Unfair Steam Prices?

[Armi]

Hi there,

http://store.steampowered.com/app/73010/
I'm thinking about buying this game on Steam, but I have noticed that the Steam prices are unfair for the Europeans. :wacko:
Comparison Screenshot: http://i56.tinypic.com/xmvksz.png
Comparison Site: http://www.steamprices.com/eu/app/73010/cities-in-motion

European prices more expensive than the U.S.A. prices.
19.99 USD not equal 19,99 EUR! :S It is approx. 15-14 EUR. :wacko:

Please reduce the prices, or do something. Thanks.
By the way, the game is awesome.

 

[Poro-]

This is common problem, almost every game is same price with euros and dollars. I guess this has something to do with the fact that US prices are free of sales tax, compared to european prices which include sales tax or VAT. Of course VAT varies between countries, but for example in Finland VAT is 23% which means that Steam pays 4.5 euros of VAT for every purchase, this brings price down to same levels of US store.

 

[delra]

Do they actually pay those 5 euros or only pretend they do?

 

[Poro-]

Do they actually pay those 5 euros or only pretend they do?

I guess they have to, unless they want to get some deep shit with court... They already have some previous experience with Amazon, who first refused to pay because they said that amazon.co.uk is UK based store, and now they have to pay finnish taxes... (it sucks, since now it is more expensive to order from Amazon...)

edit: and also they say so in their receipt statements....

 

[unmerged(252959)]

What Poro said. Except that the taxable amount in the US varies from state to state?

Hope the Steam thing won't put you off completely from buying the game. I would think that there's not much Paradox or the devs can do about it anyway. Perhaps you can address the problem to the support at Steam directly?

But IMHO Cities in Motion is much more valuable than those $/€ 20, anyway. But if you're really skint/don't want to pay those few "extra" Euros, can you consider waiting a bit longer = get a physical copy instead?

A list of retailers I've collected can be found at http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...lers-That-Have-CiM-Listed-in-Their-Catalogues

At the cheapest you might be looking at £ 13, P&P included -- assuming you live in Europe?

 

[unmerged(263257)]

Wow, that's news to me... NOT!

Proxy -> UK/US Account -> pay less......

Just ordered it on steam. I think 20€ is a fine price for this game. Amazon charges 30€. I won't pay 10€ for a box and a dvd, which I will only use once.

 

[Okeanos]

buy it on play.com
EUR 16.49 Free Delivery
http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/186...pe=allproducts&searchsource=0&urlrefer=search

 

[unmerged(169164)]

This is common problem, almost every game is same price with euros and dollars. I guess this has something to do with the fact that US prices are free of sales tax, compared to european prices which include sales tax or VAT. Of course VAT varies between countries, but for example in Finland VAT is 23% which means that Steam pays 4.5 euros of VAT for every purchase, this brings price down to same levels of US store.

Taxes are secondary for this issue that goes beyond the video games market. The primary cause is the importance of the US market for most salers around the world and the captivity of consumers around the world.

No matter how of a USD one Euro buys, the nominal price in Euro is always equal or superior to the price in USD as long as one Euro buys at least one USD. If not, you can forget the equal option. Taxes would reflect the relative strength of Euro vs USD in some sort of way.

 

[Poro-]

ChienAboyeur: True, but I just wanted to point out the obvious reason.

For European customers, who do not want to pay Steam premium, TheHut offers cheapest Cities in Motion (http://www.thehut.com/games/platforms/pc/cities-in-motion/10310600.html), 11.85 GBP roughly 14eur (1 eur shipping, free for UK)

 

[unmerged(51546)]

There are ways you can buy from Steam anywhere in the world paying in USD, just use Google
Besides, Steam is not the only store selling it for 20USD.

Tell EU to shove this VAT!

 

[delra]

But they can do all kind of stupid thigns later on to your account.

 

[unmerged(51546)]

But they can do all kind of stupid thigns later on to your account.

I don't think so, it's like you are european and you are travelling to the US and you open your Steam account on US territory with a local IP. Is that against the rules?

 

[unmerged(169164)]

Tell EU to shove this VAT!

The VAT is a secondary cause. They could remove their VAT with little effect actually.

The primary cause is that the US market is a priviledged market.

 

[Polar-eX]

Although i use steam for a lot of games, i must have this game in a boxed version.
Steam has only good prices when there are weekend deals or during the holiday sales. Lately steam had an action: Empire total war + all DLC & Napolean total war + all DLC for 39,99 euro's.
After a search on the Internet i bought the complete pack boxed at a dutch toy store for 18 euro's.

 

[unmerged(178164)]

For starters, everyone bookmark this site steamprices for future reference. Also an interesting read for some is Ultimate guide to pay less for Steam games

Secondly I live "down under" (aka Australia) and it's fair to say we have it rougher then most (40% difference). In this case, using a proxy saves a fortune regulary. However I'd be careful of doing it (openly) as I believe its in violation of the user agreement. I.e- When you purchase a game "when visiting the states" as someone said, you actually have to declare you live in the states at the time of sale via a tick box. This maybe can be seen as fraud and you're game license cancelled or even your entire account cancelled.

Please also note that the prices are apparently not set by Steam, so you have at least directed your disappointment to the correct entity. Doubt this will change anything, as threads have been started in quite a few different games about the steam region pricing to no avail. I do hope paradox see the light and address this issue.

Edit: before anyone mentions the Aussie tax system, the only tax applies to games in the GST (similar to VAT) which is a flat 10%. No other tax will apply.