Steam to abandon regional pricing in Turkey and Argentina by converting user wallets to USD in November | Game World Observer

As more companies continue to raise regional prices, Valve has decided to get rid of those currencies weakening against the US dollar. The changes will affect Steam users in Turkey and Argentina, as well as some other countries.

What happened?

Players who have their Steam accounts in regions like Turkey and Argentina started receiving notifications from Valve about the pricing changes today. Several posts appeared on Reddit, with users sharing corresponding screenshots: “Pricing and Steam Wallets in [country name] will convert to USD starting November 20th.”

The link leads to the dedicated Steam Support page, where Valve detailed the changes. Here are the key takeaways:

• Starting November 20, Steam will begin to use USD as the main currency for users in Turkey and Argentina (instead of the lira and pesos);
• On November 20, any balance that users in Turkey and Argentina have on their Steam wallets will be converted to USD at the day’s exchange rate;
• New regionalized USD pricing — in LATAM-USD and MENA-USD — will be introduced to 25 additional countries in the LATAM and MENA (Middle East, North Africa) regions, including Panama, Guatemala, Bolivia, Venezuela, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Palestine, and Morocco;
• Some countries “may see pricing increase and others may see pricing decrease depending on how games were priced on Steam by the developer prior to this change”;
• Changes also apply to in-game purchases, and all subscriptions will be canceled after the end of the active period (new USD prices will apply to future re-subscriptions).

Why is Steam abandoning Turkish and Argentine currencies in favor of USD?

“Exchange rate volatility in Argentina and Turkey in recent years has made it hard for game developers to choose appropriate prices for their games and keep them current,” Valve explained. “We have heard this loud and clear in our developer meet ups and round table chats.”

The company added that it has struggled with operating in these territories and keeping regional payment methods due to the “constant foreign exchange fluctuations, fees, taxes, and logistical issues.”

“Pricing games in USD for Steam customers in Argentina and Turkey will help us provide greater stability and consistency for players and partners, while also enabling us to continue to offer a variety of payment methods to Steam users in those countries/territories,” Valve concluded.

Turkey and Argentina have long remained the two regions with historically cheap games. The prices were so attractive that some users, unwilling to pay $60 for new AAA releases, even started changing their Steam regions to these countries, digitally posing as Turkish and Argentine players and buying cheap games in lira and pesos.

The first changes happened in October 2022, when Steam updated its recommended regional prices, with Turkey and Argentina seeing hikes of more than 450%. At the time, the company explained that it had to “make significant changes to those conversion recommendations to stay current” with constantly evolving purchasing power and foreign exchange rates.

This led to many publishers increasing the prices for their products, but they still remained generally cheaper than in the US and Europe. The latest notable price hike occurred last week, with Activision games going up 1,000%-2,300% in Turkey and Argentina. Some titles even became more expansive compared to the US dollar — e.g. Call of Duty: Black Ops II now costs ARS 24,000 ($68.56) vs. the US base price of $59.99.

Valve also went on to update its minimum price thresholds for non-USD currencies to be at least equivalent to the $0.99 tier.