Yesterday we did a round-up of the cheapest copies of DOOM that you could get from retail stores and digital marketplaces. And near the very, very bottom of the list was Steam: because as it turns out, asking Australians to pay US$79.95 isn’t a great deal.
At 4:00 AM this morning, that was still the asking price. Then something happened.
The Australian tracker on Steam Prices noticed an early morning plunge, from US$79.95 to US$59.99. (Click the photos to enlarge.)
The US$79.95 pricing was something I noticed when rounding up the cheapest copies of DOOM, and it had already caused a degree of consternation on the Steam forums.
It’s something even one of the latest Steam reviews picked up on:
There isn’t a listing on the Steam Spy database for the new DOOM yet, but Steamdb.info shows there hasn’t been any adjustment to the game’s US, Euro or British pricing.
For users who might have pre-ordered on Steam at the higher price, it’s a bit of a strange move. I’ve reached out to Bethesda for clarification, but given the circumstances I’m not expecting a reply.
But in the meantime, someone has quietly given Australians a better deal. Provided you didn’t pre-order on Steam first, anyway.
Comments
36 responses to “The Australian Price Of DOOM Quietly Dropped This Morning”
Man if i pre ordered that on steam i would be absolutely filthy (also an idiot).
Don’t you generally pay the lower price if it changes prior to release like this?
The amount is deducted from your Steam wallet/credit card/PayPal at the time of payment, so if you pre-order something for $X then $X is what you pay, even if it later changes to $Y.
Agreed. Steam’s crappy inflated USD prices are the reason why I’m actually going back to purchasing my games from brick and mortar stores. 80 dollars USD at the moment is 110 aussie dollars. Steam offer games in NZ dollars on the new zealand store. Steam need to get their act together with this.
They do need to add aud
Who pre-orders on steam anyway? With sites like Ozgameshop and Green Man Gaming, you can buy steam games for cheaper.
I did. There was a deal which included the Wolfenstein expansion: The Old Blood.
What this means, though is I basically paid extra for the expansion instead of getting it bundled free. So… fuck that. Refund time!
Can’t they ask for a refund if they haven’t played for a certain amount of time anyway? It’s only just released to today, so most people aren’t going to have had a chance to play it..
Just refund, then buy it at the cheaper price. Solved.
Yes, that’s an option.
Just did it myself. Refunded the pre-order (which meant returning The Old Blood bonus bundled with the game), and used a key re-seller instead. All transactions wrapped up and Doom now loaded with the new key. The actual refund in my steam wallet is still pending, however. I assume that will stand for the next 28hrs.
Yes, and they do.
I preordered Rise of Tomb Raider on steam and had yet to install it after it was released. requested a refund from stream when I found it for US$20 less at another online vendor. Steam refunded my purchase less than 12 hours of my request.
That’s what I’m about to do.
Who still buys AAA games on Steam these days? It’s consistently the most expensive place to buy digital games.
The only time I go there now is the odd time one of their deals is actually decent or it’s an indie game only sold on Steam.
We’d get the adjustment first because of timezones, I suspect.
That’s an outrageous thing to do though, actually punish the pre-ordering customers like that.
I’m wondering if we should be directing the ire towards Valve a little bit more, though.
We (the paying audience) deserve to know more about this period right before a game launches. I’m not talking about embargoes as such, but exactly who communicates and coordinates with who in relation to the ‘countdown to launch’ period.
There are the die-hards who consume the trailers then buy day one, and then there are the ones who won’t buy the new hotness until it goes on sale some time later, they probably ignore the hype cycle and reviews by major outlets. They’ll still go by the Metacritic aggregate probably.
I’m sort of in neither camp – there is the group in between who *don’t* pre-order but will read the early buzz on forums and such who then jump in once the game *finds* its audience.
i was under the impression that Steam has very little to zero say in game pricing.
they’re at fault for still not implementing AUD cost but that’s another topic altogether.
still not the cheapest for Doom though so meh
True… but Steam doesnt allow publishers to charge AUD either. Been a couple of publishers who dropped the price immediately after realising they enter the wrong price for Australia… BUT not all of them, some are just plain greedy.
Steam needs to add AUD to Australian region locking, or automatically lock it to US region price. Australia tax is NOT cool!
That’s my point, it’s this time-sensitive and amorphous point in time that I think deserves extra scrutiny. It’s easier for the corporates to cover their tracks hence act like they have not done anything untoward.
Australia is also a small fish in the big pond (relatively) of AAA gaming so that’s even more reason for Kotaku/others to call out such brazen acts.
Not sure if srs? Valve has a big influence. Otherwise explain how any other seller can get it for half the price? Bethesda are obviously supplying it for cheap to other retailers/countries which is how people get Doom for $42 instead of $100. Valve are just greedy
I don’t think you understand digital distribution.
Valve gets a cut of the sale for hosting the game on its platform. They are essentially a merchant.
Think of Event Management platforms, Kickstarter, Paypal etc. All of them let you list things at the prices you wish, the service just gets a cut of whatever is collected as payment for use of the platform.
Pricing is up to the Developers/Publishers themselves. Sure Valve gets more money with the game price at $80 instead of $60, but they do not have a gun to their head forcing them to do this.
TLDR, Its greed on the Publishers part.
This also exists on GTAV on Steam as well… I’d buy it on G2A simply because it’s a cheaper price but the problem with pricing higher in Australia than the US isn’t fair.
Im upset that Blizzard now charges Australia Tax on games like Overwatch.
final cost should be $X – (X- Y) but steam just want your money. Is it greenman gaming that give you twice the difference 2(X-Y) store credit if a pre-order price is reduced before release.
I was going to buy this off steam for convince and didn’t pre order cause I was well it’s steam it’s not like they are going to run out of copies. Lucky I did hold off.
g2a.com is still the cheapest price I’ve found. AU$51.60 all up. I’ve already pre-downloaded the game so I can verify it’s validity.
cdkeys.com has it for $44.99 AUD (includes some multiplayer DLC)
My bad, ignore post… was thinking of cdkeys.com.au.
It’s on G2A or Kinguin for just under A$50
100% this. Why anyone would buy from Steam is beyond me. G2A, cdkeys, GMG > Steam
Aaaaaaaaaand here come the uneducated “we’re the centre of the universe” American comments.
“BUT DER MINIMUM WAGE”
Stop whining. Buy the disc version from target. Oh and stop whining. This whole comments section is insufferable.
Ironic that you are here whining about people whining.
Not buying crap from Target, thank you, since they caved to the “think of the children!!” mob about GTA.
Any publisher charging an Australia tax can piss off. They should be ashamed of themselves. Better be reflected in the sales.
Seriously why are people still so silly as to buy AAA titles directly from steam? 41$ on G2A today and i think its still going, theres honestly no reason to pay that much
Because a lot of people stupidly think all those sites are going to steal your soul, first born, etc.
Usually when I bring up a site like that someone comes in with “OMG they’re not legit, I heard from a friend of a friend that his cousin’s brother was scammed by them!” or something equally sensational.
Sure there are fake sites, its the internet… But the crying around a number of very popular Steam key sites is ridiculous.
I don’t think I’ve EVER had an issue with any I’ve used. But then I’m not one for blindly using whatever random link I find, so I tend to always do at least 30 seconds of research (yay google) to see if the site has problems before giving them my money.
It could be that Steam &/or Bethesda were cashing in on the the Australian time zone.
With global release dates, those in the US, UK, etc can access games “early” with a VPN and an Australian account.
It’d also make sense if they were trying to discourage the practice.
I’m not planning to buy at this price but the price change isn’t showing for me or it’s gone back up.
The steam popup update says DOOM is 59.99 but the store page still shows 79.95, added it to my cart and it’s still 79.95.
Yeah seems to have gone back up. Maybe they realised what they had done and fixed it, I mean screw Australia after all…
Always buy your easter eggs after easter