Steam drops support for 2 fiat currencies over their volatlity

[South Park]

snip

P.S. After some google search I'm willing to bet that the fact that Turkey and Argentina combined didn't even crack the top ten countries in the list of top sources of revenues of Steam, played the key role in excluding their currencies. Percentage-wise these two countries combined won't even reach 0.1% of the total revenue
So yeah, it definitely had nothing to do with volatility...

It seems to me this is the most likely explanation as we see this with exchanges all the time, as they simply drop some currency pairs because they do not bring them enough profits, so it is possible Steam is doing the same and the volatility of those two currencies is just an excuse to get rid of those two payment options, after all if those two markets represented a great deal of its profits I could envision Steam doing everything they could to find a way around it.

[pooya87]

after all if those two markets represented a great deal of its profits I could envision Steam doing everything they could to find a way around it.

Exactly.
From a purely economical point of view, every decision you make in your business has costs and profits. For example when you decide to work with a foreign bank on the other side of the world you are effectively adding "overhead" to your business. Not to mention the extra burden on your company and employees dealing with complains from users who had trouble depositing funds because their banks didn't work well, which needs its own dedicated department. That is all on top of the extra work needed for all the AML nonsense they would have to enforce when dealing with fiat and foreign banks.

All this overhead is only acceptable IF it is bringing a decent amount of revenue. Which it doesn't seem to be. So by removing the overhead they would just deal with American banks or payment systems (when they pay using dollar instead of their own fiat) which is so much easer (with much less overhead) for an American company.

[kryptqnick]

I've heard that some people are concerned that these might be the first steps toward gradual limitation of regional prices altogether, but I think it's too early to worry about that.
Also, the pricing for these countries will still be regional, just more stable. Bitcoin is also sort of volatile, and considering that games usually don't cost much, the fees can be significant.
I also wanted to point something out: as a person who uses local fiat to pay for games on Steam, I've noticed that the prices are only technically in local fiat and the payments are also only technically in local fiat. What actually happens is that you see the price in local fiat, but when you pay, the money is actually converted according to an unseen USD price via double conversion, so the amount withdrawn is not the amount shown as the price. I know this because, by default, our local banks block double conversion transactions, and it's something you need to specifically turn on to pay on Steam. So, as I see it, what sort of was the case already is now simply getting revealed without the pretence of local payments.

[DrBeer]

This might be sad news for many people, who were making money by buying game keys from Turkish and Argentine Steam accounts and reselling them on platforms like G2A and G2G. Perhaps the new "regionalized" USD prices will be way lower for countries like Turkey and Argentina in comparison to the Tier 1 countries like USA, Canada and UK. I never understood why Steam/Valve allowed payments in Turkish lira and Argentinian peso in their platform. I don't believe that Valve corporation will ever allow Bitcoin/crypto payments. There's no point for them to do such thing. Their revenue won't increase and such implementation requires certain expenses.

It's not really a problem at all. All the same, payments are made by card accounts, and most likely for the BUYER it will remain a payment in, for example, Turkish lira, but the banking system will automatically recalculate the right amount in dollars, and withdraw the right amount in LIRA. For example, as I pay for purchases in the EU or China - my card is charged the amount in UAH, equivalent to the amount in the currency of the seller. So technically there are no problems. The only nuance - yes, if the local currency is subject to inflation, the amount of payment in local currency will increase.

[Coyster]

Whether Steam is doing this because of volatility or because they aren't making profits off the customers of the said countries, the fact is that the U.S. dollars is far more stable and traded than most currencies around the world, and it is only normal that international businesses/companies and even some countries replace their local currencies with the U.S. dollar. With the high rate of inflation in my country for example, i for one would want to be paid in the U.S. dollar instead of my local currency in my workplace. The U.S dollar isn't free from volatility/inflation, but it is a whole lot lesser than in other parts of the world.

But down the road they may add BTC,

Steam were previously accepting Bitcoin, but they've stopped for a very long time and that's since 2017, because of high fees and volatility. Except you are saying they are going to start accepting Bitcoin again, which i don't think is going to happen.

[stompix]

About inflation in Turkey, Venezuela or Argentina, wouldn't the solution be as simple as swapping the money for a less volatile fiat as soon as they get paid (or even before, during the process?).

That's the problem, capital control, and fake exchange rates!
If companies could easily exchange pesos to USD we wouldn't have a black market rate and a government rate anywhere, but since we have restrictions on this the rates are all over the place and they are not able to get pesos or liras, they have to either keep it in the local currency which devalues by the day or use government rates when permitted and lose 50-60%.
https://bluedollar.net/tourist-dollar-rate/

This might be sad news for many people, who were making money by buying game keys from Turkish and Argentine Steam accounts and reselling them on platforms like G2A and G2G.

With the number of bans being handed lately for those resold keys, it's the people who end up with accounts locked that are to be pitied, not guys who can move thousands of dollars in and out of a ravaged country with hundreds of bank accounts!

[Fortify]

PC Gamer: Valve is dropping local currency support for Turkey and Argentina amid 'exchange rate volatility,' moving to 'regionalized USD pricing' for 25 countries

"Exchange rate volatility in Argentina and Turkey in recent years has made it hard for game developers to choose appropriate prices for their games and keep them current," Valve explained. "We have heard this loud and clear in our developer meet ups and round table chats. In addition, we have had a hard time keeping Steam payment methods up and running in these countries/territories due to the constant foreign exchange fluctuations, fees, taxes, and logistical issues.

"Pricing games in USD for Steam customers in Argentina and Turkey will help us provide greater stability and consistency for players and partners, while also enabling us to continue to offer a variety of payment methods to Steam users in those countries/territories."

"Volatility" in this case appears to be a polite way of saying that the currencies in question have all but collapsed.

The switch to US currency in Argentina and Turkey will see them included in a new "regionalized USD pricing" bloc that includes 25 countries across two regions, Latin America and Middle East/North Africa. The other countries included in the new pricing regions did not previously have local currency support.

In the past Steam dropped the option of paying with BTC via BitPay because of customer complaints over high fees, delayed transactions and problems with the processor, and Steam never had intention of accepting Bitcoin directly. Now we see that fiat currencies are not immune from getting dumped by global corportations either.

Perhaps when Bitcoin will become stable and LN will be ready for mainstream use, Bitcoin will take its place among the strongest global currencies. But for now the similar argument of price volatility can be used to reject Bitcoin from being adopted by a lot of merchants.

It's a sensible move because some of the currencies out there are such a liability to hold and the governments of these countries do themselves no favors when it comes to trying to stabilize the situation. The leader of Turkey for example, thinks he is some sort of economic guru without realizing it is simply the ingenuity and bare hard work of the average Turkish citizen that has kept his country afloat for so long. He picked arguments with the central bank, which is often meant to be a reasonably independent institution in most developed countries that will sometimes work against the desires of the politicians if it makes better economic sense and effectively undermined the real experts who were trying to dig Turkey out of the mess, it's no wonder fewer countries and companies are choosing to accept the currency.

[dothebeats]

I just looked over my emails and checked my 0.14 and 0.23 btc purchases for Steam wallet. It pains me to see those purchases, but honestly it's best for them as a business to drop bitcoin support via BitPay. It was kind of convenient to me back then, though looking at the prices now, I kinda regret spending my bitcoins for something that I don't even touch now.

They as a business need to thrive. Dropping support to those local currencies may lose them a certain market, but overall they still have a strong user base that can offset what was lost with their decision. Besides, gamers using those currencies can easily find a way to buy Steam credits if they really want to, anyway.