Valve updates pricing policy and games may become more expensive on Steam

Valve announced last Monday (25) an update to Steam’s pricing policy, which may cause an increase in the price of games on the platform.

Under the current policy, the developers themselves set the prices for each game on the platform. However, many don’t have the time or knowledge to set specific values in all 39 currencies offered on Steam and end up following the platform’s recommendations.

Before the update, $20 titles, for example, were equivalent to $37.99 on Steam. With the change, the new suggested value increased to R$ 59.99, equivalent to a 58% increase. In some countries, such as Turkey and Argentina, the percentage increase reached 494% and 522%, respectively.

Check out some of the new suggested prices in Brazil, compared to the previous recommendations:

US$ 20: R$ 37,99
US$ 30: R$ 57,99
US$ 40: R$ 75,49
US$ 60: R$ 109,99

In an official statement, Valve added that from now on the pricing policy will be updated on a regular basis, keeping up with economic changes:

“Rather than linking prices to exchange rates, our price suggestion process delves into how much users pay for everyday goods and services. This includes metrics such as purchasing power parity and consumer price indexes, which help compare prices and costs more broadly, including different sectors of the economy. But in the case of games sold on Steam, we focus on entertainment purchases to better influence those decisions. All of these factors have led us to commit to updating these price suggestions more regularly, so that they keep pace with economic changes.”