Regional pricing for DLCs

Discussion in 'Wish Lists' started by Matheus Machado, Apr 2, 2020.

  1. Matheus Machado

    Matheus Machado Registered

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    One friend asked me to send recommendations of sims to buy today. Went on to have a look at the price of multiple sims and its DLCs to make a recommendation and was shocked when I saw that currently rF2 base game is the same price as buying Le Mans. The base game price is very reasonable at 62 BRL. But charging the same amount for 1 track is absolutely insane. I think there must be even worst cases for other countries, so hopefully this will shine a light on the absolute need of regional pricing for the additional content. As the cost of racing in rf2 is comparable to iRacing in countries with a similar situation.
    How am I supposed to say, hey go and spend half minimum wage in this game.

    Again I have most of the content already, so that won't affect me much, but for newcomers and future content, that surely is something to look at, especially that the game is revolving around dlc content nowadays.
     
  2. boblevieux

    boblevieux Registered

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    Have you ever heard of Raceroom ? It's free and they dare to sell addon content !
    Hey, I'm a little short on money and I live in a poor country, could you sell me your gold let's say, 10$ an ounce ?
     
  3. FS7

    FS7 Registered

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    Agreed.
     
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  4. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

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    They make almost nothing when selling the game for R$62
    I'm glad I paid about R$55~60 when the packs were released lol
     
  5. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Right now rF2 costs AUD $46.95. That's (at current conversion) 164 BRL.

    Le Mans is $18.30, equals 64 BRL.

    Would it be better if the game cost ~160 BRL so the track is less expensive?

    The track price, like any DLC, has to somewhat reflect ongoing development costs and the costs associated with producing the DLC. If they move all their staff to Brazil and pay them average Brazilian wage, source track data at Brazilian rates (track owner, scanning company will both need to be Brazilian), and ideally move the track to Brazil so it's not exposed to any higher rates as far as operating costs go, they can probably put a price on it that seems 'reasonable' to the average Brazilian.

    But then the Albanians will complain, since their average salary is half that of Brazil. So let's move everything there. But then Vietnam pipes up, because they're earning half that amount again, so S397 moves everything (including anything they want to create DLC for) to Vietnam. Now here comes Cambodia...

    It's a computer game, operating on gaming systems. It's all luxury. I think we lose sight of that sometimes.


    *Out of curiosity, because I'm not that familiar with Steam: let's say hypothetically everything on the steam store was 25% the price (converted) in Brazil, compared to Australia. If I move to Brazil, or even visit Brazil, could I connect to steam from there, say I'm in Brazil so please give me those rates, buy a whole heap of DLC (and games!), then come back to Australia and continue using the DLC/games? So basically get a huge discount through nothing other than my physical location at the time? (for the visiting case, let's say I register a Brazilian friend's credit card and use that for purchases)
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2020
  6. JimmyT

    JimmyT Registered

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    Or just use a VPN and save yourself the airfare.
    I think it would be great if you could get regional pricing, however, it still cost x amount of euro or US$ to create (wages and other ancillary costs) and you still need to make a profit. So if you sell it for 25% of the euro to 10% of your market (guessed figures) you take a hit in the bottom line, this is not an ideal situation in business.
    Please remember that although this is a game to us, to Studio 397 it's business.
     
  7. Matheus Machado

    Matheus Machado Registered

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    It has regional lock for items where regional pricing is enabled, so you would be able to use it only in south america. Unless you go through a manual process. So if I move to europe or elsewhere for whatever reason I keep my steam collection working, but a VPN, unless you want to login through it every time won't work.
    The best place to buy games in this case would be Russia, maybe Argentina depending on game.

    If even 1% of the market is from Brazil I would be surprised, however we all know if the Formula E pack costs as much as ACC something isn't right, AMS 2 is the cost of the endurance pack, and I could go on with more examples of why this is only hurting s397. I am sure all others don't do any slave labour, so the costs argument doesn't make sense looking at the market.
     
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  8. JimmyT

    JimmyT Registered

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    Yes but you yourself stated that rF2 is the same price as a track in Brazil?
    They can only sell you the game once and can probably take a hit on that but they sell DLC then sell more DLC etc. That's where they make the money to be able to develop the game and new content.
    I fully understand your wish for cheaper DLC but it doesn't make good business sense.
     
  9. FS7

    FS7 Registered

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    Obviously developers need to make money, but the point is that rF2 DLC is very expensive when compared to pretty much every other racing sim if you're in Brazil paying with BR currency, that's the reason for the suggestion for regional pricing. I'll buy some DLCs eventually whenever there's a big sale but right now it's hard to justify paying the current DLC price taking into account how much other games & their DLC cost and the fact that I have a bunch of other games to keep me busy and didn't cost nearly as much as rF2's DLC.
     
  10. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    I'm not in Brazil but I only buy DLC on sale too - I'm just cheap :D

    Don't pay something you don't feel is worth it. That's your right - no shame in that.
     
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  11. Matheus Machado

    Matheus Machado Registered

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    So let’s put some other examples for you.
    Le Mans costs 65BRL as of today. All of AC1 DLC cost you an extra of 55BRL.

    ACC IGTC costs 29 BRL. There isn’t a single dlc item for rF2 I can remember going for that price.

    The reiza pack costs 117 BRL, AMS2 is going for 90BRL.

    And to go to a similar pricing model, raceroom offers its Adac gt3 pack for 45 BRL, the GT3 pack, the first one released, costs 89 and no tracks are included with it.

    So yeah, the only business decision that doesn’t make sense is rF2 DLC pricing in the Brazilian market.
     
  12. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

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    Nobody buys the RaceRoom packs on Steam (or at least people should NEVER do it), they are not supported there anymore and they work different afaik
    You have to buy on their store and there they do just like rF2: everything is sold in Euro. Ofc you got the bonus of discount on packs and you dont need all cars to drive in a online race (and if you buy from their site you dont pay the Steam fee I think)
    I'm in Brazil and I'd like to see stuff being sold for less money but idk, seeing some stuff that originally costs $50 being sold for only $10 (and Steam still takes 30%???) doesn't seem fair.

    Pretty much this. Under current standards most DLC is not worth their price in Euro, let alone their price in BRL
     
  13. lagg

    lagg Registered

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    I understand the point of view of the people form Brazil, but it's possible that S397, living in Holand, can't assume those prices.
    The number of users of AC1, ACC and rF2 are very different and that affects the price.
     
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  14. JimmyT

    JimmyT Registered

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    If this is correct I want my money back from ACC because that pack cost me $22AU (78BRL) and using the current conversion rate from BRL it should have only cost $8.50AU (29BRL). THIS is regional pricing in action.
    Oh and by the way the GT3 Pack from rF2 cost me $25AU (88 BRL) so very similar pricing between rF2 and ACC DLC here, only $3.00AU difference.
     
  15. Matheus Machado

    Matheus Machado Registered

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    D42E99D9-DAAB-459A-A1C3-9F42F7AB48FF.jpeg
    Just took the screenshot, as if you read the post, regional pricing weighs in other factors aside from only currency conversion rates. If I was rooting for pure conversions I wouldn’t be doing any posts at all about this.
     
  16. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

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    You are using current convertion rates which makes no sense for this example. Also default Steam price for rF2 in Brasil is R$62 ($11 at the moment of this post) not R$177
    The developer has the final word on both, not Steam.
     
  17. Goanna

    Goanna Registered

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    Dunno about that...big shit fight recently when Digital Combat Simulator had a “everything free to try” for a month from their estore, but steam would only let them have a certain number of items and only for two weeks. The devs said that initially Steam said a flat out “No” and they had to negotiate to get what they ended up with.
     
  18. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

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    AFAIK when Steam does a sale you decide if you take part or not and how much is the discount.
    Same thing with regional prices, there are options for the developer if they want to use it.
     
  19. ADSTA

    ADSTA Registered

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    https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/discounts
     
  20. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

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    like I said
     

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