{"id":83369,"date":"2015-11-11T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=83369"},"modified":"2015-11-11T12:19:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T10:19:12","slug":"steams-adoption-of-the-rand-means-cheaper-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/83369-steams-adoption-of-the-rand-means-cheaper-games","title":{"rendered":"Steam’s adoption of the Rand means cheaper games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valve has launched support for the rand in Steam, its online store for video games and software.<\/p>\n

The company told its South African customers in an e-mail last week that it would\u00a0support the rand soon<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It warned that if your Steam wallet has money in it on 10 November 2015, your US dollar balance will be converted into Rand at the relevant market value exchange rate.<\/p>\n

Rumours that Steam would sell video games in Rand surfaced earlier this year when the Steam Database discovered ten new currencies<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0within a beta build of the software.<\/p>\n

Issues<\/strong><\/h3>\n

PayPal is not currently a supported payment option for South Africa now, though. Visa and MasterCard credit cards, WebMoney and Skrill\/Moneybookers still appear to be supported.<\/p>\n

It is also not possible to switch back to paying in US dollars, said Valve.<\/p>\n

VAT is still not denoted separately on the invoice when you buy games, but Steam continues to display the message \u201cVAT included in all prices where applicable\u201d on product listings and at checkout.<\/p>\n

\"Steam<\/a><\/p>\n

After the switch to rand, there are also a number of games that are no longer available for purchase in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Valve said\u00a0this should be temporary, and that games should be available as soon as they\u00a0are priced in ZAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo changes have been made to the contents of your library. All of the languages and features in the games that existed when the store was priced in USD are still available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The table below shows a comparison between US prices converted to rand using the current exchange rate (R14.26 per dollar), and the new rand prices listed on Steam.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Game (normal price)<\/td>\nUSD<\/td>\nZAR<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fallout 4<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n$59.99 (R855)<\/td>\nR799<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Assassin\u2019s Creed Syndicate<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n$59.99 (R855)<\/td>\nR599<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Grand Theft Auto<\/strong> V<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n$59.99 (R855)<\/td>\nR589<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Football Manager 2016<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n$49.99 (R713)<\/td>\nR489<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Middle-earth: Shadow<\/strong> of<\/strong> Mordor<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n$49.99 (R713)<\/td>\nR489<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Talos Principle<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n$39.99 (R571)<\/td>\nR409<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stasis Deluxe Edition<\/strong><\/td>\n$36.99 (R527)<\/td>\nR349<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stasis<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n$24.99 (R356)<\/td>\nR249<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Broforce<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n$14.99 (R213)<\/td>\nR159<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Game (on promotion)<\/td>\nUSD<\/td>\nZAR<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Grand Theft Auto V (33% off)<\/strong><\/td>\n$40.19 (R573)<\/td>\nR394.63<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (66% off)<\/strong><\/td>\n$16.99 (R242)<\/td>\nR166.26<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Talos Principle (66% off)<\/strong><\/td>\n$13.59 (R194)<\/td>\nR139.06<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Broforce (33% off)<\/strong><\/td>\n$10.04 (R143)<\/td>\nR106.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
R\/$ = R14.26<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table><\/div>\n
\n

It’s good news then<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We won\u2019t deny that we were one of the naysayers of this migration, but for good reason. It might very well have meant the implementation of South Africa\u2019s digital tax (a VAT on all digitally sold goods and services) on games, a luxury we already break the bank monthly for.<\/p>\n

Granted, digital tax over and above games that cost R50<\/strong> odd isn\u2019t that big of a deal, but what about when it\u2019s applied to a game that\u2019s already R800<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, for the moment it seems like we\u2019re getting away with cheaper prices, so we can put the torches and pitchforks away; there\u2019s no need to storm the gates of our federal treasurer\u2026 yet.<\/p>\n

Besides, we\u2019re not going to argue that a digital tax is a wholly evil device dead set on punishing the consumer for the sake of the government. There are legitimate reasons for its implementation.<\/p>\n

Governments rely on the capital generated from taxes to keep the country running, and without a digital tax our country\u2019s capital would effectively shrink as our economy became more and more digitally inclined \u2013 an inevitability.<\/p>\n

And for as much as we love our cheap games, digital distributors like Steam, uninhibited by local taxes, will trounce the prices of local retailers \u2013 we\u2019re not so callous that we want local stores to suffer. It\u2019s impossible for them to compete without a digital tax in place as they have to apply the tax.<\/p>\n

The exorbitant prices we play on everyday amenities like petrol or groceries isn\u2019t BT Games or Takealot\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

And if you really still want to pay for your Steam games in dollars then there\u2019s always digital retailers like Humble Bundle<\/a>, Greenman Gaming<\/a> and many more, all of which go through their own discount and saving cycles \u2013 CheapShark<\/a> is a great way to monitor the prices of a game over multiple retailers.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s always the likes of good ol\u2019 GoG.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Written in collaboration with an article that originally appeared on MyBroadband<\/a> and is republished with permission.<\/h4>\n

In other PC news<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Windows 10 to automatically download: part of Microsoft\u2019s strategy to push the OS<\/a><\/p>\n

Ubisoft wants to win back PC gamers<\/a><\/p>\n

How to play every classic game on your PC: Emulators 101<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Put the torches and pitchforks away; there\u2019s no need to storm the gates of our federal treasurer\u2026 yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":83377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12226,1969,15397,14082,85,3619],"class_list":["post-83369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc","tag-digital-tax","tag-news-2","tag-pc","tag-rand","tag-steam","tag-vat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}