It's been two years since Steam implemented protections against customers spoofing their location to buy games from other countries' storefronts, as gamers tried to use currency conversions in order to get games for far cheaper than they normally would be in their home region. It's also been almost two years since the European Commission filed charges against Valve for doing so, as according to them, it prevented members of the European Union from being able to freely shop for the best available prices within any country inside the EU. Now, as result of that, the EU has hit them, along with five other video game publishers with major fines over "geo-blocking" customers. Valve, ZeniMax, Focus Home Interactive, Capcom, Koch Media, and Bandai Namco have been fined to the tune of € 7.8 million total. Valve, as they refused to cooperate with the Commission, was fined €1.6 million, while the other publishers had their fees decreased somewhat, as they worked alongside the Commission during the investigation. European publisher Focus Home was fined €2.9 million, ZeniMax--parent company of Bethesda--was fined $1.6 million, Koch was fined €1 million, while Capcom and Bandai Namco weren't fined as much, at €396,000 and €340,000 respectively.

Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “More than 50% of all Europeans play video games. The videogame industry in Europe is thriving and it is now worth over € 17 billion. Today's sanctions against the “geo-blocking” practices of Valve and five PC video game publishers serve as a reminder that under EU competition law, companies are prohibited from contractually restricting cross-border sales. Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market and of the opportunity to shop around for the most suitable offer in the EU”.

Source

 

[Redferne]

Fair enough. However what they did, by extension, was prevent customer from buying games and gifting them to friends. I can't buy a copy of a game in the US to gift to a friend in the UK because of these Geo-locks. And it's a multiplayer game. Doesn't matter to me if the cost of the game is different, or isn't even sold in that region. I just want to buy it so we can play a game together. While the fine may not stop them from continuing, it does hurt them a little bit in the wallet. Depends on how much.

Sadly that EU decision won't change anything about that. It only concerns people living in the common market, buying in the common market.

 

[banjo2]

While I'm in general not in favor of region blocking (fucking Nintendo not letting me play JP games on my US console)

Don't you just have to make a Japanese eShop account?

 

[pedro702]

I hope this extends to bigger companies, like Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, who have their own digital markets and restrict what can be bought where, gifted to who, etc. I'm really wanting to gift a few games to friends living abroad.

you can just make an account on any region on switch and buy from that region afaik. and what you buy is for that switch and your main account also gets the games so meh , its not like they even require you to spoof your location at all lol.

 

[Dimensional]

you can just make an account on any region on switch and buy from that region afaik. and what you buy is for that switch and your main account also gets the games so meh , its not like they even require you to spoof your location at all lol.

I think you replied to the wrong person. I didn't mention anything about a switch.

 

[pedro702]

I think you replied to the wrong person. I didn't mention anything about a switch.

you said on nintendo and sony dont allow you to buy outside your region and i said its false on nintendo atleast you can make a japanese account,usa accounbt eu account on the same console and buy from any of those eshops and any game you buy works on every other account on your switch.

 

[Dimensional]

you said on nintendo and sony dont allow you to buy outside your region and i said its false on nintendo atleast you can make a japanese account,usa accounbt eu account on the same console and buy from any of those eshops and any game you buy works on every other account on your switch.

Understood. But again I didn't say anything about having a switch. And I would have to create a separate account for each region, which can be said for all services, but then I'd have to use my CC on those accounts, and it may not go through because of how certain CC fraud detections work. The work around being suggested is a multi-step headache that could still end up failure even if everything is accounted for and done correctly. However I feel we are getting off topic from the thread. Whatever happens, it's speculation at this moment.

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

Last time I have checked, though, India is not in the EU.

The issue is not that they are not offering specific games in specific countries (in fact, that's still required by law of specific countries), the issue is not even that they charge different prices in different countries, they are free to do so. The issue is these companies selling in the EU single market, but preventing someone from within the EU to buy from somewhere else in the EU - which is the entire purpose of the EU single market.

The EU Single Market ideology really does start to fall apart when the price of logistics to selling in different markets is nominally non-existant. The single market works well for physical goods, because it allows for other countries to compete in an open market, and the price of the logistics of doing so are tangible. It's not cheap to freight tons of material between borders. However, the digital marketplace really does change the entire dynamic. With the price of logistics being zero, if any company wants to effectively implement regional pricing, geo-locking is mandatory. Otherwise, nothing stops a Frenchman from buying a Grecian game at 1/10th the price*. This means that Valve has to set a standard price for the entire market and therefore economically cut off access to poorer regions. There is no more "You can buy this product in a different country, and this company will carry the freight cheaper".

Digital goods do not fare well in such a single market where economic disparity will dispose different people to access.

*I don't know the actual specifics, just a random example.

 

[pedro702]

Understood. But again I didn't say anything about having a switch. And I would have to create a separate account for each region, which can be said for all services, but then I'd have to use my CC on those accounts, and it may not go through because of how certain CC fraud detections work. The work around being suggested is a multi-step headache that could still end up failure even if everything is accounted for and done correctly. However I feel we are getting off topic from the thread. Whatever happens, it's speculation at this moment.

its not speculation lol everyone does it i have an usa account and a pal account and i can buy just fine on both eshop storefronts, nintendo uses the localization you enter to give you the eshop you want if it has one, if a country has no eshop like many countrys you just pick a country to use the eshop, i remenber people from columbia or mexico using usa accounts and such because the way nintendo works is if your country has no eshop it wont work even open one lol, not sure if they changed that in latter updates. they have no default eshop.

 

[jt_1258]

normally the big changes the eu push in gaming seem pretty good but they really do have some odd ideas too...valve is stopping people from abusing the system...how is that bad in any way...even speaking in terms of in the U.S. where sales tax is different between states it still would make sense to stop someone from spoofing there location as somewhere else in the us for lower sales tax rather then paying what they should...

 

[Localhorst86]

The EU Single Market ideology really does start to fall apart when the price of logistics to selling in different markets is nominally non-existant. The single market works well for physical goods, because it allows for other countries to compete in an open market, and the price of the logistics of doing so are tangible. It's not cheap to freight tons of material between borders. However, the digital marketplace really does change the entire dynamic. With the price of logistics being zero, if any company wants to effectively implement regional pricing, geo-locking is mandatory. Otherwise, nothing stops a Frenchman from buying a Grecian game at 1/10th the price*. This means that Valve has to set a standard price for the entire market and therefore economically cut off access to poorer regions. There is no more "You can buy this product in a different country, and this company will carry the freight cheaper".

Digital goods do not fare well in such a single market where economic disparity will dispose different people to access.

*I don't know the actual specifics, just a random example.

The EU single market is a two way street. It benefits companies and consumers alike by giving companies access to the market outside their country vice versa giving outside consumers the right to buy your product. There is no reason to excempt digital goods and there is no reason to allow a company to effectively rob the consumer from access to the single market just because it cuts into their profits.

Yes, within the EU there will be differences in purchasing power but there is no 10:1 gap, not even close to that.

No, it does not mean the EU needs to set a standard price for the entire market. They can still set different regional prices within the single market. But they aren't allowed to stop me from "travelling" (either physically or digitally) within Europe and purchasing an item there, which is what the EU is complaining about here.

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

No, it does not mean the EU needs to set a standard price for the entire market. They can still set different regional prices within the single market.

But they aren't allowed to stop me from "travelling" (either physically or digitally) within Europe and purchasing an item there, which is what the EU is complaining about here.

You have two separate and exclusive ideas in this one paradoxical paragraph. The idea of travelling digitally is exactly the same as setting one market, and one market price. I think the bolded phrase sets the paradox the best: you have both regionality and singularity, both cannot be true at the same time. Regional pricing necessitates regional markets. The reason why this works for physical goods is because distance and freighting costs acts as a division for the markets, even if there isn't one in principal, there is one in practice.

As an aside to this discussion, I find it amusing that because Belgium, a EU member state, banned loot boxes, forcing EA to sell games devoid of them in that country, why can't the rest of the EU purchase that version of the game.

 

[pedro702]

You have two separate and exclusive ideas in this one paradoxical paragraph. The idea of travelling digitally is exactly the same as setting one market, and one market price. I think the bolded phrase sets the paradox the best: you have both regionality and singularity, both cannot be true at the same time. Regional pricing necessitates regional markets. The reason why this works for physical goods is because distance and freighting costs acts as a division for the markets, even if there isn't one in principal, there is one in practice.

nintendo doesnt stop you from making different accounts on same console and buying from each different eshop and every user in the console has access to every game, never saw anyone developer or otherwise complaining people made us accounts on Europe to save on costs to buy their games... heck if you buy an out of region game that has dlc you actually have to make an account with that region to buy the dlc,being the game physical or digital, its even stated by numerous sources all over.

 

[Localhorst86]

You have two separate and exclusive ideas in this one paradoxical paragraph. The idea of travelling digitally is exactly the same as setting one market, and one market price. I think the bolded phrase sets the paradox the best: you have both regionality and singularity, both cannot be true at the same time. Regional pricing necessitates regional markets. The reason why this works for physical goods is because distance and freighting costs acts as a division for the markets, even if there isn't one in principal, there is one in practice.

It's not a paradox, regionality and singularity are not mutually exclusive. There is a framework that regulates certain aspects singularly (singularitaly?) but has regional leway. There is no need for Valve to set a singular price accross all regional markets and in fact, they'd probably lose out doing so.

No one expects Valve to straight up offer the customer "hey, would you like to purchase it from hungary instead? You'll save 15%!"

As someone who has worked in the logistics sector for more than a decade, I can tell you that logistics costs for physicall goods are only a very tiny fraction compared to the value of the goods. Hauling shit accross Europe is surprisingly cheap - *because* of the EU and the single market.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Is anything going to change?

 

[eyeliner]

This should be in effect in the 90's, where most all of the good stuff like the SNES RPGs never hit the EU.

But this is a great move. No more geoblocking is good. In the end, companies will have to give the games to all gamers.
This will probably kill some EU publishers, and make some games coming to market at the same time everywhere, like SFV coming to the US and EU after ages of being in Japan, giving some advantage to Japanese players in tournaments.

It's not that they have to make games compatible to 50Hz TV's anymore.

 

[chrisrlink]

If you are doing business in the single market that EU is, you have to follow the EU rules. So I hope they get a proper slap and not a smack on the wrist.

saddly watch valve pull steam out of the EU rather than comply

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

saddly watch valve pull steam out of the EU rather than comply

I think Valve will simply set one price for all games. They probably got in trouble for region locking their store to implement regional pricing. They'll just let everyone use the French/German store and pay their rates.

 

[Xzi]

OK this is dumb. Do they not realize "geo-blocking" is what's keeping prices low for several of their member nations?

Is anything going to change?

Prices will become uniform across Europe (or at least across the EU), and thus go up in a lot of places.

 

[Jayro]

Good, I hope it's enough of a fine to REALLY sting. Region-locking/geo-blocking always has been, and always will be --> bullshit.

There's no need or place for it in the modern world. I'm glad game consoles are finally region-free, but it took until the previous generation to make it happen, and that's so damn sad!

 

[Xzi]

Good, I hope it's enough of a fine to REALLY sting. Region-locking/geo-blocking always has been, and always will be --> bullshit.

There's no need or place for it in the modern world. I'm glad game consoles are finally region-free, but it took until the previous generation to make it happen, and that's so damn sad!

This isn't the same kind of region locking we're used to from consoles, that's hardly ever been an issue on PC. The only difference from country to country is pricing, where Valve tried to take into account the economic status of individual member nations. Well, that and Germany receiving censored versions of specific games. Uniformity in the EU would mean every member nation gets those censored versions, and at the highest possible price. Not something I'd personally be cheering for.