Home Gaming Change regions on Steam to get cheaper games? Well, I have some bad news for you

Change regions on Steam to get cheaper games? Well, I have some bad news for you

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Gaming is a super expensive hobby on its own. But it’s made even more costly if you happen to find yourself in certain countries, like, for example, one country down at the southern tip of Africa. Whether it’s because of brutal exchange rates, logistics, or some other impenetrable voodoo, some regions worldwide get slapped with high prices while others get things way cheaper. This sucks, but it is what it is. Luckily, if you were getting your games via the Steam store, there was a workaround for this. Unluckily, Valve is now taking that workaround away.

Previously, if you used a VPN to fool Steam into thinking you’re connecting from a different location, you could then access the version of the Steam store native to this new country. Usually, savvy gamers would change their country in this manner to whichever country had the cheapest price for the game they were looking for. However, as SteamDB revealed in a tweet, “In a further crack down on people buying games in cheaper regions, Valve added a limit on how often you can change your Steam account’s country.” As the tweet continues, SteamDB explained that while you can still change regions – because people obviously move around for real – “Country may not be updated more than once every 3 months. Purchases can be completed using a payment method from your current region.”

This issue of different prices made headlines last year when a PC version of former PlayStation exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn debuted on the Steam store with a much lower selling price in Argentina. This resulted in gamers from other countries frantically changing regions to access the Argentinian Steam Store. Unfortunately, once this made news, the blowback was that HZD’s Argentinian price was then just raised to match the US dollar price.

Valve has since been trying to patch this particular loophole (it previously restricted allowing you to use a credit card from outside of the Steam store country), so this isn’t too surprising but it still sucks a little for anybody just looking to save a buck where they can. Knowing how resourceful gamers are though, it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody finds another way to get their fix a little bit cheaper.

Last Updated: June 24, 2021

9 Comments

  1. I wish GoG would adopt regional pricing as well. Buying games in dollars is too expensive most of the time.

    Reply

  2. null.wrom

    June 25, 2021 at 05:33

    But it’s made even more costly if you happen to find yourself in certain countries, like, for example, one country down at the southern tip of Africa.

    We still talking about Steam here? Games on Steam are overall significantly cheaper in South Africa.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      June 25, 2021 at 05:45

      No, just talking gaming in general there.

      Reply

    • HvR

      June 25, 2021 at 06:29

      It is actually awesome, playing with friends in the UK and they “we are playing this new game that is still beta but it is like 30/40 pounds” and you check the SA steam store and it is R200 with an extra 25% mystery discount.

      Reply

    • HvR

      June 25, 2021 at 06:29

      It is actually awesome, playing with friends in the UK and they “we are playing this new game that is still beta but it is like 30/40 pounds” and you check the SA steam store and it is R200 with an extra 25% mystery discount.

      Reply

    • HvR

      June 25, 2021 at 06:29

      It is actually awesome, playing with friends in the UK and they “we are playing this new game that is still beta but it is like 30/40 pounds” and you check the SA steam store and it is R200 with an extra 25% mystery discount.

      Reply

  3. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    June 25, 2021 at 12:51

    Sooo, large multi-billion dollar company needs to make sure that the ~0.005% revenue loss from this tactic isn’t used. Savvy

    Reply

  4. ghost_olive

    June 28, 2021 at 02:45

    Makes sense to have different prices for each region, hopefully it was calculated while keeping the basic wage of each country in mind. https://media2.giphy.com/media/S8LWP0CotPAQw/giphy.gif

    Reply

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