wilhelmwebber

I am postin g to support this (return of prices to Valve recommended ones in non-US stores). Sorry for the long post for the other users. This is geared more towards to Wildcard/Snail games than anything else. Hopefully this gets seen by some moderator and gets their attention. This matter really upset me. The stealth price increase was bad. But even if they released with the current price, opting out of Valve's suggested price it is still a bad decision. Valve's suggested price exists for a reason: if you simply use exchange rate you are not taking into account particularities of those specific market. I will use Brazil's example, since I am from Brazil. I am also in a particular privileged spot where I had the opportunity to live in the U.S. for some amount of time, hence I have insight in both markets and can say why their decision is bad with a bit more property. Suppose a worker is paid USD 5,000 dollars in the U.S. In the brazillian currency, this would be about 25,000 BRL. However, this is not what the same person working in Brazil would earn. It would be more likely around 8,000 BRL, which translates to about USD 1600 dollars. Of course, living costs end up being way smaller in Brazil as well. While one can rent a very good and spatious apartment with USD 500 in Brazil (~2500 BRL), in the U.S. it will be hard for you to even find something in this price range for renting. The main point of the above is that if a company wants to be successful in a given market, the company needs to adapt their pricing to that market. Otherwise, they will simply not sell, or sell less than they could do otherwise. Valve having a lot of insight into the global gaming market is in a particular good position as to say what is the pricing in each region that will maximize profits. Now, I obviously have no access to sales numbersof ASA in a given market, but I would not be surprised if they eventually find out that, by not using Valve's recommended price, they end up losing revenue. Also, this upset people that feels discriminated just because they happen to live in a country which is not first world. You may criticize as much as you want, but this is how I feel right now. Just to put matters into perspective. If I consider a US minimum wage of about 13 USD/hour, and a person working 22 days in the month by 8 hours, we get that the game costs about 2% of a minimum wage in the US. A similar calculation in Brazil put the game at more than 16% of the minimum wage. Brazilllians are used to pay more t things due to our weak currency and hefty taxes. But 8 times more is way out of line. That is the reason why Valve's recommended price exists. And my example is just for Brazil, which albeit is bad, I recognize there are countries that are in even worse conditions and saw the price getting in even weirder prices. For example, Argentina saw the price jump by almost 6 times. In addition the whole things is being completelly inconsistent, with markets in South Asia and CIS region following Valve's recommended price (which are far below what would be charged, e.g. in Brazil). Hence here is my plea to Wildcard/Snail Games. Adjust your global price structure to follow Valve's recommended game. Remember that while yes, you have the right to charge whatever you want for your game and be rewarded for the work it was done (and BTW, from the video reviews, I think it was a well done job), a game which is too expensive will just not get bought and you are just shooting yourself in the feet. I personally will not buy it while this does not get fixed.