Malf on 28/9/2023 at 13:52
Not quite sure yet exactly what the outcome of this will be, but I know it's going to be huge:
(
https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-key-geo-blocking-infringed-eu-competition-law-court-finds)
I foresee two possible outcomes: cheaper games for everyone, or those in poorer countries having to pay more for their games.
The cynic in me suspects the latter.
Either way,
woof, BIG decision. I'm going to enjoy watching how this pans out.
heywood on 28/9/2023 at 15:05
That has the potential to set a big precedent within the EU since geo-blocking is used to control access & pricing for all sorts of internet-delivered content. Hopefully it will force publishers to treat the EU as a single market, as intended. But I doubt it will have ramifications for Steam users outside of the EU. Globally, geo-blocking isn't going away, it's only getting worse, because governments want it too.
WingedKagouti on 28/9/2023 at 15:26
Higher prices for low income zones seem to be the most likely outcome.
And yes, this is massive as the companies investigated are far from the only ones to do this.
heywood on 28/9/2023 at 16:44
What about streaming media? Are there significant price differences from country to country within the Euro zone for things like streaming services and on-demand content?
Malf on 28/9/2023 at 17:32
It wouldn't surprise me if they came for that next. I know YouTube Premium definitely has regional pricing.
Sulphur on 29/9/2023 at 04:54
I expect the implications of this would only be applicable to the EU market. Regional pricing exists for fairly practical reasons: if you want more people from a developing market to buy your product, you price according to their purchasing power. Price parity with developed economies kneecaps this dynamic dramatically, and my guess is there would be a fairly appreciable profit fall-off. So I assume the current strategy works, and is legal-ish elsewhere, as Valve and Epic provide regular regional recommendations and publishers are free to use them or not, and a lot of publishers choose to go with them.
Geo-blocking is probably the most immediate solution to a thorny problem, because basically everyone across the globe was piling in on Turkish prices to get the best deal (via VPN), so clearly while it's a barrier, it still wasn't working so hot. Valve revised their recommendations last year, and that saw a dramatic fall-off, but I also assume people in Turkey proportionately bought fewer games, not least because of the level of inflation in recent times.
