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The original was posted on /r/factorio by /u/Devast00 on 2024-10-13 12:13:36+00:00.
TL; DR If you believe everyone should be able to afford Factorio on fair terms, please trust me with an upvote to help spread this message!
Hey everyone! Today, I want to bring up an issue that’s impacting Factorio fans in Poland (and probably other countries too), which is Steam regional pricing.
First off, let me be clear—I’m not here to complain about Factorio’s price increasing over time. I believe the price is fair and reflects the incredible work Wube puts into the game. Factorio keeps improving, so it makes sense that its value goes up.
But here’s the problem:
Steam’s regional pricing is supposed to make games more affordable in areas with lower average incomes, but in Poland, it’s having the opposite effect. Polish players are currently trying to address this problem by contacting developers personally and asking them to adjust their pricing manually instead of using Steam bult in calculator (If you want you can read about it more here). Given how responsive Wube has been in the past, I’m hoping they might reconsider the price for Poland so that is my way of putting a piece in this initiative. (If you have suggestions on other places where I could get this message to them, let me know in the comments!)
Getting to the point. According to Factorio price chart on Steam DB here Right now, the price for Factorio in Poland is the second-highest in the world, just after Switzerland costing 37,27€. Our minimal hourly wage in Poland is currently set to 28,10 PLN which is equal to 6,54 €. This means that, at minimum wage Polish gamer needs to work almost 6 hours to buy Factorio.
Now looking into Switzerland, we can see that price there is 42,63 €. However, the minimal wage is CHF 24,32, which is equal to 25,91 €! Over 4 times higher than Poland! Swiss gamer has to work only 1,64 hours to afford Factorio! I think you can see the difference here. Of course it is just the tip of the iceberg and you can find way more examples.
Of course, I understand that stuff like inflation impacts everyone, including developers. However, I hope that the devs can reconsider the pricing for Poland to be more fair and actually reflect our economic situation.
If you think this is a fair point and support the idea of more equitable pricing, please upvote this post. And if you have a different opinion or thoughts to share, feel free to comment below.
PS: Just to make it clear I am probably gonna buy Space Age no matter the price. However, I believe that if one of my friends, family or anyone ever wants to buy this beautiful game they deserve fair pricing!