[recoil]

I've used a Steam a little over the last couple of years (bought maybe 3 or 4 games), but with this recent summer sale I've added another 15-20 games to my collection, and all for around $60 total. When the price is right, I'm very happy to use a service like this, despite the DRM. The user experience beats anything else out there, including going to the local mall and buying a game boxed.

The key is the price though. With Steam games, I lose the ability to sell the game on after I'm finished it, and publishers of all kinds (music, movies, ebooks, videogames) need to understand that I'm not going to pay them the same (or more) for something that doesn't give me the same rights as the physical media.

The policy of certain publishers to charge considerably more for the same game in different regions (in my case Australia - see e.g. the price of Mass Effect 2 in Aus here: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/clwk1/steam_final_da...) is also something I'm not going to tolerate. I didn't buy any of the games in the Steam sale that were priced higher in this country, so those publishers lost out.

I presume that this is due to the way publishing rights are apportioned internationally, and I've seen similar problems afflict other media (particularly ebooks, where the availability of a particular Kindle title varies a lot depending on whether you're in the UK, US or Aus). Again, publishers need to understand that consumers really couldn't give a toss about this sort of thing: we just want to buy their product, not have to worry about some international publishing agreement bullshit. If somebody can't buy something on Amazon/Steam/iTunes/whatever in their region, that's driving them towards the pirates, not towards the locally-published version.

[lionhearted]

> Again, publishers need to understand that consumers really couldn't give a toss about this sort of thing: we just want to buy their product, not have to worry about some international publishing agreement bullshit.

Firmly agree. This nonsense is a relic from an earlier age - back in the day, you'd sell the rights to a book to a local publisher/distributor. Back then, an American publishing house might have minimal contacts in Australia, so you'd license or sell to an Australian company with better local contacts and an understanding of the local market.

Mind you, this dates back to before long distance calls were possible, let alone the internet, and it made sense back then. Now it's mostly just hassle, nonsense, and bureaucracy. It'll eventually get more sensible, either because the old guard will wake up or some new players will emerge to eat their lunch.

[pmjordan]

Agreed. I haven't used Steam much because newer games tend to be much more expensive on there than if you buy it on disc. And it's not just you Aussies that get screwed over, we have the same problem in central Europe.

Examples:

- Bioshock 2 (PC): €29.99 on Steam, €19.97 on amazon.de. If I didn't already have it, I'd import it from amazon.co.uk, as it's much cheaper at £9.95 even with extra postage to Austria. (plus I don't risk getting badly translated German voiceovers)

- Anno 1404 a.k.a. Dawn of Discovery: Steam: €49.99, Venice expansion: €29.99; amazon.de: €34.90/€25.59; amazon.co.uk: £11.99/£8.97. Note that this is even a game developed in Germany.

I can't work out who decides that this is a sensible pricing scheme. I paid less than the current steam price for these games when they were still new releases.

Bizarrely, even Valve's own games are cheaper at amazon than on their own distribution channel. (Orange Box: €29.99 vs €19.99/£14.99) As far as I know, the retail versions of Valve games run on Steam anyway, so you're literally paying for the questionable privilege of downloading a couple of gigabytes of data overnight. And Amazon is still cheaper if you opt for next day delivery.

[frio]

Living in NZ, we get the regional prices too. It boils down to publishers attempting to protect brick and mortar stores; if a game is no cheaper on Steam, then the thought goes that more people will go to the store and buy it as they see no advantage.

As far as I'm concerned, it's costing them sales. If I want a physical copy of a game - like a Collector's Edition - I'll pay the extra. If I don't, then pricing the digital download that's served off the steam cache at the ISP I work for in the same region just costs them a sale. Case in point right now is Bad Company 2, but the same can be said of Borderlands (nabbed it in the 4-pack preorder for a reasonable price, then at launch it shot to $79.99USD :/) and many other titles.

Basically, it's a compromise I imagine Valve had to make to get large publishers signing with and selling their games on Steam. I'd prefer them to now use some of their critical mass to lean on the next contract they sign and say "we're a competitor to brick/mortar stores, we're losing sales because of your high pricing, and from now on we're going to compete".

[robryan]

I think for some games they are charging as much as they can get away with, maybe it's to reinforce some of the crazy pricing you get in Australian retail that they use exchange rates to justify but then don't pass on the savings when the rate changes.

I think they try and target parents that don't know any better, regularly a game will come out retail here for $120 when it would be on steam for $60USD, so maybe $70AUD.