Valve will no longer support regional currencies in Turkey and Argentina and will replace them with the US dollar. Steam users in some other countries will see new regionalized USD pricing.
Players with Steam accounts in regions such as Turkey and Argentina started receiving notifications about price changes from Valve today. RedditA few posts appeared on , and users shared relevant screenshots: “Pricing and Steam Wallets in [country name] will be converted to USD starting November 20.”
The link leads to Valve's dedicated Steam Support page, where it explains the changes in detail. Here are the key takeaways:
- Starting November 20, Steam will begin using USD as the main currency for users in Turkey and Argentina (instead of lira and pesos);
- On November 20, all balances in the Steam wallets of users in Turkey and Argentina will be converted to USD at the exchange rate of the day;
- New regionalized USD pricing – as LATAM-USD and MENA-USD – will be available to 25 additional countries in the LATAM and MENA (Middle East, North Africa) regions, including Panama, Guatemala, Bolivia, Venezuela, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Palestine and Morocco;
- Some countries “may see a price increase, while others may see a price decrease, depending on how games were priced on Steam by the developer before this change”;
- Changes also apply to in-game purchases and all subscriptions will be canceled after the end of the active period (new USD prices will apply to future re-subscriptions).
Why is Steam abandoning Turkish and Argentinian currencies in favor of USD?
“Exchange rate fluctuations in Argentina and Turkey in recent years have made it difficult for game developers to choose appropriate prices for their games and keep them up to date,” Valve said. We heard it loud and clear in our developer meetups and roundtable conversations.” made the statement.
The company added that it has difficulty operating in these regions and maintaining regional payment methods due to “constant currency fluctuations, fees, taxes and logistical issues.”
Valve concluded: “Pricing games in US dollars for Steam customers in Argentina and Turkey will help us provide greater stability and consistency for players and our partners, while also allowing us to continue offering a variety of payment methods to Steam users in these countries/regions. ”
Turkey and Argentina have long remained two regions where games are cheap. The prices were so attractive that some users, unwilling to pay $60 for new AAA releases, began changing Steam regions to these countries, digitally pretending to be Turkish and Argentinian players, and buying cheap games in lira and pesos.
The first change took place in October 2022, when Steam updated its proposed regional prices, with an increase of more than 450% in Turkey and Argentina. At the time, the company explained that it had to “make significant changes to these transformation proposals to stay current” due to ever-evolving purchasing power and exchange rates.
This led to many publishers increasing the prices of their products, but they still generally remained cheaper than in the US and Europe. The last significant price increase occurred last week, with Activision games going up by 1,000%-2,300% in Turkey and Argentina. Some games even became more expensive compared to the US dollar. For example, Call of Duty: Black Ops II's base price of $59,99 in the US is now ARS 24.000 ($68,56).
Valve also continued to update the minimum price thresholds for currencies other than the US dollar to be at least equivalent to $0,99.
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