Posted April 29, 2016
Hi,
I don't know if other countries are in a similar situation, but I am from Switzerland and since Steam introduced more local currencies in January, including CHF, some games are now cheaper on Steam (because the VAT is lower in Switzerland than in neighbouring countries that use €). When Steam introduced CHF a lot of people feared that the prices would rise, and indeed some publishers were greedy and bumped prices, for example Fallout 4 is now more expensive (I found this table for those who are interested), but many other games are now slightly cheaper, like 19.00 CHF instead of $ 19.99 or € 19.99 (as I am writing this, we have almost 1 CHF = 1 USD, but 1 € is sold at 1.13 CHF, increasing the difference even more). And for games like Fallout 4, it's still possible to buy them on the Humble Store at the not increased price anyway :)
These differences are not huge, but when you're a student on a budget it counts. Of course gog still retains its DRM-free advantage, but I have many friends that seem not to care about that at all, so if the price is lower on Steam they buy from Steam.
I also have a question : if you are in Europe, are the prices on gog in USD now evolving in real time to match the fixed price in euro, or am I misunderstanding how it works ? For example Baldur's Gate : Siege of Dragonspear on gog is 19.99 € and $ 22.69 right now (and 19 CHF on Steam), but I am pretty sure that the other day it was $ 22.29 on gog. Even with the Fair Price package feature the game is more expensive for me than on Steam. (Another difference for that specific game is that Steam sells the soundtrack (SoD only) separately from the game, which imo is better than gog forcing to buy the Digital Deluxe edition at twice the price with no possible upgrade from the basic edition)
I don't know if other countries are in a similar situation, but I am from Switzerland and since Steam introduced more local currencies in January, including CHF, some games are now cheaper on Steam (because the VAT is lower in Switzerland than in neighbouring countries that use €). When Steam introduced CHF a lot of people feared that the prices would rise, and indeed some publishers were greedy and bumped prices, for example Fallout 4 is now more expensive (I found this table for those who are interested), but many other games are now slightly cheaper, like 19.00 CHF instead of $ 19.99 or € 19.99 (as I am writing this, we have almost 1 CHF = 1 USD, but 1 € is sold at 1.13 CHF, increasing the difference even more). And for games like Fallout 4, it's still possible to buy them on the Humble Store at the not increased price anyway :)
These differences are not huge, but when you're a student on a budget it counts. Of course gog still retains its DRM-free advantage, but I have many friends that seem not to care about that at all, so if the price is lower on Steam they buy from Steam.
I also have a question : if you are in Europe, are the prices on gog in USD now evolving in real time to match the fixed price in euro, or am I misunderstanding how it works ? For example Baldur's Gate : Siege of Dragonspear on gog is 19.99 € and $ 22.69 right now (and 19 CHF on Steam), but I am pretty sure that the other day it was $ 22.29 on gog. Even with the Fair Price package feature the game is more expensive for me than on Steam. (Another difference for that specific game is that Steam sells the soundtrack (SoD only) separately from the game, which imo is better than gog forcing to buy the Digital Deluxe edition at twice the price with no possible upgrade from the basic edition)
