November 21 will be marked as a black day for Argentine video game fans, since the digital store of Steam dollarized their prices, and made it almost impossible to maintain the hobby.
The news is not a surprise: on October 25 the company had announced that prices in Argentina would go to Dollars due to weight instability. “We are going to implement this through a new price region called ‘LATAM – USD’ that includes Argentina,” they had added, but without anticipating exactly how much the conversion would take place.
It is not known if it was because of the holiday, but on Monday the 20th the change did not occur. A day later, however, the bad news arrived. The dollarization became effective, and the prices of the games are similar to those in the United States, completely unaffordable for the average person in Argentina.
An unexpected jump
Steam It is – or was – known for its incredible offers, which allowed users to buy a wide variety of games for very low prices. Triple A video games – the most famous, created by the largest studios – were already selling for around 12 thousand pesos, plus 100% taxes.
Even though the prices seem high, they are now a good souvenir. For example, Starfield, one of the most important launches of the year, went from 24 thousand pesos (with taxes included) to 42 Dollars, around 31 thousand pesos with taxes. New releases, such as EA Sports FC 24 (ex Fifa), come out 70 Dollarsthat is, about 50 thousand pesos.
Will these prices be maintained?
The process of dollarization It is recent, so it is not known if prices will remain the same. When Steam announced the change, he made a recommendation: that publishers charge a little less than in the United States. Specifically, that every five Dollars 3 will be charged Dollars in Argentina, that is, 60% of the original price would be charged.
Currently, in some cases, that request is being strictly fulfilled. According to the SteamDB page, the AAA game Baldur’s Gate costs 60 Dollars in the United States, and only 35 in Argentina.
Time will tell if the publishers take pity on the Argentine public and set prices according to our economy. For the moment, on the networks the players could not hide their surprise at the inclement increase.
