Multiple Activision Games Get a Price Hike on Steam; Confusing Gamers

Activision Blizzard had a cheerful weekend, where they finallybecame a partof Microsoft after a 20-month regulatory battle. While gamers celebrated this acquisition, rejoining over the fact that the company’s game catalog will finally turn up on Xbox Game Pass, Activision had a different kind of festivity in mind. Regional Pricing disparity is something many regions like India, Argentina, and Brazil are aware of. Well, numerous regions are in for a rude awakening right after the acquisition, as Activision Blizzard increased the pricing of every existing game on Steam by up to 60%.

Activision Games Price Hike Perplexes Gamers

The price hike was firstspottedby the Portuguese website Cromossomonerd, where they pointed out that multiple Activision Blizzard titles on Steam received a price hike. This included games as old as the first Call of Duty getting a price hike from R$ 34,90 to R$ 91,90,roughly a 55% price hikefor a game that’s 20 years old. Similarly, recent titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2019), among others, saw prices being hiked to triple their initial offering.

India also saw its fair share of price hikes, one which makes it difficult to digest. This was pointed out by Twitter User @MegaApple18, who has a habit of keeping an eye on price changes.Activision just hiked their already high prices to absurdity.These are prices for Deluxe/Ultimate editions, not standard editions.Why are you antagonizing us@Activision@ATVIAssist?pic.twitter.com/uoXFjYntM3— Hemang Chauhan (@MegaApple18)October 17, 2023

Activision just hiked their already high prices to absurdity.These are prices for Deluxe/Ultimate editions, not standard editions.Why are you antagonizing us@Activision@ATVIAssist?pic.twitter.com/uoXFjYntM3— Hemang Chauhan (@MegaApple18)October 17, 2023

As per his tweets, nearly every title published by Activision Blizzard in India experienced a ~25% price hike on Steam. We double-checked the price changes on theSteamDB price tracker, confirming that the prices have indeed been increased. Some of the major price changes as of today are as follows:

Activision’s Price Hike Is Just Absurd

When Steam introduced the regional pricing system, it had one goal in mind — ensuring that everyone can purchase games based on their economy. This means that a person living in an emerging market like India can afford to pay the premium tag for a game like Call of Duty. Since the direct conversion from USD and EU pricing makes the games affordable, regional pricing helps gamers get in on the fun. Steam recently revised its system to fit the inflation pricing, which increased a sub-Rs 500 game to an average of Rs 800.

However, AAA game publishers over the years have ignored the set regional pricing for the most part, opting for direct dollar conversions. This means that games by well-known publishers have always cost more to purchase in various countries, where dollar conversion is high. Recent culprits include publishers like Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, SEGA, and EA, among others.

Publishers like Activision ignoring the regional pricing of their games hurts everyone in the long run. This MakoReactorwrite-upsheds light on why publishers prefer pricing their games high. However, it still doesn’t change the fact that some on-ground research and due diligence won’t hurt instead, it might only help increase the sales.

For now, the best course of action to combat this price hike by Activision is to either ignore buying existing or future games published by Activision for a while or wait for the eventual Xbox Game Pass release.

Sampad Banerjee

Meet Sampad, Beebom’s in-house video game enthusiast and writer. With two years of freelance experience, he has passionately crafted articles about the games he loves. You can find his writings on Sportskeeda, Gamingbolt, and GGTalks.

During work hours, he covers the latest gaming news, creates how-to guides, and occasionally shares video game reviews. In his free time, he enjoys building Gundam model kits, planning his next cosplay, and play his favorite RPG games.

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