The EU hits Valve, Capcom, Bethesda, more, with fines for "geo-blocking" game sales

Apparently protecting consumer rights is lobyism?

 

I find these counterpoints to be entirely bad faith arguments to the entitlement of "I deserve muh cheaper games". Because that's what it boils down to. You are upset that people that live in a country with a lower standard of living are getting games sold to them at a seemingly cheaper price than what you can buy them for. It's got nothing to do with "I can't buy this game here because pappy Valve isn't selling it in my country (when they otherwise legally could)", because if that was the argument, I would actually be standing on your side and advocating for those consumer's rights. It's all about pricing and people who don't understand economics complaining that they are paying more than the beggar down the street for a luxury good.

It's farcically nonsensical and reeks of first world entitlement.

 

I

It's been ages since I have purchased a game at full price or even close to release for that matter. I get my games at a reasonable price in my local market (except for the ones I can not get in my local market at all). Its not about me deserving "Muh cheap games", it's about the participants of the market adhering to its rules and not pick and chose what rules to adhere to.
Microsoft can follow the rules, Sony can follow the rules, even Nintendo can but Valve suddenly should be excempt from the rule? Why? And prices will suddenly skyrocket? Why isn't that happening on playstation, xbox or switch?

 

what Valve did is prevent people from using a cheaper price they don't need, above Poland was mentioned as an example, Polish people may only be able to afford the CP2077 at 43 euro, people from other countries have the means to pay 60, it's like complaining government wont give you retirement funds because you are 40

 

You're both missing the point.
That's the law. It has nothing to do with entitlement or other fallacies that you can keep to yourselves. Should the EU have left those companies go against the law?

 

Sure, it's the law, it's not a very good one as it pertains to digital goods. Hence my post on the first page:

They're following the laws they've set out, but they're also screwing a pro-consumer division too. They've every right to do it, but it's shortsighted. Instead of fixing the law to make sense, they are just using it as a whacking stick instead.

In the US we've had this law called Civil Forfeiture. It's basically a state stealing your shit. Sure, it's a law, but fuck them if they ever try to use it on me. The defense of "but it's a law dude" is weak in the face of actual practice. Laws don't dictate what is proper, they dictate what is improper, and when something breaks, you need to fix it, not just stubbornly insist that things are fine the way they are.

 

What would a sensible law look like?

"We the European Union, a body set up to promote free trade among its members and break down restrictions of the past that caused so much drama and trauma, decide that in the case of countries with lower average salary to exempt sellers of downloadable games from the rules that discourage restrictions of trade. In doing so we hope that within those regions of our otherwise free trade zone that developers and publishers of computer games delivered via downloadable means continue to sell cheap copies of games to the residents (and only those residents if the companies so deem it) there."

 

they jsut want steam and other publishers to stop the blocking og the region spoof, they arent asking for steam to put a button on top of the website saying click here to change region and get a cheaper game...

most people wont even know how to use vpn or even that a game is cheaper on a said country, so in the overal of everything im preety sure devs wouldn't loose much at all if any, since very few users would go to the trouble of setting vpns and searching websites to save like 1 or 2 euros most of the time.

 

EU should merge and become an totalitarian/autoritarian regime, because they already act like one...

 

*insert "that's bait" meme here*

 

Well, lobbyists rarely do anything that's good in the interest of consumers most of the time, so...

 

Yes, it is indeed very complicated a thing, the EU. However, there are REAL problems with it, a couple of them being censorship of internet sites in at least some member nations that are deemed to be ""hateful"" or ""full of misinformation"", (because yeah, blocking websites means you are in the moral and principally valid camp! NOT!) and the at times controversial CAP in regards to farmers and related workers in agricultural field, among other things.
Oh, and
>Putin said positive things about Brexit, therefore bad
>implying that by supporting Brexit means you must also like Putin
I beg to differ, dear head! The EU may have done good here and there in the short term and maybe also the mid-term, but those who run it don't actually care for the citizens of the member nations by much, if at all. Oh, and banning firearms from being used by most, if not all, military personnel and banning chokeholds (like in France) will TOTALLY reduce crime in the long run and make society more tolerant!! LOL NO.

 

CAD is about 75 cents in USD, it's a pretty straightforward conversion a lot of the time. I.E. 60 USD is 75-80 CAD

 

that wasn't my point, steam straight up blocks me from gifting games because of the more than 10% price difference

and it's not just for usd, it's for euros and gbp too

 

If only they would do something about the eu =usd bs. I know it's up to the publishers but the eu may aswell could outlaw such bs on digital stores fronts.

 

Steam is just probably going to make it possible but not convenient to buy from foreign stores. As long as the use can do it, they can legally make it as little convenient as possible, maybe with active downsides (for example, Nintendo's downside is you need a different account for every region you want to purchase from)

 

isnt that what netflix does?

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you wouldnt like to get your game for cheaper knowing that in neighbouring country its on sale?
i dont see why games cant be cheaper globally not region locked...

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do you want likes or to be smartass? if you actually want to talk youd explain what its about instead being an ass.

 

netflix doesnt block vpn, if you use vpn to spoof a country you can see that country stuff just fine.

 

That would actually be an encroachment on the rights of devs/pubs though. If there was an allegation of price fixing as an industry (given we can buy games for next to nothing then that is a hard sell) then they might be able to do something but simply pegging a price or not wanting to figure out conversion rates and deal with swings either way there.

 

To bad steam and go don't automatically convert the currency based on any semi static exchange rate... If you don't disable it as a Greed dev that is.