South African Rand coming to steam on 10 November

I haven't received this e-mail yet - am I the only one?

I'm with [MENTION=17]MetalSoup[/MENTION] that this doesn't necessarily mean prices will increase. Hoping the same thing as [MENTION=1872]Grievous[/MENTION] that this might actually cause prices to drop for us, even with the VAT.

PC games are much cheaper than console games at retail in South Africa, so hopefully Steam brings digital prices in line with retail.

Wonder what that would mean for the likes of BTGames?
 
Jan said:
Wonder what that would mean for the likes of BTGames?
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Sadly I think they will go the way of music stores. Unless they adapt to sell other items. I use to buy everything through BT games, in the last year I purchased a controller from them, that's it.
 
Jan said:
Wonder what that would mean for the likes of BTGames?
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As far as I know it is on digital products, and not just any online product purchase. I think that is what is confusing people a bit
 
MetalSoup said:
Surely BTGames make most of their money from console games anyway?
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Not sure - the video game industry in South Africa has always been very cagey about revealing details like that.

It wouldn't surprise me either way...

If our surveys are anything to go by, the people who buy lots of games every year (digital & retail) in South Africa tend to be PC gamers, so BTGames could make most of their money from PC game sales.

However, console games are more expensive, so they could be making more margin on those which means they make more money off console games.

It could also very well be that South Africa might be split ±40% PC, ±35% PlayStation, and ±25% Xbox, and that the money retailers make from PC games might be slightly less than consoles, but still significant.
 
I don't think this will affect retail gaming stores too much. A lot of the "hardcore" crowd will obviously buy games on steam if the Rand prices are better than the dollar ones (and more in line with retail pricing), but a lot of that same crowd (myself included) still prefer physical copies, even though it goes through steam (or a similar service) anyway.

There are also a lot people that don't have a decent internet connection with which they can download full physical games. I've also come across many, many people who actually hate services like steam, uplay and origin because of the internet requirements, but then they can't really buy physical either and they resort to getting torrents from friends who do have internet.
 
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Wlad said:
I don't think this will affect retail gaming stores too much. A lot of the "hardcore" crowd will obviously buy games on steam if the Rand prices are better than the dollar ones (and more in line with retail pricing), but a lot of that same crowd (myself included) still prefer physical copies, even though it goes through steam (or a similar service) anyway. There are also a lot people that don't have a decent internet connection with which they can download full physical games. I've also come across many, many people who actually hate services like steam, uplay and origin because of the internet requirements, but then they can't really buy physical either and they resort to getting torrents from friends who do have internet.
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Agreed. Will not affect most retails stores at all. Not sure about the Codes that they sell though, bit of a grey area to me.
 
Jan said:
Not sure - the video game industry in South Africa has always been very cagey about revealing details like that.

It wouldn't surprise me either way...

If our surveys are anything to go by, the people who buy lots of games every year (digital & retail) in South Africa tend to be PC gamers, so BTGames could make most of their money from PC game sales.

However, console games are more expensive, so they could be making more margin on those which means they make more money off console games.

It could also very well be that South Africa might be split ±40% PC, ±35% PlayStation, and ±25% Xbox, and that the money retailers make from PC games might be slightly less than consoles, but still significant.
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The thing is that I'd say 90% of the console gamers in South Africa buy games retail, not many people have the internet for current gen digital downloads, its only really the "hardcore" console gamers that do, the majority of family / casual gamers will go retail.
 
Crableg said:
The thing is that I'd say 90% of the console gamers in South Africa buy games retail, not many people have the internet for current gen digital downloads, its only really the "hardcore" console gamers that do, the majority of family / casual gamers will go retail.
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The only reason I like buying physical copies is to put it on display with the rest of my gaming paraphernalia.
 
Crableg said:
The thing is that I'd say 90% of the console gamers in South Africa buy games retail, not many people have the internet for current gen digital downloads, its only really the "hardcore" console gamers that do, the majority of family / casual gamers will go retail.
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Sure, but I would argue that many of them only buy a few games a year. Maybe they'll only buy Destiny this year, or they'll only get the new FIFA, Madden, and Call of Duty. Or maybe they'll only maintain

From the stats I've seen there are more PC gamers that spend more on games (retail & digital) per year. So it could be that the amount of money retailers make on PC vs consoles about evens out.
 
Keep quite, just now the FPB sees that we have a separate market and come spoil the fun....

Seeing that we now properly in our own region I wonder how trading and Key purchases work? Would I still be able to buy games at GreenManGaming or such and enter the code into my SA account.
 
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AlphaJohn said:
Keep quite, just now the FPB sees that we have a separate market and come spoil the fun....

Seeing that we now properly in our own region I wonder how trading and Key purchases work? Would I still be able to buy games at GreenManGaming or such and enter the code into my SA account.
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The FPB Ratings have been on Steam for ages, I'm sure they know about it. :p
 
I got my mail yesterday evening (6pm). This means they care more about letting me know than the rest of you!

MY LOGIC IS INFALLIBLE!
 
mottamort said:
I got my mail yesterday evening (6pm). This means they care more about letting me know than the rest of you!

MY LOGIC IS INFALLIBLE!
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More or less the same as me. 18:36 to be precise...

Anyway, I honestly don't think it will change the way people buy games in ZA. Those who wanted to buy Steam games will continue doing so and those who buy physical copies will also continue doing so. There might be a couple of Rondts difference in the price, but with our wonky currency we're used to prices being cheaper or more expensive sometimes anyway.

Like Euge...uhhh.. [MENTION=17]MetalSoup[/MENTION] said, all it means is we'll know exactly how much games cost based on the sticker price, without having to do currency conversions.
 
Jan said:
Sure, but I would argue that many of them only buy a few games a year. Maybe they'll only buy Destiny this year, or they'll only get the new FIFA, Madden, and Call of Duty. Or maybe they'll only maintain

From the stats I've seen there are more PC gamers that spend more on games (retail & digital) per year. So it could be that the amount of money retailers make on PC vs consoles about evens out.
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True, for me i buy almost all my PC games digitally and my Console games retail, I just prefer having console games on disk.

Steam is definitely my biggest platform to buy games digitally, so I'm just hoping that their isn't a radical change.

With us having the rand in steam though, would that not provide some protection of the currency fluctuations ? Right now if we buy off steam the actual price we pay changes depending on the exchange rate, the dollar price however is always the same (E.g $59.99). So i wonder if our prices will now be set at say R650 or R700 per "AAA" game?
 
AlphaJohn said:
Keep quite, just now the FPB sees that we have a separate market and come spoil the fun....

Seeing that we now properly in our own region I wonder how trading and Key purchases work? Would I still be able to buy games at GreenManGaming or such and enter the code into my SA account.
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Codes from GMG, Humble Store etc are not region locked.
 
I actually had a dream about this last night i wanted to open a cs:go chest but ti was like R500 :p
 
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