I'm worried this will just mean full EU1 price for everybody.
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Didn't EU2 already pay EU1 prices? Valve thinks that Eastern Europe is the same slice of paradise as its Western counterpart, since long before I even joined Steam.
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I meant, they're going to pay same prices at physical retail too now.
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Most of the time yes, but it depends on the publishers. They can set the price for EU2 however they want
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No, it's (now) simply illegal to offer better prices to another country.
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Physical copies still reflect most of the time the salary differences. For example, metro epicodus was 60eur on steam, 63-64 eur with EU illegal transaction fee on epic spyware, the physical copy (even if it has only key in it) with poster included ca.38eur.
But that works only on AAA games, I like indie games and I just never buy any on release because the prices are retards.
I am not sure if it's accurate or not but google search showed me that Turkey has better average salaries than some East-EU countries. I am not sure it is really so but now I am shocked as let see, an indie HoG which was released a few days ago Demon Hunter 5 is 12eur currently for "rich" East-EU (except lucky Poland which big enough for steam to have own price region) while it is only 3,18eur for Turkey? I mean, if those average salaries are true then wtf.
On other hands this EU decision now will kill polish price region, it will be removed and publishers will increase the price of the physical copies here too.
God Bless Slaver EU!
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"Eu bringing us all together?" Right? Gate has opened, flood is incoming.
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"These business practices ultimately denied European consumers the benefits of the EU's Digital Single Market to shop around for the most attractive offer."
+1
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This might be good news. Wolfenstein without geo-block would mean: uncut in germany without the need to wait 90days
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I think Germany will rather pay high fines, than change our legislature towards "verfassungsfeindliche Symbole".
The easy way, accept games as art and handle them the same as movies, would be "Neuland" ...
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The problem for the publisher, as mentioned in the article is that "the rules will now be applied to video games in the same way they are used for films. On a case-by-case basis, a game could get past the rating procedure if an artistic or dramatic use is justified."
As far as I know, no big publisher has tried to get their AAA title through the process, so there is still the danger of 'no rating', which would ban the game from sales in stores.
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True, as far as I know only a small indie game has done it so far.
The problem is that they censor themselves before even trying to get the rating :/
But I'm still optimistic :)
I think it just needs one big game, so that other publishers notice that they don't have to worry anymore about that stuff.
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Germany will rather pay high fines
so very true :D
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Well, a small silver lining on the horizon: with the USK changing its stance towards the interpretation of §86a regarding the use of such symbols in games, at least on paper - someday in the future and at the minimum I'd like to be able to do something similar to what hoops I had to jump through back in the day, when I had to order such games from Austria, instead of getting unreasonably patronized without any semi-legal chance to circumvent such idiotic regulations. And, maybe, just maybe, this objection helps us customers with protecting our rights concerning the whole ownership/licensing/reselling gray area and leads towards a more open discussion and reformation of that whole matter.
Hey, or maybe Morpheus chats me up and I'll take the red pill and everything will not only stay the same, but get much worse ;P. Matter of perspective, I guess ;>.
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I wonder if this will end up affecting Steams 10% price difference gifting policy?
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we all want russian prices!!! ( ͡€ ͜ʖ ͡€) ( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°) ( ͡€ ͜ʖ ͡€)
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Humanity does not abolish money early? ┐(´Θ`)┌ 👽
Is there no replicator?
Ferenghi has turned to humans.
[Will be you!]
Such a future is waiting.
Oh, I don't need 💲 or Latinum. ( ｢'Θ') 🥒
I received such a delusion.May be tired. ε-(´･Θ･`)
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pff, why admit you're wrong when you can drop a glourious "eot". have polish fun there.
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you dont live poland,you dont know how real we earnings money per month so just gtfo dude.New AAA game its 1/6 minimal monthly salary you smartass.How many AAA game you buy for this same minimal salary??? i think much much more ,then just shut up.
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well by your logic, do you live in russia then? neither do i, but you don't have to live in a country to match up some numbers. which is a rocket science to you i suppose.
let's say triple A game is 60 euros worldwide, then it's 30 euros in russia, for example you can check devil may cry 5 prices right now.
minimum wage in poland is peaked at about 500 euros this year, while in russia it's 150. we can even drop your wage to 2015's 420 if you feel so poor.
420 / 60 = 7 games
150 / 30 = 5 games
oh noez. russians still can't buy more games than you given the price handicap. unbelievable.
so i guess im getting the f out right now with my stupid official numbers that don't mean anything cause i dont live in those countries and know nothing. try google, i heard it can search.
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--> sorry.ec.europa.eu
the, fun.
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Finally! Instead of the 60€ prices of EU2 I will be also able to buy the games for 60€ from EU1!
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From country (my) where minimum salary: 380 EUR per month.
Hmm, why we have piracy?
Sorry but I want full regional lock and local prices.
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Do each game copy requires further resources? No. Each PC parts costs: each time: materials, work, transport.
Next, next and next game copy NOT.
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Games cost money to make. The justification for their cost to create is taking into account the number of copies sold. Replication may be a nearly zero portion of that cost, but the labor and time is not.
A better counter argument is the fact that your computer is a worthwhile investment for more reasons than gaming and will generally provide a better return on investment over time than a 4-40 hour long game.
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For immediate release: Valve - EC Investigation
Earlier today, the European Commission ("EC") sent Statements of Objections ("SO") to Valve and five publishers in an investigation that it started in 2013. The EC alleges that the five publishers entered into agreements with their distributors that included geo-blocking provisions for PC games sold by the distributors, and that separately Valve entered into agreements with the same publishers that prevented consumers in the European Economic Area ("EEA") from purchasing PC games because of their location.
However, the EC's charges do not relate to the sale of PC games on Steam - Valve's PC gaming service. Instead the EC alleges that Valve enabled geo-blocking by providing Steam activation keys and - upon the publishers' request - locking those keys to particular territories ("region locks") within the EEA. Such keys allow a customer to activate and play a game on Steam when the user has purchased it from a third-party reseller. Valve provides Steam activation keys free of charge and does not receive any share of the purchase price when a game is sold by third-party resellers (such as a retailer or other online store).
The region locks only applied to a small number of game titles. Approximately just 3% of all games using Steam (and none of Valve's own games) at the time were subject to the contested region locks in the EEA. Valve believes that the EC's extension of liability to a platform provider in these circumstances is not supported by applicable law. Nonetheless, because of the EC's concerns, Valve actually turned off region locks within the EEA starting in 2015, unless those region locks were necessary for local legal requirements (such as German content laws) or geographic limits on where the Steam partner is licensed to distribute a game. The elimination of region locks will also mean that publishers will likely raise prices in less affluent regions to avoid price arbitrage. There are no costs involved in sending activation keys from one country to another and the activation key is all a user needs to activate and play a PC game.
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This is against EU antitrust rules.
If they eventually fine them, preferably sooner than later, that will be at least one good thing from EU.
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This may get interesting:
The Commission's preliminary view is that Valve and the five PC video game publishers entered into bilateral agreements to prevent consumers from purchasing and using PC video games acquired elsewhere than in their country of residence (so-called “geo-blocking”).
This is against EU antitrust rules.
Full Presse Release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-2010_en.htm
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