Just wanted to know how other people feel about the service
I kinda have a love hate relationship... recently its becoming more hate
let me explain why...

on the one hand you have this great library of games to choose from and buy
and once installed you do not require to have a disc in the computer ( I hate having to swap discs )
I just click the game I wanna play from my list.. and it starts..

now lets get to the annoying parts of it.. that are slowly starting to aggravate me..
firstly why the hell do the games cost more than their retail store counterparts..

example a copy of call of duty 4 on steam costs $69.99 , in retail store it costs me $49.99.
you would think since the game on steam is not a physical copy were they do not need to print it on disc and the manual .. they would be able to sell it cheaper... but yet here I am asked to pay $20 more.
... to be honest its more than $20 dollars cause since I happen to live in Europe when I go to purchase the copy it adds VAT ..so another $13.30 is added to the price making it $83.29 total for a game I can

buy the disc copy in the store for $49.99.

lets move to the next point...
some of you are wondering “ whats this guy talking about I only payed $49.99 for my copy which I bought from steam! “.. that's because you probably live in the US.. which is my next point..
IP discrimination. its bad enough I have to pay VAT on top of the regular game-price.. but also that I have to pay more on most games to start with .. my question is why?
maybe Gabe Newell likes the people in Europe as much as he likes the PS3 !?

When I buy my PS3/PC games online from USA, Canada or Asia in most cases there is no extra VAT added to start with and there is no discrimination just because I happen to live in Europe... ( hell most times even the shipping is free ! ) and the price is the same as for everybody no matter were they are from...

and my last point ( rant ).. how come most games come out on steam US.. take forever or don't get released at all on the European steam.. example I still cant get The Witcher : Enhanced Edition
on my steam... yet I know its on the US steam.

Thank you for reading this long post/rant of mine
I would be interested to know how other people feel about the service .. and or if you happen to disagree with me on some points ( if not all ) feel free to comment below.. or contact me

Maybe its more of a rippoff to you because you're in europe..can't really agree or disagree there, but for being in the U.S, my personal opinion of it is its the best thing there is, and its free... and every single game on it is cheaper or the same price as stores. When new ones are released they always have a 10% off the full price too. If you're getting to hate it that much, as I said its just a free service, nothing is making you use it. I didn't think it was that bad to users in Europe...

For me, its a great deal.
I only get those specials though.

Like i got CS, CSS and DoD for $15! :D

Some games can work out a bit expensive, but for the most part they're a good deal.

I can totally feel You on the "pay more than in retail, wtf?!" point. When I bought the orange box PC in Germany,  I was totally annoyed that I have to register it with steam. But after all, it's a good service with nice community features (I played mostly TF2). Especially for small companies it's good to distribute games and avoid piracy (You know this rythm game everyone was talking about for a while?). But the prices are simply a joke. I don't think it's only steam. When I bought Vanguard online I payed 10$ more then in retail, and that for a 6gb download - that's a rip-off guys...

Meh. I just buy older games from it, and buy a new game every now and then when the price falls.

And that has always been there for people to read if they felt like it...that isn't no revelation. Steam is a great service, that in my own opinion I would actually justify paying for, unlike XBL. Some people love it, some people don't, everything is this that.

It's fine. I basically only play VALVe games, and the Customer Service is really great, compared to other download services, like EA and Direct2Drive.

It is slow, but that's just the DRM. The DRM is a very practical solution compared to set numbers of installs. It is basically a license to an account, which can only be used in one place at a time.

If it is so expensive then buy it from a normal store

/thread

my problem isn't that its a bad service..its a great service actually..
but not at the price I have to pay for the games here in Europe..
what would interest me of knowing :

• why I have to pay that much extra just because I happen to live outside the US !? .. ( is it a a new law.. were if the data being transferred has to travel a longer physical distance they have to charge you extra ? )

• who makes up the price differences ? ...( did someone at valve had a bad holiday in Europe.. went back and said  " screw those euro-trash bastards.. make em pay more !! " )  

• where does the extra money go to ? ... ( do the developers profit more as well if an European buys their game off steam compared to someone in US?.. or does that make no difference ? )

"Yit said:

"It's fine. I basically only play VALVe games, and the Customer Service is really great, compared to other download services, like EA and Direct2Drive.

It is slow, but that's just the DRM. The DRM is a very practical solution compared to set numbers of installs. It is basically a license to an account, which can only be used in one place at a time."

steam uses drm wtf?"

In Canada, it's a great deal.  I get games for much cheaper, and I don't have to go out to the store.

Ripoff? Steam is the shit!

Seriously I love Steam.

"Ripoff? Steam is the shit!

Seriously I love Steam."

Yea..I'm sure that the price overseas is related to charges the company pays to do business there or distribute there, I doubt the company is trying to screw people in Europe just to do so....Perhaps there's somesort of online tax? Perhaps you should contact the company and ask for an explanation rather than complaining about it online? Maybe it will clairfy the issue for you.

"StressedOutCat said:

"my problem isn't that its a bad service..its a great service actually..
but not at the price I have to pay for the games here in Europe..
what would interest me of knowing :

• why I have to pay that much extra just because I happen to live outside the US !? .. ( is it a a new law.. were if the data being transferred has to travel a longer physical distance they have to charge you extra ? )

• who makes up the price differences ? ...( did someone at valve had a bad holiday in Europe.. went back and said  " screw those euro-trash bastards.. make em pay more !! " )  

• where does the extra money go to ? ... ( do the developers profit more as well if an European buys their game off steam compared to someone in US?.. or does that make no difference ? )

just find it weird ... just because my IP is different I automatically become a second rate costumer..."

Its called a tariff england charges extra taxes on goods coming in from other countries driving up prices for you but helping out game distributers native to england."

"

steam sucks read this license agreement walkthrough 

http://urbangamers.org/?p=116

  

this shows that you dont own the games

"

Europeans make more money than Americans, as does Australians where the game is sold on Steam for $88.50. Our average income is nearly double that of an American, same goes for Europe, look at how much they pay for BigMacs compared to what you pay, or rent, or bottled water. It's not IP discrimination, it's just business.

"Europeans make more money than Americans, as does Australians where the game is sold on Steam for $88.50. Our average income is nearly double that of an American, same goes for Europe, look at how much they pay for BigMacs compared to what you pay, or rent, or bottled water. It's not IP discrimination, it's just business."

"StressedOutCat said:

"KindGalaxy said:

"Europeans make more money than Americans, as does Australians where the game is sold on Steam for $88.50. Our average income is nearly double that of an American, same goes for Europe, look at how much they pay for BigMacs compared to what you pay, or rent, or bottled water. It's not IP discrimination, it's just business."

maybe so.. but that does not give em right to charge me more just because I make bit more... that's still discrimination.
and even if that was the case you would then still see a bigger shift of the gaming industry being focused on the market outside the US.
but its not... Europe and Australia are always the last on the list when it comes to games releases... or anything related to the game industry ...
( wouldn't you wanna keep your higher paying costumers happy ? )
We are the second rate costumers of the gaming world... my money in US currency seems less valuable than someone living on the other side of the pond with the same currency.
at least to company's like Valve..."

Do you use the dollar? If you do then the american dollar could be worth more so 60 of my dollars could buy 80 of your dollars so games have to change prices in regions."

Great service. Period.

Personally, Steam is the answer to DRM that most companies need to just adopt and use.  It would make things a hell of a lot less painful for the consumers.

It's the greatest service ever invented for PC games.

Great Service. End of Story. Next.

Seems like a great service to me, but i never got into the whole buying games online thing cause to me thats just crazy, but steam seems great

If you live in Australia you'd know why Steam is a godsend.

I'd much rather live in a world without Steam being *required*. But since DRM is now apparently a part of PC gaming life, it's better than other schemes.

"

steam sucks read this license agreement walkthrough 

http://urbangamers.org/?p=116

  

this shows that you dont own the games

"

i don't have a PC, i have a new, nice mac for work, and my crappy old mac for other stuff. Like Giant Bomb.

"i don't have a PC, i have a new, nice mac for work, and my crappy old mac for other stuff. Like Giant Bomb."

People probably aren't buying the over-priced software and eventually they'll realizing they're over-charging and lower the price to drive sales.

Love the service. I got TwoWorlds, a game I would never have paid asking price otherwise, for 5 dollars. 5 fucking dollars, man. That's incredible. I've also seen some other amazing deals which I've sadly had no money to exploit at the time, but I absolutely love them for actually giving discounts.

It's a good start but it needs an account manager for people wtth more than one account.

great service! Hope there will be achievement support for more games soon...

Considering I live the USA I have no problem with Steam prices. Overall it seems the rest of the world outside of North America and Japan have always gotten bad treatment from the games industry.

Steam is probably the best thing to happen to PC gaming in quite sometime.

"Ripoff? Steam is the shit!

Seriously I love Steam."

cod 4 is the only game on steam that costs more on steam than it does in reatail....

steam is awesome and stop whining

COD4 only costs 49.99 on steam

I'm in the UK and the game prices are in dollars so in most cases the games are cheaper then they are in stores. I just half the price of the game to work out its rough price in pounds. Example, in Steam - Crysis costs $49.99 = £29.99, in Retail - £34.99. So in retail the game costs an extra £10.

Exchange rate, mate.

Steam is lovely.

I have had no problems with steam being an american. It's a great service for me.

It pisses me off when a game I really want to play isn't avaliable on steam, I think it's great.

The only problem I have about Steam is that some games that come out in the US (like all of the Ubisoft games) don't come out here in the UK.