Argentina, the spiritual homeland of countless Steam players, may begin exporting a wave of refugees next month. This morning, Steam issued a pricing adjustment notice for low-price areas. Two well-known low-price areas, Argentina and Türkiye, have completely canceled the payment function in local currency. After November 20, even if you are an authentic Argentinian who grew up playing football in the slums, you will have to spend US dollars to buy games on Steam.


Represented by Argentina and Turkey, Steam has planned the two pricing regions of Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa, and established unified market standards for the prices of Steam games in 25 countries. According to previous pricing rules, the pricing tool of the Steam platform will provide official guide prices for the two regions for game manufacturers to refer to and compare.

The wallet balances of accounts in Argentina and Turkey will be converted into US dollars based on the exchange rate. Subscription and recharge services through the Steam platform will also close payment channels for Argentine peso and Turkish lira.

All in all, it is necessary to fully realize dollarization of transactions.

It may sound scary – but in reality, this policy won’t necessarily burden spiritual Argentines with consumption. Because the Steam platform has always been targeting "official guide prices", whether the game is expensive or not depends on the specific sales strategies of the developers and publishers. If they are willing, all manufacturers can learn from SQUAREENIX and raise the price of their own games.


Are you right, SEboy?

Previously, there have been many precedents where game prices have skyrocketed because manufacturers were not familiar with the regional pricing rules of the Steam platform. Unlike some big companies that pretend to be dead, Illusion, an old artist that is loved by the people, has also apologized to the majority of Chinese players because of the doubling of the price of "VR Girlfriend".


So having said all that, what kind of USD guide price has Steam set for Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa this time?

The author of the Turkish independent game "Card Town" personally tried the new version's guide price, and the result was almost half price. The original quasi-AAA price of 60 knives was 27 knives in the local area. Considering the current dual status of A District and Tu District as low-price districts, the guide prices of the last two districts should not be too far apart.


But afterwards, the Turkish game worker did not announce the dollar price of his game. We don’t know the specific reasons. Maybe it’s because they’re afraid that the pricing won’t meet players’ expectations, which will damage the game’s reputation at the forefront. Maybe Steam has a confidentiality agreement regarding bidding, or maybe it’s just hesitant because of the rapidly rising prices in Turkey——

Perhaps today’s pricing is acceptable to domestic players, but what will happen a year from now?

Since it has lost its function as a general equivalent, it is only a matter of time before the local currency is replaced by the US dollar. The theoretical losses caused by players collecting wool from low-price areas are not the driving force behind the dollarization of Steam’s low-price areas this time. In essence, it is because Argentina and Turkey, two previously relatively large-scale economies, have been losing ground in global market competition, so they have lost the qualification to settle in their own currencies.


In the final analysis, manufacturers listing games on the platform and players purchasing games on the platform are purely commercial activities.

Value determines price, and supply and demand affect price. As long as the value remains unchanged, if demand is strong, the price will be raised, and if demand is sluggish, the price will be lowered. This is an objective market law. The existence of the low-price area has stimulated the original hidden demand. As a large number of players pour into the low-price area, Steam's expected revenue will not necessarily fall, but may instead rise.

Therefore, the industry's AAA masterpieces can maintain the price of 60 US dollars for ten years - taking into account the growing price and game market, 3A games have actually been reducing their prices until the 70-dollar era.


Do you think the prices of luxury goods in Türkiye will increase significantly?

With the economic downturn and the increasing development and distribution costs, whether to increase prices or not has become a very test of the consciousness of game manufacturers.

Take Argentina as an example. Although old games in the past were very affordable, popular games in Argentina are not cheap. Iron-fisted plutocrats like Activision Blizzard don’t care whether your price is low or not, “Call of Duty” will still sell for $60 or even $70. The latest "Call of Duty" on Steam is priced at as high as 24,000 pesos, so expensive that ordinary Argentinian players must live frugally.

In the face of Argentina's crazy inflation, the Steam guide price of A District games seems meaningless. For reference, "Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II 2022" was released on Steam last year for only 7,000 pesos, which is also $60 when converted - guess what the regional reference price provided by Steam is?


It’s 760 pesos, which is 800% lower than Activision Blizzard’s actual pricing. At the beginning of this year, when Blizzard’s national server players were displaced, the krypton gold cost of “Hearthstone” in the Argentine server also skyrocketed 8.5 times, which was even more expensive than the original national server.

What's more, there is a final BOSS like Electronic Arts, which does not consider the actual consumption level of the region at all. All games are priced at 3A, highlighting the equality of all beings.

Then you may ask, since G Fat earns the same money in all countries, and even taxes are uniformly paid to the IRS, why should players be restricted from abusing the low-price area? Wouldn't it be better to make small profits but quick turnover so that more players can afford low-priced games?

This will involve the specific impact of price control on the supply and demand relationship.


Review high school knowledge

When there is a minimum price in the market that is higher than the equilibrium price between supply and demand, it will be more conducive to the development and growth of the production side. On the contrary, if transactions in low-price areas are allowed to flow, game developers will suffer disaster. An example that is easier to relate to is the minimum wage standard set by the government for workers. As an exporter of labor, of course you will hope that your wage level will be in line with that of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Of course, we still need to return to pure business behavior to look at this issue. As a consumer, I actually don’t need to care about the life and death of game developers. The decline in the currency competitiveness of Argentine players’ own country is not my problem. If after USD settlement, there are still cheap games in the area, I can still buy them.


I think it's a bit confusing

This is my freedom as a pure consumer.

In this case, if after settling in US dollars, manufacturers suddenly feel that they do not have to take care of the actual purchasing power of Steam users in these developing countries out of humanitarianism, that is also the freedom of game manufacturers as producers. I hope there won’t be those people who go to the low-price area to buy games and then complain about the price increase in the low-price area, because this is like using morality to kidnap a tropical cyclone on the subtropical sea, which seems a bit unreasonable.

What can go down can go up, market economy, boy!

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