Report: Steam Allows Publishers To Crack Down On Cross-Region Gifting

[mindfaQ]

If it is that way, they'll need to address the castration of violent games in Germany, add an age check to enable us to buy the normal violence versions, else I think a lot of german people will complain or pirate those games, because well: bad service.

That also sucks if you try to buy a gift for a friend who lives in one of those regions and aren't aware of it.

Well let's hope not many games make use of that function. Then it won't be that bad - chose a game that is giftable and you are done.
If many adopt it, probably better gift somewhere else. Sending steam wallet value is an alternative, but not that great if you want to gift something specific.

 

[Albino Boo]

If it is that way, they'll need to address the castration of violent games in Germany, add an age check to enable us to buy the normal violence versions, else I think a lot of german people will complain or pirate those games, because well: bad service.

You are complaining because steam is obeying the national law of the democratically elected German government on the grounds of bad service. If the German public want to change the law they can express their democratic will at the ballot box. It is not the job of a foreign company to attempt to overthrow the express will of the German public.

 

[blackrave]

Totally forbidding this is stupid.
But I understand why limiting it might be necessary (even if I don't agree with it)
I think limiting cross region gifting to 1 game per months and receiving 2 games per month would be much smarter

 

[Yopaz]

We haven't been allowed to trade many new region locked AAA games on steam outside CIS (aka ex-USSR) for a couple of years now. How different is this?

First time its expanded beyond those areas, and those tended to be locked in as the Russian Localization as well.

While it sucks for those who don't abuse the system I can see where Valve is going with this. Now if they could fix the Dollar=Euro issue and drop prices in Aus (and by extension New Zealand) that would make this go down much smoother.

There's a lot of problems outside of what Valve can do when it comes to the prices. Publishers set the prices on Steam, not Valve. There's also sales taxes. It still sucks though. Considering my currency is worth about fifth of the American dollar I wouldn't really mind a 1 to 1 conversion though...

OT: I understand why they do this, it's probably both pressure from publishers and government since this undercuts both of them in terms of income and taxes. Oh well, there's still Steam sales.

 

[heroicbob]

if they are doing this just to continue their price gouging they are scumbags, i hate that everything in the store is 30% more expensive just because i live in new zealand

 

[Davroth]

This is unlikely to affect indie games, which is about 99% of the games I buy on steam and gift to friends. So I don't worry too much about it.

 

[Magmarock]

You see Vavle, this wouldn't be an use if you didn't have regional prices and reactions in the first place.

There is always gog though, and I do love gog. They are one of the few places I actually buy games from, now. I boycotted Steam long ago thanks partly due to it's regional pricing.

 

[l3o2828]

Well, As a south american who was going to get a credit card so he can buy lots and lots of games from steam now that he has gotten a well paid job, i feel very VERY very dissapointed that this is something.
I just love how this goddamn industry that i love and have been supporting for a while has nothing but discontent for me.


And then they complain about piracy and low sales.

 

[Something Amyss]

While it sucks for those who don't abuse the system I can see where Valve is going with this. Now if they could fix the Dollar=Euro issue and drop prices in Aus (and by extension New Zealand) that would make this go down much smoother.

Yeah, that's never going to happen. Hell, they could probably end the "Australia Tax" policy and Steam wouldn't lower their prices.


But this is Steam and Valve so it's somehow a good thing.

 

[Signa]

This sucks, but I can't complain or get mad too much. There's a good explanation for it, and I never really did trading that much either.

 

[FoolKiller]

I have friends who moved to different parts of the world. It seems shitty that I won't be able to gift them things like this any more.

 

[Nergui]

Steam, don't become the next Youtube.

Actually, all steam has done is given the Publishers the ability to stop inter region trading of given titles. In short Steam is simply doing what any good distributor does, giving the people selling a little more control.

Pricing, and whether or not it's allowed is actually (sad to say) in the domain of the publisher.

if they are doing this just to continue their price gouging they are scumbags, i hate that everything in the store is 30% more expensive just because i live in new zealand

There may be so regional taxes and tariffs at work there that require the extra 30% to offset the added cost. This is the danger of international business. different countries have different taxes, tariffs, regulations and laws which invariably have an effect on the cost at which foreign goods can be sold in the country.

Valve likely added that feature under pressure from publishers. if you dislike it... well an option is to simply boycott the publishers or games that do this, let them know you don't 'like it'. That's pretty much the only thing they understand, but again even publishers are bound by international laws and additional tariffs...so yeah, complicated issue.

For Australia, it depends on the physical location of the Steam server. There was some kind of inquiry here and digital downloads from a foreign server aren't subject to GST (our version of VAT). Nor are they subject to import duty due to the low value. I would imagine NZ is similar.

(Captcha - describe Twitter banner with any words. Answer - digital diarrhea.)

 

[A-D.]

If it is that way, they'll need to address the castration of violent games in Germany, add an age check to enable us to buy the normal violence versions, else I think a lot of german people will complain or pirate those games, because well: bad service.

You are complaining because steam is obeying the national law of the democratically elected German government on the grounds of bad service. If the German public want to change the law they can express their democratic will at the ballot box. It is not the job of a foreign company to attempt to overthrow the express will of the German public.

I have to ask this, but seriously? There is no "law" for this. There is a rating system, but that isnt law by any means, thats like saying PEGI is a law. it really isnt, its a classification process of what content is suitable for which agegroup. Add to that the sheer fucking paranoia of basicly everyone over the age of 40, and politicians loving to drum up the "Violent Video Games" argument, seriously you think the US is bad? We've had that shit since 10 fucking years, we had that before some dude went on a killing spree.

But you know why it sucks? Because this classification board cant just classify games as, you know, suited for agegroups, no, they can also declare a game, ANY game unsuited for consumption for ANY agegroup. Example, Dead Island, a game made by a german developer, published by a german publisher, can not be legally sold within Germany. Reasoning for this? Zombies are "people", and you can kill "people" in those games because zombies are "people". Pixels, PIXELS ARE PEOPLE is their argument, and every fucking politician, even the most liberal, leftist **** will drag out the video-game argument ad nauseum as long as old farts are scared of the new medium, because fearmongering is fucking fun.

So please tell me again about "democratic" or "laws" when some ****, in the agerange of 50 and up, can tell me what i can and can not see. That is censorship pure and simple and it needs to stop. There is a huge difference between "only suited for adults" and "nope, not even adults" and while i would agree that Steam cant really do much but comply with whatever trading law applies there, the fact that i can legally, go to the UK or the US or anywhere outside of germany, buy a game there and bring it home with me, no questions asked pokes fucking giant holes in the argument. Hell i can just take a 6 hour trip, to austria, and get a german version of any game ever made there, why? Cause they arent as anal about "violence makes children into murderers"

/rant

 

[Albino Boo]

If it is that way, they'll need to address the castration of violent games in Germany, add an age check to enable us to buy the normal violence versions, else I think a lot of german people will complain or pirate those games, because well: bad service.

You are complaining because steam is obeying the national law of the democratically elected German government on the grounds of bad service. If the German public want to change the law they can express their democratic will at the ballot box. It is not the job of a foreign company to attempt to overthrow the express will of the German public.

I have to ask this, but seriously? There is no "law" for this. There is a rating system, but that isnt law by any means, thats like saying PEGI is a law. it really isnt, its a classification process of what content is suitable for which agegroup. Add to that the sheer fucking paranoia of basicly everyone over the age of 40, and politicians loving to drum up the "Violent Video Games" argument, seriously you think the US is bad? We've had that shit since 10 fucking years, we had that before some dude went on a killing spree.

But you know why it sucks? Because this classification board cant just classify games as, you know, suited for agegroups, no, they can also declare a game, ANY game unsuited for consumption for ANY agegroup. Example, Dead Island, a game made by a german developer, published by a german publisher, can not be legally sold within Germany. Reasoning for this? Zombies are "people", and you can kill "people" in those games because zombies are "people". Pixels, PIXELS ARE PEOPLE is their argument, and every fucking politician, even the most liberal, leftist **** will drag out the video-game argument ad nauseum as long as old farts are scared of the new medium, because fearmongering is fucking fun.

So please tell me again about "democratic" or "laws" when some ****, in the agerange of 50 and up, can tell me what i can and can not see. That is censorship pure and simple and it needs to stop. There is a huge difference between "only suited for adults" and "nope, not even adults" and while i would agree that Steam cant really do much but comply with whatever trading law applies there, the fact that i can legally, go to the UK or the US or anywhere outside of germany, buy a game there and bring it home with me, no questions asked pokes fucking giant holes in the argument. Hell i can just take a 6 hour trip, to austria, and get a german version of any game ever made there, why? Cause they arent as anal about "violence makes children into murderers"/rant

Why do you think your opinion is more important that of the German public? In a democracy things you disagree with happen, and you just have to live with it. The trade off is that when things other people dislike happen they just have to live with it too. INstead of scream shouting and swearing I suggest you understand that other viewpoints exist that have equal validity. Just because something is your opinion is does not mean you are right. In democracy all opinions have chance to be put the test in a public vote. If you don't like the result then tough.

 

[Covarr]

I kinda wonder if this is at least in part a response to LRR's "Gift a Game to an Aussie Day".

P.S. Thanks

 

[Britishfan]

it doesn't surprise me that Valve are doing this, but I have to ask. Is this legal?
It sounds pretty illegal to me to prevent people from giving other people gifts over borders. (assuming said gifting obeys customs laws).

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

So will they fix their fucking prices then? Will $ no longer be = ??

The Euro price includes sales tax or VAT in the price which by EU law is at minimum of 15%. The difference between the two currencies has been around 18%-28% for the last 5 years. The difference is not going to Valve but to the respective national governments.

Except the difference averages well above 30%, in fact, at the time of writing ?1=$1.36 So you'll have to come up with a better justification for the $1=?1 practice than that. Especially if you consider that GOG has the same price for everyone the world over.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

I've been helping a few of my german friends get uncensored versions of their games using this. They'll be very disappointed to learn that it will no longer work.

Can't they still just order it online?