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Valve finally clears up Steam game release dates, also adjusts pricing

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Two important pieces of info today for both players and game developers, as it will affect both quite a bit with release date changes and pricing changes.

Firstly, prices! Valve announced to developers various updates to how they handle multi-currency. Developers and publishers are still free to set their own pricing but now Valve are giving developers a new tool to make it easier, along with adjusting their recommendation on prices across seemingly all currencies on Steam. This may result in price increases across many games on Steam in many different regions, as Valve said "with purchasing power and foreign exchange rates constantly evolving, we needed to make significant changes to those conversion recommendations to stay current".

SteamDB, as always, keep tracking changes on Steam and did their own blog post to highlight the changes. According to SteamDB the only currencies not changing have so far been CIS - U.S. Dollar, Costa Rican Colon. Israeli New Shekel, Kuwaiti Dinar, Singapore Dollar, South Asia - USD and U.A.E. Dirham. They included various tables, showing the changes against the dollar at various price points with this one showing just how big an increase it can be:

$59.99 USD difference:

Currency Old New Diff
British Pound £46.49 £49.99 +8%
Euro 49,99€ 58,99€ +18%
Russian Ruble 1085 ₽ 1900 ₽ +75%
Brazilian Real R$ 109,99 R$ 162,00 +47%
Japanese Yen ¥ 6290 ¥ 6500 +3%
Indonesian Rupiah Rp 249999 Rp 449999 +80%
Malaysian Ringgit RM95.00 RM133.00 +40%
Philippine Peso ₱1219.95 ₱1670.00 +37%
Thai Baht ฿699.00 ฿1100.00 +57%
Vietnamese Dong 480000₫ 705000₫ +47%
South Korean Won ₩ 61000 ₩ 63000 +3%
Turkish Lira ₺92,00 ₺510,00 +454%
Ukrainian Hryvnia 699₴ 1125₴ +61%
Mexican Peso Mex$ 527.99 Mex$ 614.99 +16%
Canadian Dollar CDN$ 68.99 CDN$ 77.99 +13%
Australian Dollar A$ 84.95 A$ 87.95 +4%
New Zealand Dollar NZ$ 76.49 NZ$ 85.99 +12%
Norwegian Krone 412,00 kr 670,00 kr +63%
Polish Zloty 214,99zł 274,99zł +28%
Swiss Franc CHF 57.50 CHF 65.99 +15%
Chinese Yuan ¥ 163 ¥ 198 +21%
Indian Rupee ₹ 1299 ₹ 2400 +85%
Chilean Peso CLP$ 22500 CLP$ 28500 +27%
Peruvian Sol S/.102.00 S/.115.00 +13%
Colombian Peso COL$ 82500 COL$ 130000 +58%
South African Rand R 329.00 R 499.00 +52%
Hong Kong Dollar HK$ 258.00 HK$ 365.00 +41%
Taiwan Dollar NT$ 858 NT$ 898 +5%
Saudi Riyal 89.95 SR 114.95 SR +28%
Argentine Peso ARS$ 649,99 ARS$ 3800,00 +485%
Kazakhstani Tenge 7100₸ 14000₸ +97%
Qatari Riyal 114.99 QR 119.99 QR +4%
Uruguayan Peso $U1199 $U1700 +42%

Thanks SteamDB.

Another big change is how release dates are presented on Steam. Soon, gone will be the days of developers setting whatever format they wish for their dates, along with some including funny messages instead of an actual date. Instead, Valve will have a standard way to present dates that can be correctly formatted to your region so there will be no more confusion on days and months too.

Take Dwarf Fortress for example:

What is changing is that developers will need to put an exact date that only they and Valve can see, and then pick between these types of public views:

  • The exact date. “Aug 24, 2023”
  • Month-and-year. “August 2023”
  • The quarter of the calendar year. “Q3 2023”
  • The year. "2023"
  • No date at all. “Coming Soon”

This change makes sense, and was a long time coming.

With this change, it will also affect how developers have their games shown in upcoming lists on Steam. Valve will position games "at the last possible date of that time range", so if developers pick to have just a month and year they will appear as if they select the last day in that month. Hopefully this will also help fix the issue of some developers repeatedly changing their date to keep bumping their game in the upcoming lists.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Valve
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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28 comments
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Siinamon Oct 27, 2022
While I'm a little bummed that "time is subjective" will go away, I am much more glad for a standardised and localised system.
Arehandoro Oct 27, 2022
Nearly 500% increase for Turkey and Argentina...
BlackBloodRum Oct 27, 2022
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I was just about to come in complaining about the price increases considering the cost of living lately.. but then I read this:

QuoteArgentine Peso + ... +485%

Yikes. OK - Maybe 8% isn't so bad. I can live with that.


Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 27 October 2022 at 11:00 am UTC
M@GOid Oct 27, 2022
Well, Steam became a success and did much to reduce piracy in countries where it was endemic (like here in Brazil), because it was a cheap way to buy games. You can bet your furry ass that game piracy will increase a lot in the coming months, in places where the price increased in the high double-digits.

Also, now is time to Epic to put their wallets where their mouths are, and start offering lower prices than Steam, after all, they said in court the market needs competition... But we all know how this gonna end.
x_wing Oct 27, 2022
Quoting: ArehandoroNearly 500% increase for Turkey and Argentina...

Plus a 100% taxes in Argentina.
Acrophobic Oct 27, 2022
I'll consider this price increase as sign from my wallet to stop buying game until the economy stabilized.

I'd like to say thanks to Factorio, CK2, ETS2, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Dead Cells, Starsector, Endless Sky, Streets of Rogue, Slay the Spire, and various roguelike, retro games and open source games that will accompany me in this trying times .


Last edited by Acrophobic on 27 October 2022 at 11:35 am UTC
anewson Oct 27, 2022
surely if there's any game that has earned the right to make a joke about a release date it's DF.

not too excited for the coming price hikes. I was going to say "poor Turkiye" because of that increase, but then checked the converted currency and they're still doing just fine.
crse Oct 27, 2022
Quoting: x_wing
Quoting: ArehandoroNearly 500% increase for Turkey and Argentina...

Plus a 100% taxes in Argentina.

Isn't Steam pricing already include tax?

When tax for games is introduced in my country (Indonesia), Steam said that it already counted in final pricing; without even any additional price change.
pb Oct 27, 2022
Thumbs down on the price increases. That these currencies went down (vs dollar) doesn't mean that people using them suddenly can afford to spend more on games, quite the opposite.
pb Oct 27, 2022
At this point, why even do regional pricing if everyone is expected to pay American prices?
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