Thanks SE for worrying for us Brazilians and Russians

[Kosmos992k]

See, now this right here is why the big discussion thread got closed for becoming 'too cyclical.' People would keep spouting the same erroneous arguments over and over, no matter how many times they were addressed or corrected.

It was not a 'mistake' in price.
SE set the Steam regional prices themselves.
SE left the prices at that lower level for years.
Not even SE is claiming it was a mistake, so I really don't understand how this idea got lodged so firmly in your head.

It's a mistake.

Should SE have left those STEAM prices as they were for so long? Nope.
Should they have changed them so drastically and quickly? Nope.
Could they have done differently? Yep.
Is there any indication that they meant to do this? Nope.
Did they gain anything by this? Nope.
Did they lose something by this? Yep.

So, something was done that was incorrect, it wasn't done with intent or malice, and SE sought to correct it, in the process making a second mistake by being too abrupt. They have now corrected the second mistake, and attempted to make amends, and when the Steam price rises to match the other regional pricing in those countries, the first mistake will have been corrected also.

The price change, while certainly inconvenient, I never claimed to be 'outrageous.'
What I did find to be outrageous was the slapdash way they handled the increase. This apology addresses that problem in a fair and reasonable manner, which is why I am now once again a 'satisfied customer.'

Whether you personally claimed it or not, the reaction of the BR/RU community could be characterized as being 'outraged' by the abrupt change. So I don't see why you're quibbling with my use of the word.

[Naunet]

It's a mistake.

It was not a mistake. It was done deliberately. There is no way to accidentally set regional pricing, and SE certainly is a seasoned enough developer to know their way around the Steam platform.

[Kosmos992k]

It was not a mistake. It was done deliberately. There is no way to accidentally set regional pricing, and SE certainly is a seasoned enough developer to know their way around the Steam platform.

Then SE should fire the person who set the price since it a) lost them money while it was set that way, and b) caused the current outrage at the abrupt change - which is having a negative impact on SE revenue in those countries also. I mean, the only way this was done intentionally is if someone set out to hurt SE, or SE set out to hurt themself. There is no upside to such an egregious error in pricing.

Frankly, if NASA or the European Space Agency can mix up metric and imperial measures sending an expensive space craft into the Martian soil at a high rate of speed, then yeah, this pricing problem could easily have been a mistake.

Notice how this just flatly says increased and not "fixed"?

The effect of the increase was to bring Steam pricing in line with the other pricing in that region as well as bringing BR and RU into line with the currency conversion rates. It corrected what was in error. It is an increase but it also corrects (fixes) erroneous pricing. Sorry, but it is what it is.

Equality is only good when people don't lose their privilege.

Indeed!

[Texa]

The effect of the increase was to bring Steam pricing in line with the other pricing in that region as well as bringing BR and RU into line with the currency conversion rates. It corrected what was in error. It is an increase but it also corrects (fixes) erroneous pricing. Sorry, but it is what it is.

I'm not arguing what the effect was, just that the previous pricing was deliberately set and approved by SE and now they are deliberately raising it. No more and no less. I have no other horses in the race here I'm only highlighting that they set the old price too. The old price wasn't an accident and the fix was not an accident. Conscientious decisions can poorly thought out but nobody at SE knocked over their coffee mug on their keyboard and went "oopsie guess two countries will pay the game cheaper for 4 years now". They are a major publisher.

Please calm down.

[Texa]

Is there any indication that they meant to do this?

Notice how this just flatly says increased and not "fixed"?

[Rymm]

It's a mistake.

Should SE have left those STEAM prices as they were for so long? Nope.
Should they have changed them so drastically and quickly? Nope.
Could they have done differently? Yep.
Is there any indication that they meant to do this? Nope.

Your error here is how you are qualifying something as a 'mistake.' All of your above examples do is illustrate how it is a mistake in your opinion. You thinking it is a bad idea does not actually make it a mistake. A factual mistake would be something like an SE employee forgetting a 0 when he entered the price into Steam or lousing up the math when working out the conversion rate. I certainly agree with you that how they handled the increase was a big mistake but those are, again, only our opinions.

As to your last two questions, it depends what you mean by "this," it was rather unclear if you meant the original lower pricing or the price change. If you were talking about the former-

Did they gain anything by this? Nope.

This is objectively false. The lower price allowed them to sell the game to more people in these regions, which is the entire point of regional pricing and is why it is such a common practice among video game developers. More sales, even at a lower cost, meant an increased profit for SE.

Did they lose something by this? Yep.

Only time will tell. They are going to lose subscribers from this, that is a fact. I would think that they had someone crunching the numbers to work out if the increased revenue from those who stay will make up for the losses before they gave this the green light, but in the end those are only estimates. We'll have to see if they end up losing or making money from this.

Whether you personally claimed it or not, the reaction of the BR/RU community could be characterized as being 'outraged' by the abrupt change. So I don't see why you're quibbling with my use of the word.

As a member of the BR/RU community it most certainly does reflect upon me when you choose to cast an erroneous, inflammatory blanket statement over us, and you can bet your buttons I am going to call out you or anyone else who attempts to do so.

(In case it's not clear, 'erroneous and inflammatory' in the sense that you painted the reasons for our outrage in the worst possible light, intentionally misrepresenting myself and the many, many people who stated point-blank that our issue was with the manner and not the action itself.)

[Kosmos992k]

**snip**
In view of Enkrateia's message I will keep this short and sweet.

(In case it's not clear, 'erroneous and inflammatory' in the sense that you painted the reasons for our outrage in the worst possible light, intentionally misrepresenting myself and the many, many people who stated point-blank that our issue was with the manner and not the action itself.)

I have neither mis-represented you nor anyone else. Nor have I insulted anyone. I have stated that there is an issue with the manner of the change. But, I have also stated that the change was correcting a pricing error, a mistake. I cannot see any interpretation of the facts that suggests that the pricing on Steam in BR and RU was anything other than a mistake. Just as it was a mistake (as I have said multiple times) to so abruptly change the price. SE has taken action to correct that. Mistakes happen, people often assume motives or intent that are not present.

[Naunet]

I cannot see any interpretation of the facts that suggests that the pricing on Steam in BR and RU was anything other than a mistake.

Any interpretation of the facts other than... the facts, that is? On the one hand, we have the knowledge that the regional pricing tool must be deliberately set by the developer when setting up a game for sale on Steam. You have to go in, manually change it, and then set the pricing yourself. There are specific steps that do not just accidentally happen. On the other hand, we have your belief that it simply must be a mistake, despite there being no indication of this.

One of them is more convincing than the other.

This is all beside the point, though. I feel for Russian and Brazilian players, and I wish SE had chosen to remain with the tide of change in the rest of the game industry.

[Kosmos992k]

This is all beside the point, though. I feel for Russian and Brazilian players, and I wish SE had chosen to remain with the tide of change in the rest of the game industry.

Regional pricing is a backwards move for the industry. Regional pricing can mean that games are not released in particular markets because they would not be profitable due to regional pricing and the impact of exchange rate conversion. Regional pricing also mandates region locking. Region locking means that an NA player cannot import and play the game from a Brazillian retailer (for example). This is how Console games were sold prior to the PS3. It was painful and meant that a lot of games were never seen outside certain home markets such as Japan. With region free games, we have seen many more games become available either through direct release by publishers in localized forms or simply importing copies from the market where the game is available - since they can be played without having to circumvent region locking.

Honestly, regional pricing and region locking go hand in hand. Region locking is part an parcel of all DRM and copy protection since these mechanisms are required protect and enforce regional pricing. It would be a huge step backwards to transition to regional pricing.

[Naunet]

Regional pricing also mandates region locking.

No, it doesn't.