'Today is the end of Steam': Argentina and Turkey floored by new Steam price hikes as high as 2900%

pcgamer.com:

Valve followed through on its promise to change Steam's regional pricing for Argentina and Turkey on November 20, meaning games in those countries will now be priced in US dollars instead of the Turkish lira and Argentine peso. The goal, Valve said back in October, is to prevent game developers from having to constantly adjust their prices to keep up with the stunning volatility of the Turkish and Argentine currencies. Instead, they ought to be able to set a regionally appropriate price in USD and forget about it.

But that regionally appropriate part is harder than it sounds, and Turkish and Argentine Steam users are currently in an uproar over new prices in their territories. A quick glance at the Steam subreddit reveals a number of users lamenting the new situation, declaring «The end of Steam» for Turkish and Argentine users, announcing a return to piracy, and posting some of the most eye-watering spreadsheets mankind has ever conjured.

And to be fair, they have a point. A quick glance at the SteamDB price history for some games reveals a few absolutely staggering price increases. Far Cry 5 has gone up in price by around 240% over its previous Argentine peso cost, from a converted price of $14.12 to $48. Stardew Valley is even more stark, shooting up by 2900% in Argentina. The game's previous peso price shook out to about $0.50, but it now costs exactly the same for users in that region as it does for Americans in the US of A.

To be fair, not every game can measure its price increase in the thousands of percent, but nearly everything has gotten dearer to some extent. Take the year's biggest games, for example. Baldur's Gate 3 has gone up from a converted peso price of $28.25 to $35, an increase of 24%; Starfield has