The issues with regional pricing in Steam are not only raised by users from Russia.
Thanks to "regional pricing," Steam managed to increase video game sales in various regions, but in recent years the system has broken down.
Users are increasingly noticing "unfair differences" in prices — sometimes the cost in local currency can exceed the price in US dollars by 20-30%.
Recently, the media attention was drawn by the YouTube channel author Water CS2: he released a video dedicated to the situation with regional prices in Steam.
As one example, he suggests considering the recent Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater: in US dollars, the game costs 69.99, but players in other regions, such as Poland, will pay much more: "One would assume that a fair price is roughly equal to the price in dollars, but instead it is 369.99 zlotys [this is more $100, one of the highest prices in the world]». It turns out that a resident of Poland "pays more than a resident of New York for the same digital file."
Water CS seems that such a "significant difference in prices for computer games" is unfair. This problem is not only inherent in Metal Gear, but also in many other games.
According to the blogger, "the problem lies in the data that Valve uses to compile these recommendations." According to him, Valve has not updated the exchange rates since 2022, and at that time "the Polish currency was close to its minimum" and Steam is still "using this weak old rate" of three years ago.
Polish players have complained about incorrect regional prices before. Activists even achieved certain successes — some publishers began to change regional prices for Poland, but this was still a local phenomenon.
