Recent Price Changes in Steam (Turkey)

[Xeonen]

Hello,

Steam has changed pricing policy for Turkey and the policy is in effect as of now. From now on, Turkey is within the MENA region of pricing policy. However, from what I see FGU developers either did not change the price according to the regions or there is no guidelines for the region. The price for FGU Standard License is 40 USD and Ultimate Upgrade is 110 USD. Normally, these prices were within the range of Steam correction and buying power of the Turks. The local community bought as many licences as possible before the changes but now, with zero correction on the prices, it is impossible for any Turk to buy any product from the FGU.

Let me iterate the basic situation in Turkey, the median wage in Turkey is the same as the minimum wage which is 416TL. I (as a lead data engineer and tutor and an advisor) earn a bit over 1000 USD mark and I am considered top 0.01% of the population. Right now, it is downright impossible for any Turk to get FGU. It was a fight against the tide to get people to buy FGU instead of pirating FoundryVTT and D&D modules, now, there is no way for any progress to be made.

What I would recommend is at least add a bit of correction back to the Steam version so people in third world countries like Turkey is able to buy your product. There are Steam recommendations or economical models. I can provide one model for you and I can even write a Python script for it if needed. This is called the Mc Donald's model.

A Big Mac costs 130TL in Turkey, and a person with median wage (in Turkey that is minimum-wage) can buy 12000/130 = 92.31 big macs (yes, it is not possible to survive on big mac in Turkey).

A Big Mac costs 5.58 USD in USA, and a person with median wage earns 2916.67 USD in USA (source (https://datacommons.org/place/country/USA/?utm_medium=explore&mprop=income&popt=Person&cpv=age,Years15Onwards&hl=en#)). This person can buy 2916.67/5.58 = 522.70 big macs (don't eat it all the time).

So, the quotient would be 92.31/522.70 = 0.1766. You can simply multiply this number with any prices to get the corrected price. A person in Turkey will feel the same buying stress as someone buying it in USA.

Also for anyone who would say Turks deserve this or we aren't hardworking people, my partner who is a lawyer is working for minimum-wage and I can afford a lot of things by working in three different jobs at the same time. We are doing all we can.

[Nylanfs]

That sounds like a problem with Steam, I can't imagine that each publisher has to set regional pricing PER country, because that sounds horribly inefficient.

[LordEntrails]

This is probably a discussion to have directly with SmiteWorks. Those of us in the community are not going to be aware of the business side of things. You can reach them via the Help > Contact link; Or if I got the right category for your concern, this link; Other questions - Fantasy Grounds Customer Support - Jira Service Management (atlassian.net) (https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/group/4/create/4)

Good luck and I'm sure SmiteWorks will do what they can to help out.

[ddavison]

We are aware of the changes but we are unable to make the changes in pricing until after the holidays. If we change the price for even a single region, we will be prohibited from participating in sales.

The FG website has a straight currency conversion.

[Xeonen]

That sounds like a problem with Steam, I can't imagine that each publisher has to set regional pricing PER country, because that sounds horribly inefficient.

Weirdly enough, Steam has made the problem worse by recent actions. All in all, it became a lose lose situation both for clients and for companies.


This is probably a discussion to have directly with SmiteWorks. Those of us in the community are not going to be aware of the business side of things. You can reach them via the Help > Contact link; Or if I got the right category for your concern, this link; Other questions - Fantasy Grounds Customer Support - Jira Service Management (atlassian.net) (https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/group/4/create/4)

Good luck and I'm sure SmiteWorks will do what they can to help out.

Thanks for the heads up. My post was more or less aimed at the moderators and the members of the management. Although ddavison has replied, I've also opened a ticket there to keep it within the Jira backend.


We are aware of the changes but we are unable to make the changes in pricing until after the holidays. If we change the price for even a single region, we will be prohibited from participating in sales.

The FG website has a straight currency conversion.

Thanks for the information, I will inform the Turkish RPG community about the developments and tell them there is still hope and changes may happen after holiday sales.

[ddavison]

Thanks for your help. We would love to see the community expand within Turkey.

[Xeonen]

We are aware of the changes but we are unable to make the changes in pricing until after the holidays. If we change the price for even a single region, we will be prohibited from participating in sales.

The FG website has a straight currency conversion.

Pinging this up as the holidays (winter sale) has ended. Some games on Steam moved on to switch their prices and some did not and forsake the Turkish population.

[LordEntrails]

My impression from Doug's prior post is that they can't effectively make these changes to the Turkish store front until after January 1, 2024. That's about 3 more weeks.

[Xeonen]

My impression from Doug's prior post is that they can't effectively make these changes to the Turkish store front until after January 1, 2024. That's about 3 more weeks.

My apologies then, living in Turkey I am not very well versed with the holiday season thing. If it is winter sales, Christmas or something along those lines can be mixed up. We do celebrate new year in here though...

[LordEntrails]

My apologies then, living in Turkey I am not very well versed with the holiday season thing. If it is winter sales, Christmas or something along those lines can be mixed up. We do celebrate new year in here though...
No problem :) Hope I didn't come across poorly.

In the US, the Holiday season is typically from Thanksgiving (a unique American holiday celebrated the 4th Thursday of November) to Christmas (celebrated December 25th) to New Years (Jan 1st).

Doug probably meant the Steam Winter Sale, which this year is predicted to be December 21 to January 4th. I think he was saying that Steam would not allow anything to go on sale for the Winter Sale if they had been through a price change (even in one regional store) within the time frame prior to the start of the Winter Sale. I think it is usually 8 weeks prior that Steam 'locks' out any price changes (i.e. does not allow a product to be put on sale w/in 8 weeks of a price change).

8 weeks plus the ~3 week sale is a long time to have to wait for the correction, and even worse in that you (and the Turkish community) won't be able to take advantage of the Steam Winter Sale this year *sad face*.

[ddavison]

Sorry Xeonen, LordEntrails is correct. Hopefully we can get it squared away for you in early January. I’m sorry for the wait.

[Xeonen]

No problem :) Hope I didn't come across poorly.

In the US, the Holiday season is typically from Thanksgiving (a unique American holiday celebrated the 4th Thursday of November) to Christmas (celebrated December 25th) to New Years (Jan 1st).

Doug probably meant the Steam Winter Sale, which this year is predicted to be December 21 to January 4th. I think he was saying that Steam would not allow anything to go on sale for the Winter Sale if they had been through a price change (even in one regional store) within the time frame prior to the start of the Winter Sale. I think it is usually 8 weeks prior that Steam 'locks' out any price changes (i.e. does not allow a product to be put on sale w/in 8 weeks of a price change).

8 weeks plus the ~3 week sale is a long time to have to wait for the correction, and even worse in that you (and the Turkish community) won't be able to take advantage of the Steam Winter Sale this year *sad face*.

Losing 50% discounts was a huge hit but if there will be any change at the end, it is worth waiting. There will be other 50% discounts in the future, it is when I actively push community to get an Ultimate edition. Sadly, as of now, 8th of January there is no change in the situation.

[Xeonen]

Sorry Xeonen, LordEntrails is correct. Hopefully we can get it squared away for you in early January. I’m sorry for the wait.

Is there any news about the process? If there is anything I can do to help, I am willing to do my best.

[ddavison]

Thanks for your follow up.

It is a very tedious process, but I submitted around 1000 price updates that were split across the Mena region you mentioned, and also a new Latin region. We have around 3K DLC and each one needs to be set and submitted separately. I focused on as many of the D&D, Pathfinder, ruleset, and core rules modules as I could. If there is something you really want, let me know and I can see about setting some more of them.

[Xeonen]

Thanks for your follow up.

It is a very tedious process, but I submitted around 1000 price updates that were split across the Mena region you mentioned, and also a new Latin region. We have around 3K DLC and each one needs to be set and submitted separately. I focused on as many of the D&D, Pathfinder, ruleset, and core rules modules as I could. If there is something you really want, let me know and I can see about setting some more of them.

Thanks for the update this is wonderful! The core FGU and FGU Ultimate may need to be prioritized as they are the first thing someone buys. Although I am a SWADE guy, I can wait, what Turkish community plays is 95% D&D so your focus is perfectly accurate!

Thanks again for all the good work and spending weeks of your time to change the prices of thousands upon thousands of products!

[Nylanfs]

That sounds ... horrendous, like Abyssal levels of torture.

Shouldn't there be something on Valve's side that the developer would be able to set that says "Use regional pricing on all releases & DLC for Title X" That then just uses the US price as the base line and simply converts to an equivalent unit of pay in that region? ie 20USD = 1 Hour of average pay (USA) = 1 Hour of average pay <Insert region here> = X <Region currency>

Of course I guess that really only applies to developers that have a LOT of titles or DLC, most have only a handful so I guess would be less of a hassle for them so Valve doesn't see the benefit in coding something into the store for that.

[ddavison]

We are an outlier. Most publishers on Steam don't have a huge catalog like we do. I just don't think they design with people like us in mind.

[Nylanfs]

You and the Farming Simulator. :)