Does that sound like sales come and the price of something is reduced, but it turns out that before it cost the same and what they have done is raise it so that it seems that, in effect, it is discounted? This and other tricks with the modification of the prices of products are a constant in all kinds of sales and Steam is not an exception, although it will stop being one shortly, at least in the European Union, a territory in which they are going to begin to change things.
As collected in TechSpot, the application of the omnibus community directive, also known as the Compliance and Modernization Directive aimed at strengthening consumer protection, is going to start rolling out on Steam, where pricing practices have been largely unchecked forever. But, isn’t the price and discount model popularized by Steam one of the aspects that have made the platform great? Yes, but everything has limits.
Limits such as those that Valve imposed a year ago to prevent abuse and that are now going to be reinforced with a very simple measure: show the minimum price of the game in the last monththat is, that the game card includes the normal price, the current price, and the minimum price of the last thirty days, in order to try to eradicate the clever ones who take advantage of the arrival of the sales to deceive the staff.
Steam now shows 30-day low price in some European Union countries to comply with the Omnibus Directive. pic.twitter.com/BbTsNn2Zsp
—SteamDB (@SteamDB) June 3, 2023
The SteamDB tweet shows what those warnings will look like in games, which, it must be repeated, will only be implemented in the European Union, at least for the moment, and not in all member countries at the same time, but by blocks, depending on whether the regulation has been approved or not. Of course, from the success of the measure and the pressure exerted by other territories, it may be extended.
It is worth mentioning that deceptive discount tactics are not something specific to Steam, but to all sales platforms, whether digital or not. In fact, these and other measures that Steam has applied and is applying -such as limitations on continued discounts, or extremes above or below- have been slow to be adopted in other areas, although Steam is the benchmark for sector.
The curious thing about this case is that Steam already banned discounts followed in less than 28 days last year, which are almost the month that is applied now to report the minimum price of the games in that period of time, so the measure, still forced -according to Valve’s interpretation- by the EU directive, seems like a patch to the previous one. Likewise, welcome.
In another order of things, but without changing the subject, it was also last year when Valve updated the recommended prices on Steam in line with inflation, that is, upwards, also in relation to the conversion between currencies.
