Do you buy video games in Turkey and Argentina? Don't do it, you'll harm everyone
Do you buy video games in Turkey and Argentina? Don't do it
Opportunity makes the thief, even in the world of video games. First it was piracy, with modified consoles, which often proliferated thanks to shopkeepers who were actually involved in selling stereo systems for homes or cars. Then came Steam, which on PC helped to dampen the phenomenon, later accompanied by key sites, which supplied players with the latest title of the moment at very low prices. And it doesn't matter where that redeemable code came from on your computer: bought in bulk with stolen credit cards? Or codes actually intended for reviewers but sold cheaply? The player didn't care anyway, we had to save money. Then that phenomenon ended (because yes, now the savings are in the order of ten euros compared to 20 or 30 in the past) and we moved directly to the purchase of products in cheaper markets. With all due respect to the poor, who are made fun of.
Over the past few weeks, Steam has revised the prices of video games in some areas of the world, especially the poorest ones such as Turkey and Argentina. The revision and the new "tariff" can be adopted independently by the developers, but behind that maneuver there is precisely the instinct of the human being to "steal" or "save" at any cost. Yes, because as pointed out by the developers of Spiritfarer, most of the copies have been sold in Turkey or Argentina, but nobody plays from the two countries.
It is a decidedly old phenomenon, which is however causing several problems. In short: with a simple VPN you can access other versions of Steam or the Microsoft Store. At that point the prices of video games change, precisely because they are considered poorer countries. And if a triple A perhaps costs 59.99 euros in Europe, you can save (without any type of risk, such as stolen keys which are subsequently blocked) for example, about twenty euros. Too bad, however, that all this hurts the developers, who see themselves without the earnings of the "first market" and with a high percentage of copies bought at low prices by people who do not reside in Turkey or Argentina (or Russia). All this also considering the percentage of 30% required by Steam, PlayStation or Xbox, which at that point significantly reduces the profit and seriously jeopardizes the economic stability of the studios without major publishers behind them. To solve this, the Spiritfarer development team decided to update the prices in Turkey and Argentina, obviously with a heavy heart.
The solution? Don't buy games using VPNs. Because we all really lose out: the developers lose out, who will have less and less cash on hand. The Turkish and Argentine players lose out, who are forced to pay even more for a video game and who will probably no longer be able to have any. And finally, we lose too, risking ruining people who work to produce experiences, which we may never see again.
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