Below the graph is the full timeline, with zoom options, where you can see the prce going back to launch.

What?

FH4 was heavily discounted before it was removed from stores (because of license deals), so FH5 will most likely get the same treatment, although it might take a few more years (and FH6 much later after that).

Practically there wasn’t really a difference with the Steam Deck. You still had everyone rushing at the same time to get the deposit in. People got errors during the check out, just like this time and scalpers popped up immediately as well.

Sure, you might have had a few people less, trying to buy it, if you restrict by age, but the controller was announced last year. Do you want Valve to sell the first controllers only to accounts that are older than 6 months or a year? Or do you go by the time the review embargo was up, which got broken because a few reviews leaked early.

I was thinking more along the line of PaysafeCard or things like that, although that might have similar currency restrictions. Or of course you can just buy foreign prepaid cards from third-party resellers. You’ll pay more than the card is actually worth, but if you would then be able to buy games for half price or even less, it would be worth it.

Directly in Steam it’s not that easy, you need a billing address and Steam checks the payment method to verify the country (although I don’t know if certain prepaid cards work for this as well).

You still have Steam keys, that can be sold anywhere though, and not everyone will care that this cheap key, intended for the Polish market is bought by someone in Germany.

I think the law doesn’t say that prices have to be the same, it’s just that you can’t block people from other countries from buying stuff at the cheaper price.

With physical goods you either have to actually go to the country or get it shipped to you, which can make this not as easy or “profitable”. However, with digital goods you just go to a website and there’s not really anything to ship, except maybe an email, so those same hurdles don’t exist, which is why those lower income countries usually get the short end of the stick with prices for games and stuff.

They can’t realistically restrict keys

I think it’s actually illegal to restrict this stuff in the EU.

In the past Steam had separate keys for lower income countries in Europe, that could only be activated there. However, either because laws changed or they started to actually be enforced, Steam had to change it.

You can still make the games cheaper to buy in those countries, but you also have to allow people from Germany, France, wherever to buy them (as long as it’s in the EU), which very few publishers want to do.

So true! Remember the good old days with games like Expedition 33, Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil 9? Those were the best. It’s a pity games like that don’t get made anymore.

WTF are you talking about.

As great as Jeff was, he’s the one that did all the stuff to Overwatch.

As far as I’ve heard/read he was never really interested in making a PVP game, he wanted to make Titan, the MMO. Then he got another chance with OW2 and the PVE mode, and even got an offer to make a separate dev team that would focus on PVP, so he could put his all into PVE, but declined, so the game was left to die (even though it never really died). Then PVE in OW2 was a bust again and he left.

like benches that are locked behind a paywall, which you have to pay every time you want to access the bench

I found this in one small area, which was probably done for the flavor, since it makes thematic sense there, but otherwise it’s always been permanent unlocks.