually submit and publish new prices.
Steam also clarified that publishers are under no obligation to follow any of the suggested pricing conversion options if they choose otherwise.
“Your prices are between you and your customers,” Steam stated. “Whether you follow or diverge from any of the provided conversion options doesn’t impact any of our store visibility systems.”
While the new tools aim to make regional pricing more reflective of local markets, the final decision still rests entirely with publishers. This means game prices across different regions could soon see noticeable changes depending on how publishers choose to use these tools.
Needless to say, with the recent surge in PC hardware prices and the ever-increasing price points on AAA titles, gamers will be keeping their fingers crossed for these new changes to help make modern titles more affordable across different regions.
