News Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

for me, I like to see for myself whether a game sucks or not because I've read too many reviews, where my gameplay experience doesn't agree with the result. And I don't like the idea of buying a game that i'll end up not playing.

 

Are prices in Europe for steam games unfair for all of them, all just non Valve games? Cause I don't think they have any control over other publishers in terms of pricing and release date. Although I wish they'd just make it so if you want to release on steam you do so universally. Staggered releases for regions are pointless.

 

Surely the games, nevermind what region you're in are always the same game, (besides languages, I guess) and so they should ALL be charged at the same price?
VAT and everything is fine, that's not Valve's fault.

But if a game is $30 on Steam on the american store.
Why should someone in another region have to pay more for the same game, just because they live somewhere else?
It's all on the same service, it's all on the internet. No shipping costs or anything like that.
It just makes no sense, and is obviously just a way to overprice products for abroad like they do with physical objects.
To see if they can get away with it, perhaps?

 

so does the edit button...

 

Not all are identical, for example, in Germany they have to Censor most FPS games.

Why should they make someone in another region pay more? I bet there are contracts in place that prevent them from having a too big price difference to retail shops.


Yes, Pirating can be caused by providing too little service to customers, but Valve saying so doesnt address the problem behind it, the Game developers and Distributors still have to act.

 

Isn't pricing based on the economic status of a country? I forget the country (thinking Africa) but there were new retail games selling for a fraction of what the EU & US pays for a game. I can't remember the whole deal but EA was pissed that EU consumers were buying up games at a lower price. EA said they set the lower price based on the average income of the region and that the prices were for them only. They were trying to prevent sales to foreign markets at the set sale price for the region.

ex. Duke Nukem Forever (haha) $50 in EU and US. $20 in Zambia.

 

glad to see Valve has their head screwed on better than most

 

i think EA is confusing the EU with a country....

 

No HTML works here.

EDIT: I missed a page.

 

Grammatical error fixed.

Anyway, this is bollocks tbh. People pirate because the risk involved is less than the cost of the pirated item. If the punishment was the death sentence, people in Russia would suddenly be able to wait 6 months for the release and pay the fee to play.

 

One of the main issues is that even though different prices around the EU are common, as EU citizens we are supposed to be able to access stores in other EU nations on the same terms as the citizens of that nation. There are a few online stores that are in violation of this and it looks like the European Commission is having a hard time enforcing it

 

and some wonder why we (UK) do not want to goto EUROs

 

Well, as a mostly honest PC gamer who buys nearly all of my games I have to say I think it is no wonder folk pirate things these days. I mean take one example, I bought Merceneries 2 world in flames a few months back, installed it and then when I get to the intro it crashes, movies won't play and the game generally fails to start unless I delete all the movie files.

Now having paid £30 for a gmae the last thing you expect is stuff like that, and E-Mailing twice to the customer services department I get the same old sh*te update drivers, done that, re-install, done that too, I MAKE SURE MY SYSTEM'S up to date first, y'know all the usual stuff, and I am appalled that EA hasn't yet released a patch to fix all the bugs folk are having with this game.

Now I can respect the fact that bugs are sometimes non-avoidable with games sometimes, but it's no excuse when your bein charged full whack for a game of this state that's clearly not fit for retail yet.

A game I'm checkin out now is Saints Row 2, I decided that as Gamespot and other sites claim it has performance issues, I might just have a try before I hand over my money to these people who, if they're gonna be lazy and treat us PC Gamers like Sh*t by not optimising and making a Lazy port of Console games, then why should I be interested in buying thier crap? It don't persuade new gamers to come on the platform if all they get is this kinda stuff.

BTW this isn't just me ranting on, it's the truth really, added to which the selection of PC titles and genres is narrowing to such an extent that all you can get is RPG's and MMO's,FPS's now(where the hell'd all the driving games go and Metal Gear Solid series being ported to the PC and that stuff eh?) and the fact that EA Games is a classic with thier bloody £20 rip-off expansion packs for the Sims that folk seem to keep buyin are all good signs, well to me anyway, that being a Legit PC gamer is no longer worthwhile unless publishers get thier finger out of thier arse and start treating us with a little respect.

They wnat our money right? Well give me a worthwhile product that is actually finished and let me try before I buy and then I may just start paying you for it fellas.
Sam The Bam

 

I have been gaming for around 20 years now, and for the last 15 there hasn't been a game I'm interested in that I haven't had a pirate version of. I know that sounds bad, but there is a method in my madness.

Over the first 5 years I managed to get ripped off a lot. Games that were supposed to be good, were not. In the end I became fed up with companies getting my cash for a game that wasn't worth the asking price.

So now if I fancy a game, I will get a pirate version of it. I will play it, and if it is bad, then it gets deleted. On the other hand, if it is good, I go out and pay for a retail version to show my support to the company.

I am rare in that approach I know, most pirates (Not all! - before anyone gets on their high horse) don't pay for a retail version, why should they when they already have the game? But in my opinion, how are we going to get better games if we don't show the companies which ones are worth paying their prices for?

 

All these devs/publishers are wacked.
Pirates pirate because...
1. It's Free!!!!!
2. Restrictive DRM.
3. ...

Last game I bought was FarCry2. Damn...what a disappointment. WTF earned this game such high marks?
Looks like I'll have to add BioWare games to the pirate first list, what a buggy POS.

 

Far Cry 2 was still worth it IMO. £20 is what games should cost.

 

I do not like paying to beta test a game, by the time the bugs are finally patched (if ever) I will have moved on to something else.

 

Then you might want to concider an alternative. Delay buying new titles. I do this quite regularly now and avoid all the hassle of release bugs. I generally wait for the deluxe packs (original+expansion) or game of the year editions to turn up on the shelves Unless the online aspect of the game is exceptional (i.e left4dead).
Myself and a friend recently bought Titan quest+Expansion for £10. A great hack n slash co-op at a bargin price.
Unfortunately when it comes to computer games there are few developers that release quality product that works straight out of the box and only require patching to balance gameplay. From my experience anyways.

 

It is always gratifying to see someone draw the same obvious conclusion that you did some time ago. Piracy is just the product of a failure in self-targeted marketing.