Russian pricing on Steam

[Celador]

I recall you mentioning that you would follow regional pricing recommendations on Steam in one of your blog posts, yet it seems that Factorio costs about 40% more than it should since 20 Euros or US dollars usually get translated into our 419-499 Rubles while Factorio costs 900 Rubles at the moment. For comparison - recent release of Master of Orion (50$ original price) costs 900 Rubles as well. Same goes for Ashes of Singularity (50$). Some other game titles for comparison:

Farlight Explorers - 15$ original price = 349 Rubles
Eden Star - 20$ original price = 419 Rubles
Ark: Survival Evolved - 30$ original price = 499 Rubles
Kerbal Space Program - 40$ original price = 599 Rubles

While i don't mind paying 900 Rubles i am curious whether this is an oversight or an intended pricing policy since some people aren't too happy about it due to our economy and "purchasing power" being down at the moment.

[Kewlhotrod]

let me give you an example and some insight, I buy the Russian version of the game, basically practically exactly the same as the English one for x5 less the price, I then sell those copys on g2a.com (a very popular and polished game/key selling site, not advertising I swear mods can remove link if necessary) for 5x more than I brought it for.

This is called fair trade, its also a grey area in software development for example also what Microsoft is trying to do in Asia with trying to lobby western governments to ban the selling of cheaper non microsoft third party keys but currently unsuccessful, its an on going debate. [Edit]

[Celador]

First of all - you can't sell games bought in Russian Steam store to any other region any more. There was a time when you could've done it but Steam changed it's policies about a year ago and all games bought in Russian Steam store became region locked and untradeable to any other region besides CIS (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc).

Secondly - i was merely asking the developers to clarify whether they made a mistake with pricing or not. Id rather not talk politics on a game forum and i don't think that moving countries got anything to do with my question either.

That said - thank you for your concern and advice

[daniel34]

Pricing in Russia

So based on the feedback from the community we have decided to update the price for Russian territory. The new price we have just requested will be 500 Rubles. It might take some time for Steam to process the request and update the price. We hope that Russian people who bought the game for previous price will understand our move.

As for pricing in general. Except for Russia, we have made only small cosmetic improvements to Steam proposed prices. Mostly just rounding prices to avoid the ".99" strategy - a pricing schema that we simply find questionable, though quite possibly working in bringing bigger revenues.

Russia was the only territory where we made a more significant adjustment. This was based mainly on our perceived value of the game. We felt that Steam suggested price was just too low. However many people in the discussion have made good points about purchasing power in Russia. Naturally it is in our best interest for the game to sell in Russia. Especially considering that during the development there have been quite a few active Russian communities.

Pricing is a very tricky topic with economic discrepancies throughout the world and inside particular countries as well. It can be a source of a lot of bad feelings among people. It is impossible to satisfy everyone. So with this move we are putting the prices more in line with Steam suggestions and relying on their experience in the business.

We hope this move will benefit the community as a whole bringing more players to Factorio.

[Celador]

I'd like to thank devs for listening and changing the price. While i agree that the game deserves its 20$ - with this price more will be able to enjoy it in CIS countries and it should help with curbing piracy rates as well.

[PssX]

I bought this game for 900 rubles. Day later it costs 500. Am I a loser or what?

[daniel34]

I bought this game for 900 rubles. Day later it costs 500. Am I a loser or what?

If you haven't played 2 hours already, you can refund the game on steam (there is an actual option "game is cheaper now") and get your 900 rubles back. Then buy it again for 500.

[alexzzzz]

I bought this game for 900 rubles. Day later it costs 500. Am I a loser or what?

It's worth those 900 rubles. I would easily pay twice as much if I didn't own it yet. It's just other games in Russian Steam are dirt cheap, we are used to it.

If you haven't played 2 hours already,

One does not simply play Factorio for 2 hours.