Questions

• OMG WTF BBQ those differences are ridiculous. Be ashamed of yourself Valve!?
• What are the benefits for registered users on SteamPrices.com?
• What does this flag mean?
• What do the colored percentages mean?
• Some prices on this website don't match those in the Steam Store!
• Game X is missing on SteamPrices.com!
• Can you please add a feature to show if a game is region-locked?
• I thought I have to pay VAT / sales taxes? Your prices don't include them!
• How do I open a foreign Steam Stores?
• How can I obtain products from foreign Steam Stores?
• Scammers?
• Where do you get your price data from?
• Where do you get your currency data from?

Answers

• OMG WTF BBQ those differences are ridiculous. Be ashamed of yourself Valve!?

  Well, the prices may differ heavily, but don't blame Valve - they don't force the prices. Each publisher is on his own responsibility. Valve sets a price for a region only if the publisher doesn't care about it.

• What are the benefits for registered users on SteamPrices.com?

  You may profit from the following features if you login via Steam Community:

  • Your personal wishlist on SteamPrices.com
  • Import games from your Steam wishlist
  • E-mail notifications if game prices on your wishlist drop or if those games are on sale

• What does this flag mean?

  Valve divided Europe into two virtual regions, so games in the Steam Store may have different prices within Euro countries.

  Region 1:
  Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland

  Region 2:
  Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Vatican City

  This is not an official list and there are games where it doesn't fit perfectly (e.g. Killing Floor), so the price shown on SteamPrices.com could differ for your country in single cases.

• What do the colored percentages mean?

  green: at least 33% cheaper than the selected currency

  yellow: up to 33% cheaper than the selected currency

  white: more expensive than the selected currency

• Some prices on this website don't match those in the Steam Store!

  SteamPrices.com updates its data regularly, but not hourly. Recent changes in the Steam Store may be missing on our website. You can check the latest update in the footer.

  Another reason could be a different pricing within European countries (see regions above). Some indicated prices may also vary for single locations.

• Game X is missing on SteamPrices.com!

  First of all, please check if the game is listed in the Steam Store search results. We can only find games and packs that are listed there (for some unknown reasons, not all games are findable via the search).

  If it's listed on Steam but a new game, it may take a few hours or days until it shows up on SteamPrices.com. If it's still missing on SteamPrices.com several days after release, please contact us.

• Can you please add a feature to show if a game is region-locked?

  Currently, there's no way for us to determine for sure whether a game is region-locked because we just parse the U.S. Steam Store game details pages for further information like description, system requirements, publisher, gerne, etc.

  We'd need to parse each game's detail page on all supported regions just to see if it is region-locked - honestly, that's way too much traffic and we only parse such a page once or twice per month, so the information can be outdated at the time of a game's release.

  To check by yourself whether a game is region-locked: Open the store page of the game in question and check if there is a message for possible restrictions. If you want to check for foreign Steam Store regions, please read the FAQ entry How do I open a foreign Steam Stores?

• I thought I have to pay VAT / sales taxes? Your prices don't include them!

  That's true. We use the prices from the Steam Store, but we cannot predict how much the VAT is in your country. Some have 19%, others 25%. And those charges only apply on people living outside the USA and using that Steam Store. Pounds and Euro prices in the Steam Store have already added VAT.

  Within the U.S., the sales tax is only levied from consumers in Washington (state).

• How do I open a foreign Steam Stores?

  In order to change the currency in the Steam Store you have to modify the URL on any Steam Store page.

  Add "?cc=us" to the URL to get USD prices, e.g. http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=us.

  You can try any two-character country code, like uk for the British Steam Store and de for the German Steam Store.

  The Steam Store provides USD, GBP, EUR and RUB prices only. Prices in different Stores may vary even if they show the same currency, just compare the Australian Steam Store to the US Steam Store.

  Be sure to reset the ?cc settings before purchasing! You can do this by closing all browser windows. Valve automatically locks accounts if the selected store, your IP and your billing address don't match. We suggest to use the Steam client for purchases.

• How can I obtain products from foreign Steam Stores?

  You cannot purchase anything in other Steam Stores than your own. Valve asks for billing adresses and the store software tests your statements! It checks your location (determined by your IP address) and complains if the country stated doesn't match, compares your location to the Credit Card's place of issue and also verifies the information given by PayPal if you choose that payment option.

  Before you ask: Yes, there are ways to circumvent some of the queries, but we won't give any information on this. We don't want to be blamed if your account gets disabled or locked.

  The only legit way to obtain something from a foreign Steam Store is to get a gift.

  Be aware of scammers! Only trust people you know! Also check out this thread in the official Steam forums.

• Scammers?

  Scammers promise you to gift the game if you send them the required money beforehand. But they just take your money and you don't get anything. Well, you may get the gift in advance - in this case, the scammer will revoke his PayPal money or Credit Card transaction. Afterwards, Steam will remove the gift from your account.

• Where do you get your price data from?

  SteamPrices.com uses a Perl script to parse the Steam Store website. Yes, it's (not so) simple and plain HTML parsing. The first version of the script was written by SteamCalculator.com. Thanks, man!

• Where do you get your currency data from?

  All currency data is taken from the European Central Bank and timegenie.com twice per day. Last update: 21^st May 2013 9:57pm UTC.

  ₴ 1.00  =   $ 0.12  =   £ 0.08  =   € 0.09  =   руб 3.78  =   R$ 0.25  =   AU$ 0.12  =   ¥ 12.43  =   Mex$ 1.49