I hope this still is the case for our UK friends here:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/12 ... #more-6153

Euro prices are still crap, tho, so for now buy all your games in dollar over the steam client J.

left 4 dead = 49.99 €
left 4 dead= 49.99 $



Isn't the point of digital distribution that they cut out the middle man and DVD production costs? Why the fuck can I buy left 4 dead for 43€ in a store less than 500 metres from my house then, and would pay MORE on the euro steam? Crazy.

I think its at beta stage. But i guess its the step they had to take, those big $£€ must come in from somewhere, i really hope that their sales will fucking plummet through the floor, through the basement and fucking emerge in australia.

lol @ australia...but don't count on it Maybe Satis can give us a better idea about how steam measures up against retail prices in the US. Is a pc game in a normal gaming store about 50 bucks there? New, obviously.

I use steam mostly to buy older games at discount prices, or to buy indie games. For new games I usually prefer to pick up my copy at the store...even with the low dollar, I'd rather pay a little bit more for a physical copy when it's a game like -say- Fallout 3.

Not that it matters much in the end, but meh. But buying new games on Steam does rule if you want to play literally from the bat with the pre-load, or if you're in remote regions where some games only come through a bit later (like you Peltz?).

Nah, not anymore. Usually its a few days delay from the world release and in some cases up to a week or two so its not too bad. Indie games are different story though. The prices here are high though, its cheaper to buy on steam or even ordering from UK.

I've looked into this some and usually a game is $50 when new. But, because of so much competition you can find it somewhere for cheaper. Right now I can get Left for Dead at a major discount retailer for like $40 which is cheaper than on steam.

Yea, Steam's prices are roughly the same as retailers but not including 'sales'. Many retailers will have a sale on a game the first few days it's out or so, bumping the price down by ~$5. As far as I can tell Steam's 'sales' are pretty freakin' lame

"Buy every shitty game we have for 3% off!"

lol, well it ain't that bad. A weekend ago or so they offered TFC2 for 10 bucks, etc. Or they had the entire sam & max season 1 for 30 bucks a while ago. That's not half bad.

The best deals by far on Steam are the 'packs'. The Valve Complete Pack offers an insane amount of quality gaming for a 'mere' 100 bucks, for example. Of course, no self-respecting gamer on Steam doesn't own at least 3-4 Valve titles that he already paid for. So who buys these things really?

Dont forget you can gift away games. The pack deals are good, for instance the rockstar collection. For that price i could go into shop here and buy two of those games from the collection of 10 or so.

EDIT: In Estonia there is one wholesale firm that supplies all the big retail chains so games cost roughly the same everywhere, and always more than in uk. So im pretty much stuck with buying from Game. Game is cheaper but i have to wait 3 or 4 days. So estonia pretty much sucks when it comes to gaming.

Army of two: 999.- / 11,6$ = 87$ / Game.co.uk 40£ = 850.- = 74$
GTA4: 645.- / 11,6$ = 55,6$ / Game.co.uk 25£= 550.- (shipping incl) = 48$

Steam is expensive now that they add tax so they are about the same level as in estonia.

EDIT2: Woo, pound is cheaper at the moment, i calculated with 1£=20Eek but at the moment its 1£=18Eek.

So its almost a 10$ price difference. It might not be much but my library is some 130 strong and holy shit how much i have wasted money...

Don't remind me...i must have spent close to 300 € on games in the past two months alone. The curse of having a pc that can actually run every recent game in all it's glory PLUS it being gaming season, I suppose.

And yeah, the pound is in the toilet (dollar already was). There was a bit on TV where a Belgian reporter went to do her christmas shopping in London, and she came out with a 30% profit compared to what she would've paid in Brussels, saving so much money that she easily got the Eurostar (the high speed train between brussels and London) trip out of it.

GTA IV for PS3 came out a good 30€ (!) cheaper, iirc. That's almost 50% compared to prices here in retail.

Wow...makes me wish my country was small enough I could take advantage of my neighbors' exchange rates. Still, those prices are expensive. I mean, games are expensive here too, but it's even worse in Europe.

BTW, I know we spoke about VAT before, but is that just the UK or all of Europe? And does it just effect hardware or software too?

VAT is in every european country i think. Here its 18%. When companies buy something, they get the VAT back later. Not sure how why or where it applies but it applies on most occasions.

Yeah, a lot of VAT on stuff here too. That's what makes things so expensive.



The UK's VAT is quite a bit lower than the Belgian one, which is part of the reason why it is cheaper to buy expensive products there that don't require an import tax (like small gifts etc, not cars). And some city-states in Europe thrive on the high taxes of the other European countries to attract tourism and wealthy investors, eg Andorra and Monaco.

You know what's funny? From where i live, it takes about 2.5 hours to drive to Amsterdam, 4 to Paris, 4 to London and 5 to Berlin. Yet, I hardly ever leave belgium (or even Antwerp). Must be hard to understand if you're American and used to big distances, to have all these different cities so close and thinking "dude, that's kinda far" when someone asks why you don't go there more often I've never been to London, and only once to Paris. Never been to Amsterdam either.

haha, yea, you guys are crazy. It's a 4 hour drive to Houston. I think roughly the Same to San Antonio and Austin. Our drive to New Orleans was 8 hours. Driving to El Paso is 10 hours. If I could drive to Boston in 4 hours, or Philadelphia, or Seattle, or Las Vegas, I'd totally do that... hell, I'd probably just take a 3 day weekend to do that.

Yeah, I can imagine. It's funny how our sense of distance is largely determined by what we're used to travel. On Malta, a tiny island state in the Mediterranean, travelling from the South of the island to the North is considered a serious day trip. It's literally no more than 50 kms.



I probably should take more advantage of my geography, now that I have money.

Steam europe prices went online, goodbye steam. Pointless to buy from there now.