Depending on the game and the Country, some games have almost doubled in price. In a move first noticed by Reddit user u/MJuniorDC9, major triple-A publisher EA is raising the prices in various currencies for most, if not all, their games on Steam.
For an example of how deep the price changes are, in the case of Sim City 4: Deluxe Edition and Great Brittan, the price went from £9.99 to £17.99. For an example of how wide-ranging the EA price changes are, the cost of the Mass Effect Collection was changed in all of the following currencies:
- Argentine Peso
- Brasilian Real
- British Pound
- Canadian Dollar
- Chilean Peso
- Colombian Peso
- Emirati Dirham
- Euro
- Indian Rupee
- Indonesian Rupiah
- Israeli New Shekel
- Malaysian Ringgit
- Mexican Peso
- New Zealand Dollar
- Norwegian Krone
- Philippine Peso
- Polish Zloty
- Russian Ruble
- Singapore Dollar
- South African Rand
- South Korean Won
- Swiss Franc
- Taiwan Dollar
- Thai Baht
- Turkish Lira
- Ukrainian Hryvnia
Depending on the combination of game and region, the price changes vary greatly, and in a few cases, the overseas price is actually lower than the base US price. This wide variation of pricing, along with the complete lack of announcement ahead of the price changes, points to a couple of different causes.
EA could be trying to drive business back to its Origin store on PCs. Until recently, the only place to buy EA published titles was on Origin, and that store is still the only place to get some games, like Apex: Legends. Now, these EA price changes are a way to recapture the lost revenue that comes when Valve takes their cut of a game’s sale on Steam. By bumping up prices in places where a game didn’t sell well on Origin when it was first released, EA gets a second chance to get full price for an older game.
EA could have some tool that monitors currency value fluctuations and adjusts their Steam price to match. EA is one of the biggest companies in the games industry, so it would not be a surprise to learn that for them investing in a tool to do this type of thing would actually be cost-effective.
All speculation aside, an announcement from EA preceding these price changes would have displayed a minimal consideration to the people who play and love games outside of the US.
As EA raises prices, how will this change the market?
