Valve rips off Brits

You just go on the Valve site and register under dome fago made-up name and set the country to "US".

OK, so who out of you stupids payed the extra $20 already? :)

You idiots. 50 US dollars in the US has the exact value as 50 euros in Europe. Only the currency difference is that $50 US dollars is 60 euros. 
So paying $50 in the US for a game is same as paying 50 euros in europe.
Mauby EU should stop improting games from Valve and/or Activision so they can suck our dicks!

"Why the discrepancy? There appears to be no apparent reasoning, beyond 'bad luck, sucks to be you'."


Because rights and benefits generated by taxes do not come for free. Remember, socialism helps the community at the expense of the individual, whether or not the individual actually benefits.

I've been using steam since HL2, along the way there have been some nice prices on some releases, but this....

Why cant the multimedia industry see the solution, lower prices = more sales = bigger userbase = more future customers = less piracy.



I just tried to buy Hellgate London off of EA Link, the digital download system from Electronic Arts.
Well guess how much that costs in the US ? $49,99. An for me in Europe ? €49,99.
And if I buy it off a shelf at my nearby supermarket ? €49,99.
Of course, if I buy the US version, I'll most probably not be able to actually use it and it would seem, from the similar stories I hear here and there, I wouldn't even get my money back.
So frankly, if I am to pay the same overcharge online as I would in a store, could someone please tell my why I should not prefer the hardware version sitting on a shelf ?
You know, the one I can expect to control on my own with the inevitable hacks that will come out like clockwork ?
This is ridiculous. Maintaining a digital download system costs pennies compared to having stuff shipped worldwide, yet the games sell for not a penny less.
Well I'm going to buy the expensive version then, the version that costs EA more to get to me. No reason to buy the digital one and give them complete control AND my money on top of it.

I sense the internet pipes in UK are going to be clogged from p2p downloading of said game :)

Don't pay it and they will soon drop the price. The mass's have the power if only they would use it. Look at DVD's etc.

Refer Activision to the EU Commission is what I say!

I want to state, that for European, the final price is around 80$, that's 55€ more or less, because steam doesn't include VAT/taxes. I recommend you buy the retail game at ebay (around 35€ with shipping cost included) or use the better way, the pirate way!!!

Come on guys!
You know steam is not the one regulating the prices of a third-party. They only offer the service with the appropriate premium of charge. 

I think activision has been made clear by retailers not to mess their sales. That's why they made the launch on the 12th. However, I can't see why increase the price for different countries. Here in Cyprus is still a 'US' price of $49.95. Maybe because it's a small country and activision does not sell the game here exclusively?

Dark Messiah had a different quirk. It didn't allow me to buy it off steam back then. At least activision found a different formula...


whole point of steam was to be cheaper as the distribution costs are negligible. Interesting how play.com can sell it for £30, That makes it cheaper in the uk to actually buy a physical product. And with that you can actually play it the day you buy it, unlike steams awful content delivery system which never has enough bandwidth, why pay more?

Symantec Norton 360 $79.99 or €89.99. Considering a € is (more than) 1.4 u$d, €uropeans get to pay (more than) 125,99$. I'm not a yard, gallon and pound expert, but 125,99 looks like 160% of what they pay on the other side of the pond.
Were the VOLE less greedy (and apply a fairer €/$ rate), I might have afforded excel.... but since it cost about 200% what they pay in the states.....

Things like Valve Steam are more expensive in Blighty because the cost of doing business there is higher. The cost of doing business there is higher because the cost of living there is higher. As one example of this, look at the price of Valve Steam.

See?!?

[Are you dizzy yet?]

Valve only set the prices on their own games, Activision (spit) tells valve how much money they want for their games.

They also tell valve when to release their games on valve. In this case, on monday, either 6, or 3 days after retail depending on your location.

As it is, the valve price is just over UK retail once you take the VAT into account. which is Activision's fault, because they're bistards (probably forced by retail chains to delay/overprice digital distro, but still, it's a munty thing to do).

Turns out the $70 price isn't even uniform across Europe.

Some countries, like Cyprus and Estonia, get charged $49.95 like the US (and Australia) and only certain select territories get utterly ripped off by Activision.

And aparently it is Activision not Valve that's directly at fault in this as if it's a third party product being sold through Steam them the third party get's to set the pricing.

Of course why Steam is willing to go along with this and the bad feeling it can't help but generate is another matter.

Do the Euro prices not include say VAT though, as most US prices do not, that will at least count for some of the discrepancy, making it without VAT around say $59 rather than the $69, which is still more than $49 but not quite as a big a difference now.

Even non-UK based companies are assisting in the whole "rip-off Britain" scam!!

I, for one, won't be buying COD4 for my PC. I never intended on buying it anyway. But, don't let on!

I usually see these price differences from an understanding view: you have to take into account the VAT that we pay in Europe but doesn't exist in most of the US (16% here in Spain), and you also have to take into account other regulations that can force a difference in prices (a two year warranty is mandatory in the EU, and that increases the cost of selling IT equipment by a lot, maybe another 20%), and maybe different transportation costs (that shoudn't be more than a 3-5%, I guess)

Now, this is a computer program, so no warranty is to be expected (draconian terms of use are to be set instead, no doubt), and through Steam delivery cost is exactly the same.

On an Asus Eee I can understand most of the difference. But this time this is a rip-off. And it creates some doubts that the other cases, a priori more understandable, might also be mostly abuse of power.

Sort it out valve or we're going back to retail which is cheaper and we end up with a viceral package to put on a shelf.

Greedy muppets.




At the same time the Cod 4 buy now! and preload window turned up on my desktop with that nice price 69.95 it was also avilable on torrentsites for illegal download! 
I bet they wonder why there is so much piracy!
1. steam should have a policy not too sell games above 49$ (there is no reason in hell that game should cost that much)
2. If sold at 29$ i bet the they would have sold 5x more copies.
You dont need do be a rocket scientist to figure out what which solution makes the most money.

How appropriate, i just checked the claim myself, and guess what? This little thing popped up under the news section:

Now on Steam - Two Worlds

Yeah, all we netizens have noticed this for years... They all do it, Dell, HP, MS, <insert company of choice>.
When will this, the most global of all businesses, learn?
Well, money talks, i guess I'll be enjoying some other games this pre-yule time.

So the european price includes the VAT while the US price *does not* include the state and local sales taxes.

You all are making something out of nothing.

I think these prices are VAT exclusive - steam adds it on afterwards, or at least it did the last time I bought a game from steam - Half Life 2 episode 1. 

Amazon is cheaper for many current games, Quake Wars and the Orange Box for example.

Sort it out Valve - you've cut out all the middlemen - share the savings with the customer.

$69.95 = £33.55

Standard shop retail price is £34.99 to £39.99

In the end Steam is still cheaper but not as cheap as play.com, £29.99 free delivery.

As mentioned before Activison sets the prices for its games. If you now look at things EU still is and always was paying more for no matter what we get over what you pay in US, even with the £1 being worth more then $2.

It's all good and well to talk about business cost, bust steam is located in the US, and remains located in the US, and they don't sell you anything but access to their download, no box, no physical manifestation at all, so I'm not even sure they have to pay VAT even, but certainly they don't have to pay personal in europe, or shipping, or shopkeepers, so in fact even $49.95 is a rip-off.
(And do you want to bet it has ingame ads? or will have soon, making them even richer over your back)

You would have to be crazy to buy anything off steam imo.I have hated it ever since i bought HL2 and had to put up with the myriad of pointless updates so i just dont play it anymore and i havent and will never buy from such a service again.Sure i will play the games but they wont need steam to run.
Oh and if i buy cod4 i will get it in a store called smyths,theyre new release games are nearly always £23-£24 which is under $50 u.s. I bought ET quake wars on release day for £19.99 there, not bad eh?