It’s over, Steam shoppers – Valve has shut down the desire to change your region to take advantage of cheaper keys by making said keys more expensive in those regions. To boost alignment among PC gamers around the world, Valve has announced that it will no longer be supporting regional currencies in countries like Turkey and Argentina, instead opting to change them to USD as of November 2023.
It was said in an update on the Steam platform that this change will impact currencies in 27 countries, and that some countries ‘may see pricing increase and others may see pricing decrease’ as a result of the change. Valve stressed that this monumental change will make it easier to onboard developers, but it has been noted by many that this will stop gamers from posing as users in Turkey and Argentina to buy games at a cheaper rate in lira and pesos.
Grab Them While You Can
On November 20th, this change will go into effect, and overnight, users in Argentina, Turkey, and 25 other countries will see their storefronts change to display USD-based prices. In the update that was published on the Steam Support platform, this move was explained:
Exchange rate volatility in Argentina and Turkey in recent years has made it hard for game developers to choose appropriate prices for their games and keep them current. We have heard this loud and clear in our developer meet ups and round table chats. In addition, we have had a hard time keeping Steam payment methods up and running in these countries/territories due to the constant foreign exchange fluctuations, fees, taxes, and logistical issues. Pricing games in USD for Steam customers in Argentina and Turkey will help us provide greater stability and consistency for players and partners, while also enabling us to continue to offer a variety of payment methods to Steam users in those countries/territories.
Going forward, in-game transactions will also be changed to USD, and any active subscriptions being paid for in lira, pesos, or any other currency will end and users will need to re-subscribe at whatever the new USD-based rate will be.
In 2022, Valve made some adjustments already, which caused skyrocketing prices for some games – as much as 450% in some cases. It is an ongoing situation that has confused some consumers, as in some cases, the currency adjustments have caused some games to boast exorbitant price tags.
Here’s the full list of countries that will be impacted by this change:
Central America
- Belize
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Panama
South America
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Ecuador
- Guyana
- Paraguay
- Suriname
- Venezuela
Middle East
- Bahrain
- Egypt
- Iraq
- Jordan
- Lebanon
- Oman
- Palestine
- Turkey
- Yemen
North Africa
- Algeria
- Libya
- Morocco
- Tunisia
- Sudan
How do you think you’ll be impacted by this change? Have you ever changed your region in Steam to snatch some cheaper games? Let us know in the comments.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news about Starfield’s impact on the Game Pass service
