Steam summer sale starting tomorrow?

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#656956 17-Jul-2012 11:50

zaptor: Right, so here I am looking at the latest lot of deals on the summer sale, and I notice Mirror's Edge going for $2.49 (75% off normal price of $9.99).

I browse a few other things on the Steam store, and contemplating acquiring ME. I eventually clicked on the ME store page, and lo and behold ME's normal price was suddenly $19.99, inflating the deal price to $4.99!

Went back to the main page, and the same increase had been applied there!!??

Still says $9.99 discounted to $2.49 for me. Are you in NZ?

KevinL

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#656958 17-Jul-2012 11:52

KevinL:
zaptor: Right, so here I am looking at the latest lot of deals on the summer sale, and I notice Mirror's Edge going for $2.49 (75% off normal price of $9.99).

I browse a few other things on the Steam store, and contemplating acquiring ME. I eventually clicked on the ME store page, and lo and behold ME's normal price was suddenly $19.99, inflating the deal price to $4.99!

Went back to the main page, and the same increase had been applied there!!??

Still says $9.99 discounted to $2.49 for me. Are you in NZ?

The US price is $19.99, discounted to $4.99. One of the few times where NZ pricing is lower!

zaptor

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#657042 17-Jul-2012 13:55

KevinL:
KevinL:
zaptor: Right, so here I am looking at the latest lot of deals on the summer sale, and I notice Mirror's Edge going for $2.49 (75% off normal price of $9.99).

I browse a few other things on the Steam store, and contemplating acquiring ME. I eventually clicked on the ME store page, and lo and behold ME's normal price was suddenly $19.99, inflating the deal price to $4.99!

Went back to the main page, and the same increase had been applied there!!??

Still says $9.99 discounted to $2.49 for me. Are you in NZ?

The US price is $19.99, discounted to $4.99. One of the few times where NZ pricing is lower!

You are correct - thanks. I'm guessing maybe a cookie (or something) "remembered" me as a US buyer - I tried that "?cc=US" thingy yesterday out of curiousity. So, I applied "?=NZ" instead, and now I can see the NZ pricing.

Very interesting though, I wonder if it would've allowed me to purchase with the US pricing?
Of course, it's cheaper to do it as an NZ buyer for ME, but I wonder if I could it if the US price was cheaper for something else?

Kyanar

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#657095 17-Jul-2012 15:24

zaptor:
You are correct - thanks. I'm guessing maybe a cookie (or something) "remembered" me as a US buyer - I tried that "?cc=US" thingy yesterday out of curiousity. So, I applied "?=NZ" instead, and now I can see the NZ pricing.

Very interesting though, I wonder if it would've allowed me to purchase with the US pricing?
Of course, it's cheaper to do it as an NZ buyer for ME, but I wonder if I could it if the US price was cheaper for something else?

No, it wouldn't have. If you try buying while it sees you as being in a region other than the one your account shows, it will display "an error occurred initialising your transaction" or similar, and refuse to let you buy.

stevenz

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#657132 17-Jul-2012 17:17

I usually try and buy physical copies of the games, usually from, nzgameshop, they're usually cheaper than what they're available for on Steam, assuming they're not on sale, which is pretty nonsensical. If they're going to keep ripping us off, I'm going to keep trying to avoid giving them any more money than necessary.

@KnightNZ

KevinL

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#657133 17-Jul-2012 17:23

stevenz: I usually try and buy physical copies of the games, usually from, nzgameshop, they're usually cheaper than what they're available for on Steam, assuming they're not on sale, which is pretty nonsensical. If they're going to keep ripping us off, I'm going to keep trying to avoid giving them any more money than necessary.

It's even worse with books - the library available on a Kindle is severely limited because of restrictions made by the local distributors/publishers.

Just remember, it's the local distributor/publisher that's "ripping you off", not Valve/Steam - it's not really something that they can control.

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Kyanar

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#657167 17-Jul-2012 18:54

KevinL:
It's even worse with books - the library available on a Kindle is severely limited because of restrictions made by the local distributors/publishers.

Just remember, it's the local distributor/publisher that's "ripping you off", not Valve/Steam - it's not really something that they can control.

They still tacitly endorse the practice though. Just like Stardock forced the issue of 3rd party DRM packaged into games when they still ran Impulse, I'd like to see Valve start pushing the issue of regional pricing. All it would take is to list the actual price beside the regionalised price, with a note saying "This higher price has been set by the publisher". Then sit back and let the customers fight the battle with their newfound knowledge. Instead, Steam hides the lower price from you so you aren't even aware you are being ripped off.

Another example is right now - one of the four flash sales isn't available in NZ. Rather than listing what it is, so we know who to go mental at, Steam simply displays a blank box with "This game isn't available in your region". No, screw that, tell me who it is! Even search results are absent items regionally blocked. They should be shown, but with a message saying "this publisher doesn't want your money".

If Valve's so blasted good, they should be taking a stand any way they can.

KevinL

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#657179 17-Jul-2012 19:14

Kyanar:

They still tacitly endorse the practice though. Just like Stardock forced the issue of 3rd party DRM packaged into games when they still ran Impulse, I'd like to see Valve start pushing the issue of regional pricing. All it would take is to list the actual price beside the regionalised price, with a note saying "This higher price has been set by the publisher". Then sit back and let the customers fight the battle with their newfound knowledge. Instead, Steam hides the lower price from you so you aren't even aware you are being ripped off.

Another example is right now - one of the four flash sales isn't available in NZ. Rather than listing what it is, so we know who to go mental at, Steam simply displays a blank box with "This game isn't available in your region". No, screw that, tell me who it is! Even search results are absent items regionally blocked. They should be shown, but with a message saying "this publisher doesn't want your money".

If Valve's so blasted good, they should be taking a stand any way they can.

What are your thoughts on when the regional pricing favours NZ then (which does happen on occasion, such as Mirror's Edge)?

The hidden flash sale is Dungeon Siege III - not sure why it's "not available" as it's in the catalogue, discounted and purchasable.

testha

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#657181 17-Jul-2012 19:17

Hmm weird. I always see the US prices but have my profile location set to NZ and am paying with a NZ CC. With a quite strong NZD its even better.

I promised myself not to give in this year, but...

Recommendations so far: Trine2 (was down 75%) also Skyrim is back to 50% off for the next 8h.

Hobchild

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#657185 17-Jul-2012 19:23

KevinL:

The hidden flash sale is Dungeon Siege III - not sure why it's "not available" as it's in the catalogue, discounted and purchasable.

Not for me it isn't. It was this morning though which is weird.

Hobchild

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#657187 17-Jul-2012 19:25

I take that back. When I was searching I was being lazy and only typing in "dungeon s" expecting it to come up. A few more letters and up it popped.

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Kyanar

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#657199 17-Jul-2012 20:10

KevinL:

What are your thoughts on when the regional pricing favours NZ then (which does happen on occasion, such as Mirror's Edge)?

The hidden flash sale is Dungeon Siege III - not sure why it's "not available" as it's in the catalogue, discounted and purchasable.

Regional pricing shouldn't favour anyone. NZ, USA, Australia, anyone. There's no justifiable reason for the price to be higher anywhere that doesn't require extra effort to sell to.

Oh well, proxy to the US (actually RDP to my web server), create US Steam account, gift to myself. I'm not a fan of pirating, but I will not be ripped off.

And for what it's worth, if they insist on the practice I actually would support displaying the lowest price available anywhere (I guess excluding the developing countries - I get why prices are cheaper there and I can't really argue against that) and explaining that the publisher did it.

Bacha

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#657223 17-Jul-2012 20:27

Kyanar:
KevinL:

What are your thoughts on when the regional pricing favours NZ then (which does happen on occasion, such as Mirror's Edge)?

The hidden flash sale is Dungeon Siege III - not sure why it's "not available" as it's in the catalogue, discounted and purchasable.

Regional pricing shouldn't favour anyone. NZ, USA, Australia, anyone. There's no justifiable reason for the price to be higher anywhere that doesn't require extra effort to sell to.

Oh well, proxy to the US (actually RDP to my web server), create US Steam account, gift to myself. I'm not a fan of pirating, but I will not be ripped off.

And for what it's worth, if they insist on the practice I actually would support displaying the lowest price available anywhere (I guess excluding the developing countries - I get why prices are cheaper there and I can't really argue against that) and explaining that the publisher did it.

Let me know if it ends up working for you. I am trying it again via VPN still a no go... I think its a sign to save some money lol

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sidefx

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#657244 17-Jul-2012 21:01

Kyanar:
Oh well, proxy to the US (actually RDP to my web server), create US Steam account, gift to myself. I'm not a fan of pirating, but I will not be ripped off.

That's not pirating; bit more like parallel importing. Nothing wrong with it IMO. Though last time I tried it wouldn't work with an NZ credit card and entering a US address seemed to randomly either result in "unknown errors" or auto-banning of the account I was trying to use.

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Kyanar

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#657260 17-Jul-2012 21:27

Bacha:
Let me know if it ends up working for you. I am trying it again via VPN still a no go... I think its a sign to save some money lol

It did work, actually. But the catch is you must enter a valid US address. Same with iTunes. If anything seems hinky about the State/ZIP/Country combo, their system notices. I used a BNZ Fly Buys Visa with success (obviously, do not enter the actual billing address - AVS doesn't work on NZ cards, so that's not necessary).

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