Ooops... Didn't know that :(

let me quote myself:
"but still, when you compare their prices to retail releases it just doesn't add up; fallout 3 is 50 eur - come on, i've paid 56 eur for the collector's edition (shipping included!). left 4 dead is 45 eur. in retail it costs ~36 eur."
but by all means, differ all you want :).
the point i was trying to make (and you so obviously missed) is that us$ prices with added 20% vat are not that much cheaper than current eur prices. let's take the last 5 games i purchased:
- i-fluid
price: $9.99
vat: $2
total: $11.99 (8.29 eur, according to google)
current price:
9.99 eur (vat included)
- left 4 dead
price: $49.99
vat: $10
total: $59.99 (41.47 eur, according to google)
current price:
44.99 eur
- stalker: clear sky
price: $35.99
vat: $7.20
total: $43.19 (29.85 eur, according to google)
current price:
34.99 eur
- sam and max season two pack
cost: $31.49
vat: $6.30
total: $37.79 (26.12 eur, according to google)
current price:
34.99 eur
- call of duty 4: modern warfare
cost: $49.95
vat: $9.99
total: $59.94 (41.44 eur, according to google)
current price:
49.99 eur
draw your own conclusions. i'll be buying from steam only as a last resort :).
edit: quotes

I think you've missed a crucial part of the situation. Everyone in Europe are screwed, except the English. We're not talking about the prices in pounds (£), but in euros (€).

It's really sad that they don't even response, we have over 1000 members in the steam community group and hundreds of responses within 24 hours...
Besides they didn't even inform about it as they should have, you would have to find your way to the website news section that nobody hardly reads. They should've made a pop up windows when starting steam as for other big news. Now they're just being sneaky about it.

Honest answer? I'm not surprised. They just did what everybody does. Not only does this make it easier to find "appealing" prices (choose a random shop, find a price like 27,94..yeah. It's either 24,99 or 29,99 then). They also do not need to adjust prices on a daily/weekly or whatever basis, they also get more out of it, and are protected against exchange rates.
And as i looked up Fallout 3 prices in different countries, they where always like that. If prices in $ = standard, then£ = cheap and € = pricy. Usually, they use the exchange rate for £, but replace the $ with a € for the rest of Europe or so.
And even in $, Steam was never cheap. Like Fallout 3, i found it for $44,99 or so, and Steam had $54,99 or such. So if they always where overpriced, and everybody else does it, why should the change it now?

Because it's going to lose them a shitload of customers? :-D
Hopefully, anyway.

Isn't CD Projekt planning Good New Games distribution system? :P
Coz' I don't like the way Steam is going today.

I think the people who're complaining are totally overlooking the fact that NOTHING gets sold at a rate proportional to the differing currency strengths.
You need to look at the bigger picture; don't oversimplify the matter at hand.

Hopefully, yeah, but as they are now "in line" with others, i don't think they will loose that much. LIke someone said in the "official" thread in the Steam forums.. they wheren't cheap - people bought. Country restriction - people bought.
But now they stop? I don't think so. People who bought before will most likely still buy there.
@Vandal
Well, you may have asked them, but i don't think EVERY publisher said "yeah, $1 = €1" is fine. Some may let Valve handle everything, they just want to see some money at the end of the month.
Thats true, but i wonder about the fact that some countries have like half the US price, and others like here, twice the price. It's not really related to currency, not to taxes, not to buying power (like UK customers would have no money compared to the rest of Europe.. or like German and Hungarian customer would have the same money..).. to nothing except the prices for related products. But why are they so costly? Because of related products, of course.. but it must have had a start, why they initially decided "lets sell it for half/twice the price".
Other funny thing is that they even use € in countries who don't use €, but their traditional currency. It's like they don't want European customers. If we are lucky enough to be allowed to buy the particular game we want, we have to pay twice the price.
Sadly, more then enough people will still buy.
And i don't think Valve will change anything. They don't really care. You can see that with the perfomance of Steam (the browser is slow as hell, Friends is more down the up sometimes, random kicks because of "no Steam logon etc), or bugs known for years. Neither do they fix major (game crashing etc) bugs, nor minor (like the localized version of "This server is VAC secured" message not completely visible, because the translated text is longer then the original, and there is not enough space to display it.
I don't think is any special in terms of treating customers, it's just they have more opportunity to do so with Steam and the longlivity of Souce games.

They have set those prices on their own titles as well.
Besides the only reason for me to use steam is multiplayer games that need steam.
I never liked Steam but it's still sad to see the direction they're taking.

Steam: Disciples2: GR + ROTE = 40E (without tax)
GOG: Disciples 2 Gold = 10$ (including tax)
GOG >>>>>>>> Steam

Well, I think that $1 = €1 is oversimplification, don't you?