L4D2 Pre-Purchase unfair regional pricing
October 2, 2009 | Author SecuFox
If you are thinking about pre-purchasing L4D2, you should think twice, as you might be yet another victim of Valve’s regional pricing scam.
Previously only differing the price between US Dollar, Euro and British Pound, they now topped it by even discriminating between the European countries.
So we not only have the well known unfair price difference between Dollar, Euro and Pound:
but also differences between european contries:
Germany, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and a lot of others pay the high, unfair price of 44,99€ (L4D2)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=de (or /?cc= fr, nl, dk, fi, se..)
while countries like: Poland, Norway, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and a few other – for incomprehensible reasons -, pay a much cheaper price of 34,19€, which is only slightly more than the UK price in Euro!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=pl
Thats a price difference of 10€ or even 20€ less when buying a bundle of four L4D2 copies.
Workarounds:
1.) Gifting cheap games to friends in an expensive, foreign region is thankfully still possible, eventhough it probably won’t be for long, judging from recent developements.
So have a good foreign friend who lives in a cheap priced region gift you L4D2, after sending him the money via PayPal or likewise.
2.) If you can live without the “exclusive baseball bat” weapon that comes with Steam Pre-Purchases: Don’t support the Steam Regime at all and Pre-Order L4D2 on Amazon.co.uk for the cheapest of all prices: £26.99 (29,26€)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Left-Dead-DVD/dp/B002BSH9J4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1254503223&sr=8-2
German users should be aware that L4D2, like 1, will be censored again, when buying from their region.
Buy the game at Amazon.co.uk or have a foreign friend gift it to you, for uncensored Zombie Slaughter.
Join the forum discussion on this post
Posted in News, RAGE NEWS!!!1 | 
Tags: currency, difference, europe, ip racism, left 4 dead, left 4 dead 2, price, rage, steam, tier, valve
34 Responses to “L4D2 Pre-Purchase unfair regional pricing”
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: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1417758
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Finally a post about it here
It’s quite sick really, $65 for an expansionpack like this. No wonder why people are using piracy…
True
US: $49.99 $44.99
UK: £29.99 £26.99 (5% lower)
EU: 37,99€ 34,19€ (11% higher)
But if we add 11% taxes, then it’s okay
Too bad that it’s for other EU fellows is so high price
So if there would be 3 guys who wan’t to get L4D2 for ~35€, contact me
Mind that Amazon prices are low because they don’t include tax and delivery (IMHO).
Steam is an Epicfail..
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tomek. Tomek said: RT @steamunpowered If you are thinking about pre-purchasing L4D2, you should think twice http://bit.ly/etKeJ [...]
i’m not thinking about prepurchasing L4D2
That is clearly an case of IP RACISM.
Incredible that amount of hate Valve seems to have towards some of it customers.
For me this is not only a case of IP Racism but also a violation of EU Free Trade Bill. But without accuser no crime.
We really should get off a combined effort to the EU Trade Commission to stop cases of IP Racism like this committed by Valve.
http://europa.eu/
I wish I could edit the my comments but well.
They maybe able to help us.
The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net)
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress_cons/index_en.htm
@Dragoon
The EC has already investigated this. I have their letter here and can send you scans if you want.
And don’t be so quick: You have to factor in sales tax, which is 19% here in Germany. So it comes down to: $45 ~ 31€ * 1.19 = 36.89€
And still end up paying 20% more than US, but that is pretty normal nowadays. :/
Personally, I am more appalled that Valve has the audacity to price L4D2 above $30. After all, I think they have to make amends for botching up L4D.
And to see them jump on the pre-order bandwagon is disconcerting.
ok hold on a sec. i think u’r wrong this time.
first of all, yes, the everyone should pay the same price for the same product but the fact that valve let’s some countries but the game for less is ok. not everyone makes the same amount of money / month so what they r doing is actually very nice of them.
and second of all, the prices r totally fair:
US: $49.99 $44.99
UK: £29.99 £26.99 (5% lower)
EU tier 1: 49,99€ 44,99€ (46% higher)
EU tier 2: 37,99€ 34,19€ (11% higher) (*i’m here)
EU tier 3: 37,99€ 34,19€ (11% higher)
so what, i pay 11% more when the VAT is 20% in my country.
bottom line, i’m ok with what they r offering and the price that they ask in return for it.
oh one more thing, this IS NOT an expansion. some people should pull their heads from under the rocks they’ve been living in the past year and see that.
*buy
well, except tier 1, those guys pay way too much.
p.s. u should definitely add an “edit” option.
endgame: I’ll quote a comment I made on our Steam Group’s Announcement, to answer something similar:
“[NR][XC] Gone until 3/10/09 6pm posted on October 02, 2009 @ 11:13pm:
Well, guess what: its less expensive in Italy, etc… bcz they are poor! Countries like France are rich, so you have to pay more… Ahhhh, I am so good here is US…”
“Secu|Fox posted on October 02, 2009 @ 11:47pm:
And what criteria does Valve use to “judge” wheter a country is rich or poor? It’s just complete random BULLSHIT what they do.
Some countries marked with expensive prices are everything but rich – and the other way around.
Just take the UK! They have the CHEAPEST prices for all Steam games.
Is England a poor country? Certainly not.
And even if it DID fit, it would be absolutely absurd and pathetic to have a product change its value depending on country. (Excluding the Tax, which is clearly NOT the cause here.)
A game is either worth 30€ OR 45€. Period. It’s absolutely discriminating, if not even racist to claim more from people, just because they live in a country that GABE NEWELL thinks is rich.
Gold has the same price in countries with a lot of poor people too.”
Even if you are lucky enough to be in a cheap tier, its overall just one big, unfair, capitalistic mess.
IP Racism, like Dragoon said, describes it quite good.
You guys are just obsessed and cannot look outside the box
I am sure that Valve has it’s own financial and marketing department who makes the prices.
Gabe is like Steve Jobs, he is The Boss. Do you think that Steve will say how much any apple product will cost? No, he is too boss for such small things.
actually, i think he does slay. i’m thinking.. bobby kotick.
Oh, I’m pretty sure that Gabe Newell can and does influence the price.
I named him representative for Valve though.
He’s the just perfect hate figure, beeing an unsympathetic, lying, money-greedy, close minded and sandwich-eating fat guy.
“it probably won’t be for long, judging from recent developements”
What do you mean by that? Just preordered L4D2 4 pack ;D sweet deal for 25€ each.
It probably won’t be for long, judging from recent developements…
What do you mean by that? Just preordered L4D2 4 pack ;D sweet deal for 25€ each.
Great
fix your wordpress
Is it possible to create a Steam-account via US proxy and gift your own account and pay in $?
@just_do_it_ffs
I wouldn’t strongly advised not to try it.
If Valve finds out/suspect they will certainly ban both accounts.
Check Google about that issue.
Be advised that Valve crosscheck you credit card/ Paypal account nationality against your IP address. Which I think is just an other case of discrimination based on your IP address.
Anyway when I was on holidays in UK I used the opportunity to benefit from the cheap prices in UK. I bought two games from Steam, but I had to talk with Valve Support first to accept my NOT UK PayPal account.
Otherwise they would suspended my account for investigation.
As you see Valve can be pretty mean.
@Dragoon
Thanks I’ll take it into consideration:)
Steam is bullshit. Why don’t they listen?
The article should use some more underlined or bold fonts on the German censorship part. Cause this is also a real problem.
I’m not buying L4D2 until it gets around 30€. Period.
And yeah, I can wait. (I can also get workarounds heh… thank you teh interweb).
I concur with and follow Secu|Fox there.
Also, have you noticed how L4D2 is already listed as a “Top Seller” on Steam Store… although it’s not even OUT yet?
Nice! Sorry but I’m happy ’cause steam lowered price for Lithuania!
See we still don’t have Euro and because of that game prices seem very high. I just wish they made the price 44.99Lt that would be approx 13€ 
Now the game price is 118.29Lt which is still pretty high for the local folk.
l4d2 pre-order cost me about 22€ … HOW? we bought a 4-pack in the UK.. £80.99 to be exact..
for tier 3 l4d2 4-pack costs ~102€. 102/4 = 25,5€ per game
so there is your lower than 30€
so who is in? who wants to get game for cheap? anyone?
Count me in Slay. :]
good, 2 more
come on, guys, left4dead2 for cheap, ca ~25€, need 2 buyers more
Left4dead 2 in store here in Denmark is
DK= 44.19€
Steam: 44.99€
as it stands right now
@ Slay, i’d be interested
How can i contact u?
Regards
DrOssi, go to forum and read the Pm I will send to you
Well, we need one more, who wants Left4Dead2 for cheap (~25€)
Off-topic: slay, please tell me how to contact you about L4D2 pre-order.
Thank you.
[...] Store was detecting my now France-based IP, despite my Canadian credit card, and it was offering me the idiotic European pricing for Left 4 Dead 2. 50% more expensive because my IP happens to be French? My enthusiasm has [...]
You could use a steamgifter.com to gift the game to someone at slightly inflated American prices.