Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[Moonlite]

This is not a problem; it is the entire point.

Whether or not the problem currently affects you is neither here nor there; it speaks to the behavior of the company. The Devs are not separate from the company; the company contains the devs and the people who charge the money. Yoshi-p isn't your friend anymore than anyone else there is. The end goal in all cases is money.

You sir deserve a cookie.

[Furious]

Are you one of those people that yell at the cashiers making minimum wage because of a corporate decision? Cuz in 5he end, thats about money too, except sa8d cashier has no say in the decisions.

Of course not; that analogy is ridiculous and non-sequitur.

If you leave a negative review based on price on a supermarket's website that describes the prices as being far too high, or that the practice of pricing at the supermarket was somehow unethical, does anyone think that review is somehow demonising of the cashiers or the people producing the goods? Of course not.

The reviews aren't somehow only in the purview of the playing of the game; the experience of the game consists not only of the gameplay, but also of the difficulty of getting to that point, the reasonability of the price point, and anything else relevant to that particular game.

Negative reviews of a product based on unreasonable price or unethical practice are entirely warranted and reasonable. Nobody is saying "Yoshi-p set the price to this", however Yoshi-P is a member of the company, for better or worse. If the price point has changed to a point where it has become unreasonable for the content, it is our right as consumers to inform potential customers of that fact; that is why feedback systems exist.

[ShujiMikami]

Are you one of those people that yell at the cashiers making minimum wage because of a corporate decision? Cuz in 5he end, thats about money too, except sa8d cashier has no say in the decisions.



It is somehwat misleading, the official sub price from the games account management service never changed. Only the price on a 3rd party platform, and only in 2 countries.

Let me reinterpret what these two were trying to say:

We're warning people worldwide of the poor PR choices the company is making, not because of the grudge we hold against SE, but because we're the only ones affected so far . Since you're probably not affected at all by this change, this doesn't really seem all that bad to you. But I bet that most people telling us to calm down and stop ruining the game's image will be the ones voicing their dissatisfaction should SE decide and make another unreasonable move without proper warning beforehand.

[Rofel]

It is somehwat misleading, the official sub price from the games account management service never changed. Only the price on a 3rd party platform, and only in 2 countries.

And its exactly on this same 3rd party platform where those reviews are being posted.

Also, it doesnt matter if its only 2 countries. SE markets and sells the game officialy in here, and yet the closest thing to a localised support we've got is on Steam. Heck, having their single attempt to clarify the matter being only ONE forum post lost among hundreds, with no prior announcements, shows how much the service/support gotta improve.

Edit: thanks to the people helping me making my point clear. English naturaly isnt my first langage and typing on mobile isnt helping lmao.

[Boreowl]

It is somehwat misleading, the official sub price from the games account management service never changed. Only the price on a 3rd party platform, and only in 2 countries.

It's a price change nevertheless. Because those two affected countries had a regional price up until now and SE removed it completely without a single warning or prior explanation. It was so sudden people at first thought it was just a bug.
And honestly there's no saying a company that does something like that without saying a word won't do it again in the future. So I understand your worries about the reviews being misleading, but a price change is a price change. It might not have affected you, but it was an unprofessional move and people are complaining about it in their reviews.

And this could all have been avoided if SE had at least made an official note about it.

[albertopin]

No mans sky was an indie game. A d focus of tje problem was USA that
Has regulations and third party organizations who avail players.

As far i know your only leverage was the review thing that was used as a protest mensurae but the damage is done. Cant get worse unless USA,JP or UK take the case and ist unlikely to Happen.

[Nezia]

No where else did Steam have special pricing for the games sub, only in 2 countries. It was only adjusted in those 2 countries to match the sub price IN THOSE COUNTRIES on the official site. This is nothing like them adjusting pricing everywhere. That is what is misleading.

Oh, silly me, and here I thought that misleading was selling an expansion on regional price and then one month later remove the regional price option.

[Princess_Momoka]

I think I am being a bit thick
Let me just clarify. The new price now falls in line with the price in other countriesbut that is a huge problem because the average disposable income in Brazil is much lower?

But that is how exchange rates work isn't it? They look at a countries average income, levels of unemployment, cost of living, GDP and many many other economic factors and say OK my 1 USD is the relative value of your 3.15 BRL.

So while I appreciate that an anoucement would have been courteous if not required by the ToS I must be missing something if this has suddenly become totally unaffordable when the relative value in real terms is now the same as in every other country

That is not how things work. First it depends how much currency the country has in circulation. After that it depends on the county's ability to buy and sell things (thus making a demand for the currency) Say the USA government decides to print 1 duotrigintillion (yes I looked it up) USD, you really think the USD currency exchange rates would still be favorable? So no you can't base it on exchange rates alone.

[Yavis]

Previously, the game caused only positive emotions, but after I sat on the forum for a couple of days, I saw the face of the community - it's toxic and stuffy people. Your yesterday's brothers in arms faced a problem. Players are waiting for answers from SE, but only get dirt in comments from gloating people. Somebody bring an oxygen mask.

[JunseiKei]

"If Steam sells something for a loss, then it's Steam that loses money."

It was said that SE determines the pricing over Steam, they were not making it cheaper for the sake of it.

Well, here's the thing... said prices are controlled by the game's publisher, not Valve. Square Enix dictates the prices for Brazil and Russia, and then ignored them for 5 years with no change. Might have been an oversight, but this oversight was what brought the Russian and Brazilian player base we have here.

We hope that this overall shady behavior serves as a justification for Valve to weight in just like they did in NMS and Arkham Knight and allow for refunds; or at least poke Square Enix saying "Yo folks, you have an impending PR nightmare here on this side. Either authorize the refunds or do something about it".

I made my post fully aware of this. You did not understand what I was alluring to. Steam is simply a middle man providing another entry to a service. Middle men usually either get cuts from the business or tack on their own fee for the service. This does not change the fact that Steam Wallet is a Steam process. SE might set the prices for their own goods, but that does not stop Steam from asking for their services. This already happened recently in Australia with Steam's Goods and Services tax.

I'm not saying there's no possible faulting of SE, but I am trying to give you reason to pause and think on other reasons this may be happening. Also, I gave an example of why this may have come to SE's attention in the form of a "legit and SE supported" Mogstation that was not being run directly from Square Enix. SE doesn't like people messing with their income. No business does, and like every business, they'll seek ways to make that money back. This could be their answer.

I don't know. It's just a theory.

I'm not sure what kind of contract they might have specifically with each other, but generally the way Steam works is that Valve just charges a percentage of what the developer makes.

The only articles I can find are the unfair price discrepancies across the globe over Steam pricing (a 3 year old article) and another article on Steam giving developers the tools to opt into sales on Steam on their own schedule, rather than being forced into some Steam schedule. The latter which does not apply to this situation as it's not a sale, but the first article certainly applies. Worth reading.

In the very least, this is not a new issue, only newly knocking on FFXIV's door.