1€ ≠ $1

Valve now added European Currency to their Steam shop: $1 is now worth 1€.

World of Goo:
19.99 USD = 14.35 EUR

without VAT Tax:
19.99 EUR = 27.83 USD

with VAT Tax(Germany):
19.99 USD = 19.99 USD + 3.80 USD(19% Tax) = 17.08 EUR

It was way cheaper back when the vat taxes where simply added to the overall price! 
Now with the taxes already in the 19.99 but 1 USD = 1 EUR it costs additional 17% -> 19.99 EUR instead of 17.08 EUR

Also some countries of the EU(like NOR) don't even have VAT Taxes making: The games where even cheaper before $1 = 1€!


Well, 3 EUR isn't that much, but getting expensive games like Call of Duty 4(49€), its way too much!


Read more about this joke:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770231

thank goodness the US still only has sales tax via states/counties.  Sure, the tax near me is 8.75% (4%state, 4.75% county, highest sales tax in the whole country!!!) but it's better then Canada's tax.  Wow!

but it's all based on relatively.  IE $1 Canadian dollar can buy the same thing as $1 us dollar, the conversion is just different.  1€ most likely can buy the same as $1 US but because they're different countries they're worth different amounts to each other.  That's why doing cost based on currency conversion is normally useless unless you're traveling.  IE how much is a meal from burger king where you are?

No burger king here (France), but when you buy something thats not huge from a country using $, it's cheapper to import it yourself.
It's simply that lots of distributors abuse by converting 1 euro = 1 $

I bought World of Goo through Paypal directly on the site when the euro was stronger, here's what I paid :
devise : €12,90 EUR = $19,95 USD
Devise d'origine : EUR
Devise finale : USD
Taux de change : 1,54758

There's a huge difference between 19.99 € and 12.90 € !

furthermore the new currency is only for eu countries with either eur or gbp as their currency. all other countries in europe still pay with dollar which is freaking cheaper. and thats whats DAMN UNFAIR

Because of this f*cking USD/EUR and VAT thingy I have stopped buying full-price games within Steam (boxed version at amazon is cheaper...). I will only buy HL2 Episode 3 on release (boxed version release takes some days in Germany), because I have my entire HL-Collection in Steam.

If I can get a boxed version with fancy Disc, Box and Manual for the same price as freaking Download I buy the boxed version. They should fire and re-staff their marketing devision at Valve.

I bought WoG trough PP with a EUR/USD rate of 1 EUR = 1,40 USD, for a total of 14 EUR and some cents. That's fair and better than Steam. And you "own" your Installer File ;)

im not getting any more censored games. always importing. and now steam goes euro i have to import those games too. in the end its cheaper and better than buying games in this shitty and awful country!

it's actually CHEAPER to buy from US & pay the shipping?  wow.  That IS bad.  I know that even with the Canadian $ worth $1.23 US, the Canadian tax makes even cross border shopping for US residents not worth it, even though on the Canadian side things are the same #value ($50 on Canadian side = $50 item on us side).

Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler.
Why have you increased the price on World of goo by 4$ in the EU Steam store?

Price before 19,99$+19%VAT= 23,7881 $
New Price 19,99€ = 27,915 $

According to valve you are responsible for the new prices.
Please respond.


sidenote: Norwegians have it even worse
they do not pay VAT on digital content, yet they get EU prices, so you have increased the pricing for norwegians by 8 $
Ron and Kyle, do you hate norwegians?

[quote author=dammskog link=topic=1084.msg7653#msg7653 date=1230026889]
Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler.
Why have you increased the price on World of goo by 4$ in the EU Steam store?

Price before 19,99$+19%VAT= 23,7881 $
New Price 19,99€ = 27,915 $

According to valve you are responsible for the new prices.
Please respond.


The $1 = 1€ policy is a policy from steam, not a choice by Kyle & Ron. All steam games now use that exchange rate, see:
http://kotaku.com/5115340/dollar-no-longer-weak-vs-euro-on-steam

I would like 2dboy to answer that question directly since the information coming from the moderators at steam forums and valve fans is that the prices are set by the publishers and not by Valve.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770231

Valve is keeping clammed up and saying nothing except giving a short statement on a valve-fansite saying that the problem is with pricing on non-valve products. Giving a hint its not their fault.

http://www.steamfriends.com/news/3635/prices-steam-euros

So Valve is blaming the third-party of the overpricing at the moment. I would like what some of the third party people to give us their side of the story.

valve lies about steam.  They purposely say they know nothing when they HAVE to know, they don't allow people who sell on their site to randomly change things, Valve has to approve of everything first (don't believe me: when asked if spore had DRM the answer was "no, it would be on the front page".  Stalker CS had DRM & was never posted on the front page until people couldn't use their game any more.  Why are patches slower to come out on steam vs non-steam?  Valve must approve them).

Odds are the reason Valve games would be based differently (can't find a way to change currency manually so let's see proof on how much valve games are in different currency amounts) is because they purposely change it themselves.  If Valve changes how the currency is handled and lets others do it, then the others could change it.  But if they don't inform anyone, it can't be done.  Considering the dev's for WoG are outside the country, they can't change anything anyway.  Even if this was a site change, it would of been valve's responsibility to let the sellers know so prices don't jump around (which they didn't, from what's said it was based on currency conversion, and now it's available @ your local countries prices.  If the EU tumbled & the $$ was worth more $ WoG went above 20eu's because of the conversion, you'd say they need to post it in EU prices)

As shown, the price wasn't raised, it was converted to the proper amount in other currencies.  The tax you pay is your countries tax.  Not anyone's fault it's high except your countries.

as shown the price WAS RAISED.

a game priced 49.99$ before the currency scam had vat added before one payed for it.
if we use VAT (19%)endprice would be  59,4881 USD
that converts into 42,522 €.
that would be proper amount in euro currency!
the price was raised by 15% BEYOND currency and vat.
for norwegians even more
how in gods name can that be proper!!!

Not really sure what to think of the price changes.
Some are higher in the UK, some are lower.
$20 games like WoG seem to be £16.99 ($19.99 + 15% VAT is approx $22.98 = £15.53) so we pay a little more.
$10 games like Audiosurf seem to be £5.99 ($9.99 + 15% VAT is approx $11.48 = £7.76) so we pay a little less.

Some other titles don't have comparable prices, others we lose out on, others we save on. Bit of a mixed bag really.

Attached screenies of the WoG and AS prices.

well for some reason they were to scared to scam UK.
pricing on that UK Steam is proper

oh, and retail pricing for games that are 49.99 € on steam are 39.99 €in brick and mortar stores.
if one goes bargain hunting they can be found for 29,99 €
10 € = 14 $

[quote author=dammskog link=topic=1084.msg7653#msg7653 date=1230026889]
Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler.
Why have you increased the price on World of goo by 4$ in the EU Steam store?

Price before 19,99$+19%VAT= 23,7881 $
New Price 19,99€ = 27,915 $

According to valve you are responsible for the new prices.
Please respond.


The answer is probably the same as in the US: They have been asked by their publishers not to undercut them through other channels.

Valve can set they're own price as an store to sell it. However valve also has to pay the publisher to sell it(2dboy). Its a smart way to robe they're costumers.

The funny thing is that the most games are now cheaper in normal retail stores than at steam. While there are less costs bound to the steam version. Even online store with shipment cost. I think this is due to poor Marketing.

However its still downloadable from the 2dboy website for $19,99 dolar  ;) Without Taxes  ;D

You could always use a service like steamgifter.com to gift a game at almost the same price as Steam's American website.