steam games/gift are now region lock due to Russian ruble crumble

[TheGuyNL]

-snip-

 

That's preventing people to hop on a VPN, buy the game on the cheap and hop back to their own network and play.

[Mooshi]

Recently Rubles have hit an all-time low which has been a concern of many game developers

 

Gee, I wonder why. Clearly it has nothing to do with Putin ego tripping desperately wanting Russia to be relevant as a dominate force again or anything. Nah, that can't be why the global opinion of Russia is falling fast. Certainly this distrust of Russia has no relation to their currency tanking.

 

This isn't a console, this is PC gaming. If Valve wants to do this, fine. Don't expect to pry my wallet open anymore as a result. Any gamer who utilizes steam should stop looking at GabeN with rose colored glasses and do the same. Region locks are bad, don't give any more money until Valve gets their shit together. (aware this already existed, but it seems it will be getting worse) If it comes down to no longer selling in Russia, fine. The whole punish everyone for someone else's follies is a very bullshit stance to take.

[Guest]

The sanctions are hitting Russia really hard.

They may have gotten Crimea, but they've lost the ability to exploit differences in Steam regional pricing.

[Guest]

Clearly it has nothing to do with Putin ego tripping desperately wanting Russia to be relevant as a dominate force again or anything.

 

There are plenty of reasons for Russia to not let go of Ukraine that don't have to do with Putin's ego.

Russia is losing influence to China in the East and if Ukraine joined EU and NATO, all prospects of Russia being a regional power in their West, let alone a global one would be in serious trouble.

[Legion]

Well this is great....

Now I need to find out what the pricing is like in Korea or that will be the end of me gifting to friends when I move.

GG Valve.

[Puddleuk]

I'm still to wrap my head around this. But this is what I could gather.

 

A person is Russia buys a Steam Gift for lets say $15. That same game costs $30 in the US.  So now they are basically blocked from gifting that key to anyone outside of Russia. Erm ok. But is the Gifting of Russian Steam Games really that big of an issue that a full block is even required, it has the backlash of punishing legitimate players who are gifting a game to a friend elsewhere (For free).

 

Personally if a developer want to region lock their Game Keys they can (and already do), but putting a limit on gifting is not acceptable, if a person buys a game they have the right to gift it to someone or sell it for a profit. This type of move is not meant to benefit the customers in the slightest.

[A.D.A.M]

wait what happens if you move from US based pricing to SEA

[Markmjb]

This is somewhat bad news, don't know why games should have different pricing in different countries.
The font you in which you try to convey this news in though, is way worse. Please stop 

[pulosis]

wait what happens if you move from US based pricing to SEA

 

As far as I know US uses the Rest of World (ROW) pricing so you can pretty much bring your games anywhere. Not the same case if you're from a specialized region (like SEA or Russia) going to a ROW region (like NA or EU)

 

This is somewhat bad news, don't know why games should have different pricing in different countries.

The font you in which you try to convey this news in though, is way worse. Please stop 

 

Well you have to understand that wages differ wherever you are in the world. In the case of some regions low prices actually combat piracy.

What we need is choice, not restriction. If I want to gift someone that's in a different region then let me pay for their price even if it's more expensive.

[A.D.A.M]

As far as I know US uses the Rest of World (ROW) pricing so you can pretty much bring your games with you. Not the same case if you're from a specialized region (like SEA or Russia) going to a ROW region (like NA or EU)

 

I don't quite get that policy.Sounds dumb to me, now when i go back to SEA i can never move or else whole library bought there will be gone

[pulosis]

I don't quite get that policy.Sounds dumb to me, now when i go back to SEA i can never move or else whole library bought there will be gone

 

Well you can move. But as long as you don't migrate your account from US to SEA (which is a tedious process BTW) then games you buy while in SEA using your US account with US payment info will still be considered ROW.

It only becomes a problem when you're planning to move permanently from a specialized-region to a ROW region.

 

Believe me this is a very uncommon but real problem. I've searched months and months for answers and even contacted Steam only to get disappointing results.

[A.D.A.M]

Well you can move. But as long as you don't migrate your account from US to SEA (which is a tedious process BTW) then games you buy while in SEA using your US account with US payment info will still be considered ROW.

It only becomes a problem when you're planning to move permanently from a specialized-region to a ROW region.

 

Believe me this is a very uncommon but real problem. I've searched months and months for answers and even contacted Steam only to get disappointing results.

i probably have to do that. moving from ROW to MYR and god help me if i ever want to move out of SEA

[totjup5]

Oh no... I hope g2a is ok

[Notree]

 If anything this will just hurt their sales imo.  :huh:

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

i live in India where 1 Euro is 85 rupees, this is really bad for me 

[Imabigmac]

How exactly would someone in the USA or even in Canada be able to buy a Russian game anyway? Through steam and still get it in English. Region locks have always edited and g2a pretty much is based off this whole process.

[Texhnlyze]

Does this mean that you can't buy anything from other sellers outside NA if you're in NA?

[Santa_Dwarf]

My mistake

 

I still think its a good idea, it should also extend to keys tbh

CS:GO trades live off of keys.

Anything above market max value (400$) would immediatly drop price.

[Cookybiscuit]

I can't remember the last time I got a game off Steam from the ingame store, its always way cheaper to get it off traders, I hope this doesn't ruin it. They already started to destroy it with the whole not being able to trade gifts for 30 days thing which doesn't help anyone.

[ShadowCaptain]

CS:GO trades live off of keys.

Anything above market max value (400$) would immediatly drop price.

 

CS:GO trades are pretty stupid anyway but that's just my opinion 

[LiveStyleGaming]

Well assuming it only refers to gifts and trades then I'm cool with this, at least somewhat. 

 

I never did buy the gifts from key sites as I simply don't trust them, I only buy the occasional CD Key if it's cheap enough to bother.

 

The only way I think this could affect me, is I sometimes get my 'Merican friend to buy me a game and then gift it. An example would be AC: Black Flag... it was £20 in a summer sale, while it was $20 in the US! So instead of paying the £20 which is $31, I paid $20 instead which is £12.79, saving me just over £7! I normally don't mind paying 1 or 2 quid more as I get it's different with VAT and the such, but literally charging £20 here and $20 there is bull with no excuse lol x'D

[HellHunter]

Can anyone confirm this?

 

I was buying gifts pretty regular from sites like G2A, because I am poor. Please have mercy, GabeN

[Sharif]

=/

[Santa_Dwarf]

CS:GO trades are pretty stupid anyway but that's just my opinion 

Stupid or not, percentages for Steam are made. Wallets are emptied, others are filled. It provides us of things like CS:GO esports, which is a great step to acknowleding gaming of it's potential.

[ShadowCaptain]

Stupid or not, percentages for Steam are made. Wallets are emptied, others are filled. It provides us of things like CS:GO esports, which is a great step to acknowleding gaming of it's potential.

 

100% true I agree with you there