What to expect after Steam supports the Australian dollar

Projects to support the Australian dollar on Steam have been developed since years. But when the AUD finally appears on the front page, what's really going on? To dispel some of the confusion and concerns, I've talked to some developers to explain to them what customers can expect next month.

Once you have completed the steps and you have approved access to the developer back-end, Steam allows you to set the game price in US dollars. At this point, Steam will then use a matrix to suggest prices by region.

Suppose that a developer sets the price of his game at $ 10 US. The Valve algorithm then makes recommendations on prices for other countries. It could be slightly lower, as recommended for some areas of Southeast Asia or the CIS territories.

Australians are usually billed at the same price in USD as the Americans. An example below is Two point hospital:

But as the AUD was not available as a game buying currency, this recommendation could lead Australians to pay a higher price in USD than other territories.

Developers and publishers were delighted to let Australians pay the overall price in USD.

This has not always been the case, however. The main publishers have often been the most egregious offenders, with CONDEMN and Civilization: beyond the earth recent examples. Both games were cases of local people hit $ 20 more than our US counterparts, before taking into account currency conversion and bank fees.

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That's why the impending support to the AUD has always been well received. Since it's been activated on Fanatical and GOG, two major third-party marketplaces selling games in Australian dollars, the Australian price has been slightly higher than the US price would have been after the currency conversion.

And among the developers I've talked to for this article, the general feeling was that Australian prices should remain largely identical, if not slightly better.

A developer, whose game is currently selling for $ 14.99, explained that the Australian price recommended by Steam was $ 21.50. That's a fraction higher than the current exchange rate – $ 21.11 at the time of writing. But once you have taken into account the additional fees of Australian banks, the price ends up being a little higher ($ 21.74 if you add 3% fees).

In this case, PayPal would have charged a little over 22 USD.

Another local developer, who requested anonymity, presented another scenario. For a $ 9.99 US game, Steam recommends that developers charge $ 11.95 to the Australian.

If you were to buy this game at $ 9.99 US today, you would be charged about $ 14.07. It does not include what your bank will charge for currency conversion.

Even applying the worst-case scenario – where Steam allows sales in AUD and adds 10% more GST – Australians should still pay about the same amount.

In this regard, it is essential that Valve modify its pricing matrix, which makes recommendations for regional pricing based on an overall price in USD. If it stays as it is, Australians should expect to pay the same price, if not a little less.

However, all this no longer has its reason to be if a developer or publisher chooses to set the price manually. Suppose that a particular game is published on other major platforms. If GOG suggests that a $ 19.95 game is sold at $ 24.95 and that Steam recommends a higher or more unequal figure – like $ 24.30 or something like that – it's highly likely that The editor / developer corrects it himself to maintain uniformity.

Because of this desire to maintain fair prices in several territories, such as War for the Overseas World developers have noted, the most likely outcome is that game prices will remain largely the same.

Of course, publishers and developers can always set the price of their choice. Steam could recommend, for example, to sell a $ 49.95 game at about $ 70. But that can still be changed for $ 74.95, $ 79.95, even $ 89.95.

There is nothing stopping them.

Independent publishers, smaller studios and AA games are the ones that will benefit Australians the most. Those you could spend $ 40 or $ 50 to buy digitally, those who will not appear in a store at first. Without banks' exchange fees and what Steam is currently recommending to developers, Australians should not get caught.

We can even save a few dollars here and there. And even if the prices are pretty much the same, at least it's not money that goes back to your bank.