Malaysian Steam Price Increase Set To Bump Up Game Prices By 20-40%

Steam has recommended new price values for games on the platform in different currencies, with Malaysian gamers set to see between 20-40% increase in different game prices.

The recommendations affect various price points, all based around their USD counterparts and can be viewed in their entirety on SteamDB.

Malaysian Steam users can expect to see around 20-40% increase at the various price points- with the 15 USD price point moving 20% to RM38.50, up from RM32.

Unfortunately, the 60USD price point, the most popular for standard triple-A releases, is also one of the worst hit: Malaysian users will see a 40% increase, up to RM133 up from RM95.

According to SteamDB, Valve will not be enforcing these price changes- though the new recommended price points come from their own market research on things like purchasing power per region.

“Rather than just pegging prices to foreign exchange rates, our process for price suggestions goes deeper into the nuts and bolts of what players pay for the goods and services in their lives”, the statement reads. “This includes metrics like purchasing-power parity and consumer price indexes, which help compare prices and costs more broadly across a bunch of different economic sectors. But in the case of games on Steam, we also drill down more specifically to entertainment purchasing to better inform those decisions”.

This follows an upwards trend for pricing in the games industry- the mobile games market has also seen prices increase, following announcements from Apple.

Considering the state of the economy, it’s understandable that these prices would go up- though it will naturally have its consequences when it comes to who can play these games.