Steam PC Games In India May See A Significant Increase In Prices Due To High Forex Rates

PC games are set to become more expensive in India due to the dollar value rising against the Indian Rupee. In the latest move, Valve has recommended regional pricing for Steam games in India with higher conversion rates, indicating that the prices may go up significantly. 

While Steam does not enforce its regional pricing guidelines, publishers can follow the recommendations and price their games accordingly in different regions. The change in regional pricing comes due to the rising value of the US Dollar against a host of global currencies including the Indian Rupee. As a result, prices of existing PC games and upcoming titles may see a hike in the coming months. 

According to an updated recommended regional pricing by Steam, a game that costs $60 in the US will now cost ₹2,400 in India. Previously, the recommended regional price for India for a similarly priced game was ₹1,299. Similarly, other regions also show updated prices including the Canadian Dollar, Turkish Lira, Polish zloty, Chinese Yuan, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, and others. 

“With purchasing power and foreign exchange rates constantly evolving, we needed to make significant changes to those conversion recommendations to stay current,” Valve said in a statement. “The new recommendations are now live – but as always, developers on Steam are in control of their own pricing. Any given product could use our recommended conversions for all, some, or no other currencies,” the company added. 

Updated prices based on the recommended regional pricing are already showing up on the Steam store. For instance, new titles like the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are priced in India at ₹4,999, which is significantly higher than the previous pricing for new Call of Duty titles. 

“Price increases generate a 28-day cooldown on discounting for all regions (even if you are just increasing the price in a single currency). Some developers choose to wait to make price changes until after a discount, when the product is already on discount cooldown,” Valve said.