If you’ve ever wondered why a game costs wildly different amounts depending on where you live, Valve Corporation has finally stepped in with a fix, or at least a better system to handle it.

A new Steam update introduces improved regional pricing tools for developers, aiming to make game prices fairer across 35 currencies and multiple regions. While the changes are aimed at developers behind the scenes, they could have a noticeable impact on what players actually pay.

Steam Updates Regional Pricing Tools Across 35 Currencies

At its core, the update refreshes Steam’s pricing conversion data to better reflect current global market conditions. That might sound minor, but it addresses a long-running issue where prices in some regions didn’t align with local economies.

Steam already supports 35 currencies and 4 regional groupings, but many developers rely on its built-in tools to set prices rather than manually adjusting every region. Valve says the updated data is designed to help studios land on prices that better match local expectations.

Importantly, nothing changes automatically. Existing game prices stay exactly the same unless developers choose to update them.

Three New Ways Developers Can Set Prices

Alongside the updated data, Valve has introduced three different pricing conversion methods, giving developers more flexibility depending on how they want to approach global pricing.

Image Credit: Valve

Exchange Rate Conversion

This is the most straightforward option. It converts a USD price directly into other currencies using current exchange rates.

It’s simple and predictable, but it doesn’t account for differences in income or cost of living between countries.

Purchasing Power Conversion

This method looks at what people in a specific country can realistically afford, using public data about average purchasing power.

In practice, this can lead to lower prices in regions where incomes are lower, making games more accessible.

Multi-Variable Conversion

This is the most complex option, combining exchange rates, local purchasing power, and the cost of similar entertainment in each region.

Valve says this is closest to how its previous system worked, but now it’s more transparent and adjustable.

Developers can also mix these methods or ignore them entirely and set prices manually, depending on their strategy.

Why This Update Was Needed

The changes come after months of complaints from players in countries like Poland and Argentina, where games were sometimes priced 20 to 30 percent higher than their US equivalents after conversion.

That gap wasn’t just a rounding error, it became a consistent frustration for players who felt they were overpaying compared to other regions.

Some developers had already started fixing things themselves. Studios like Embark and Nihon Falcom manually adjusted prices across multiple regions, but that approach wasn’t scalable across thousands of games.

Valve’s update is essentially a system-level fix, giving developers better tools so they don’t have to guess or manually correct prices one by one.

What Players Should Expect Next

Even though the new tools are live now, players shouldn’t expect instant price changes.

Developers still need to actively update their pricing for the new system to take effect. That means any improvements will likely roll out gradually over the coming weeks or months as studios revisit their pricing.

There’s also a catch. If a developer increases a game’s price in any region, it triggers a 30-day cooldown before that game can go on sale again, which could delay when changes are applied.

Valve has confirmed it will also be updating prices for its own games as part of this rollout.

What This Means For Future Game Pricing

For players, this update could lead to more consistent and fair pricing globally, especially in regions that have historically paid more than expected.

For developers, it removes a lot of guesswork and replaces it with clearer data and flexible tools.

The bigger picture is that pricing on Steam is becoming more dynamic and data-driven. As market conditions change, so will the recommendations behind the scenes, which means game prices might become more fluid over time rather than staying fixed for years.

The post Steam Pricing Update Adds New Regional Tools, Could Change Game Prices Worldwide appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Having just released the MOBA PC game Heavy Metal Machines, the future is bright for the Brazil based indie game dev studio Hoplon.

STG has a sit down and chat with the team on everything gaming, the Brazil Video Gaming Industry and we gain further insights on their flagship title.

Shane: Hi Hoplon Studios! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us at STG about the Brazilian Video Gaming industry and your very own title; Heavy Metal Machines. HMM (Heavy Metal Machines), a MOBA game for PC has recently come out of early access after a couple of years. What was behind the idea of producing a game like HMM?

Hoplon Studios: We like to tell this story because it reflects Hoplon’s culture. When we came up with Heavy Metal Machines’ concept, we were actually working on another game. However, we had every Monday a time for personal projects that could become a good idea for the company, so the employees created content simultaneously and collaboratively. Some of the ideas were presented to the board to become real projects. To this day, Hoplon opens up this space to create and be innovative. It reflects what HMM is. It is inspired by several games we love, like Rock n Roll Racing and Twisted Metal, but we went further than that. Today, HMM is more than a MOBA, with unique arenas, pilots and car combat. Recently, MMOHuts elected HMM as the best new MOBA of 2018, and we are always present in car games rankings and MOBAs. Media professionals and active players also help in the content creation so we make a genuinely fun product.

Shane: Recently the Brazilian Government has invest multi-millions of funding in to the local games development industry. What do you think this means for the Brazilian Games Industry on a Global scale?

Hoplon Studios: The investment from the Brazilian government showed that it is watching carefully to what is going on in the gaming market and its importance. This recognition shows how rich the video games field is. Brazil is a very creative country, with great entrepreneurs, so we hope this push from the government is what we need. The Brazilian games industry has organized itself systemically with the support of the developers and publisher around it, and mainly by associations, like Abragames. Brazil has 66 Million active players and we are the 13º on the list of biggest video games developers. It makes perfect sense for the government to look with keen eyes to this, helping the industry export and reach the high level of quality from the international market — which we believe is very possible. We hope this step up will bring better and fairer taxes, as well as improvements to consoles, internet connection and age rating. It is a victory that deserves other victories to follow.

Shane: Hoplon Studios seems to be on the path to do big things. What challenges have been faced from both a development perspective and gaming community (local or Global) along the journey?

Hoplon Studios: Innovation. Every day hundreds of new games are launched in the world, wonderful titles that compete amongst themselves for the players’ attention. We created an innovative game, where we gathered elements that resulted in a challenging experience. But as you create something different, there is the need to make your game easy to understand. Finding this balance is challenging.

Content – As HMM is innovative and it’s eSports scene very important, we have to do a lot of research and playtesting, as well as stay in tune with the community. This makes content creation not as fast as we’d like and we have to prioritise. Our team is very creative and comes up with a lot of good ideas, but we have to select the very best, taking into account the development time.

We published HMM in 73 countries, we have currently 8 different languages in the game, and community managers that support us in several regions. We always try to respect cultural differences, and create elements that binds everyone into a healthy community. Taking into account these differences, our approach to attract new players also needs to adapt, and this is also a constant challenge.

Shane:  HMM is available on Steam, what can gamers wanting to get in to an automotive MOBA expect from the title?

Hoplon Studios: Two things: challenge and fun. HMM is available for free on Steam and is receiving constant updates. The player can either access Steam or log in HERE and find a lot of adrenaline in a title with unique gameplay and fast action, as two teams fight for control of a bomb. Each team has positions like support, transporter and interceptor, and several characters with unique abilities are available. In every match you can try a new strategy out. It’s a new kind of MOBA experience, with a very welcoming community to new players, that get support and tips from veterans. HMM also has weekly championships, where you can earn money and get the very real chance to become a pro player. Anyone can also join our Discord channel, where we are happy to help.

Shane: Finally, what is next for Hoplon? Are there any other projects (that you are able to talk about) in the mix?

Hoplon Studios: HMM is our main and only project. In addition to all the new content from the Metal Pass (themed battle pass), that is updated every 2 months, 2019 will be a year full of great events for the game. Starting from the eSports calendar that will be composed of community, university, and official championships. All the Community Managers from around the globe (United States, Brazil, Turkey, France, Russia and Poland) will promote tournaments with the players on a monthly basis for in-game prizes or HMM items (t-shirts). We are also taking HMM to universities and rolling championships with the students. Your readers can just email us at to invite us to their universities and we’ll try to make it happen. Finally, we will have official championships in the 3 servers currently operating: North America, South America and Europe. These tournaments will have a money prize pool and international exposition through media and streamers. If you look for a new challenge, we are here for you!

Shane: Thanks guys for chatting with us at STG today. Heavy Metal Machines is a fantastic title and can’t wait to see what else Hoplon Studio’s develop in the future and also other video gaming gems from the Brazilian Games Industry.

Heavy Metal Machines is now available on Steam, but only in certain regions at this stage.

The post Interview with Brazil’s Hoplon Studios appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

After 28 years of leadership in the gaming industry, Jack Tretton has set his sights on working with a number of innovative software developers in hopes of helping them grow their business.

Interactive Gaming Ventures will provide experienced indie developers with much needed investment capital and management strategy to help them achieve greater scale and success. Over the last four years since starting his own consulting firm, Tretton realized that despite a rich talent pool of creative independent developers, many face challenges getting financial support for their projects and lack the long term experience of providing go to market solutions and corporate relationships to maximize their success. With funding in place, Interactive Gaming Ventures will seek to identify the best possible partners to achieve commercial success for all parties.

Jack Tretton

“Traditional private equity and venture firms appreciate the 100 billion dollar size of the gaming industry, but most lack the understanding and the comfort level to invest in it,” said Jack Tretton, Managing Partner, Interactive Gaming Ventures. “We provide these studios structure, cash infusion, and use our relationships to ensure that they are getting an appropriate share of voice from first parties backed by investors that know the industry and seek the outstanding financial returns that a well run publisher can provide.”

Tretton is joined by Managing Partner Doug Kennedy, the CEO of Studio Wildcard who drove its mega-hit ARK: Survival Evolved to more than 13M copies sold.

Kennedy co-founded Reverb Communications, veteran PR agency, that helped launch mega hits Guitar Hero, Rock Band and PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS. In 2009, Kennedy launched Reverb’s indie publishing initiative to discover small, funded studios and bring their games to PC and console. Tretton and Kennedy’s combined 50 years of experience bring a high level of expertise in all aspects of successfully bringing games to market.

Interactive Gaming Ventures will provide resources to 2 – 3 select studios per year, allowing them to focus 100% of their attention on building games.

Jack Tretton is the former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America and a founding member of PlayStation’s original management team. Tretton was responsible for launching all of Sony’s consoles and portable devices including PlayStation 4. Tretton has publishing credits on more than 300 major software releases. Tretton has worked with Studio Wildcard since 2015 for the distribution of the mega hit franchise ARK: Survival Evolved and is a founding managing director of Ocean IQ Gaming and the funds investor in Blue Isle Studios, creators of Slender the Arrival, Valley and Citadel: Forged with Fire.

As the founder of Interactive Concepts, LLC with leading gaming industry publishers and investment firms, he led the organization to realize multimillion dollar revenue since its inception in 2014.

Qualified studios can submit their projects HERE.

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BIG (Brazil’s Independent Games) Festival, the largest independent video game festival in Latin America, today announced that independent game developers from around the world can submit their games to be selected for the 2018 BIG Award.

BIG Festival is an initiative created by the Brazilian Game Developers Association (Abragames) and the export program Brazilian Game Developers, in partnership with Apex-Brasil (the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency).

The sixth edition of BIG Festival will take place from June the 23rd to July the 1st 2018 at the Centro Cultural São Paulo in the city of São Paulo and at Oi Futuro in Rio de Janeiro. The finalist games, developed for computers, tablets, smartphones, consoles and VR devices, will be available at dozens of stations for the public to enjoy during the free event and play them in order to contribute to the awards by voting for their favorites.

All registered games will be analyzed by the Festival Selection Committee and the selected ones will compete in categories such as Best Game, Best Sound, Best Art, Best Narrative, Virtual Reality. The winners will be announced on stage at the event.

Finalists will also receive free access to the business round tables of the largest Latin American games and animation industry hub, and may have the opportunity to give a talk about their game. In the last edition, 3200 industry professionals were in attendance with the objective to strengthen and create opportunities for the industry.

In 2017, Overcooked, from British developer Ghost Town Games, was awarded with the Best Game award, in addition to taking the category for best Gameplay. At the same time, Distortions, from São Paulo based studio Among Giants, was chosen as Best Brazilian Game and pleased most of the 20 thousand people who visited the event, also winning the votes for the Most Popular award.

This year, BIG Festival is introducing a novelty by taking some of its activities to Rio de Janeiro. BIG Rio will take place from June 23 to July 1 2018 at the Oi Futuro cultural center in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. The main theme will focus on the social impact created by video games and a free display of curated titles playable throughout the event will be available, in addition to panels and discussions on June 29 and 30, 2018, in partnership with Oi Futuro, the innovation and creativity institute of Oi, one of the biggest internet and phone companies in Brazil.

The BIG Festival is the main showcase for independent games in Latin America and has already awarded prestigious titles from around the globe in the five previous editions including SUPERHOT, This War of Mine, Gorogoa and Nom Nom Galaxy, as well as the Brazilian Horizon Chase World Tour, Toren and Aritana and the Pen of Arpia.

The registrations are officially open until April 13th, 2018 and must be made through the official SITE.

BIG Festival Details:
6th BIG Festival (Brazil’s Independent Games Festival)
From June 23 to July 1, 2018 (Monday, 25, does not open)
Business Roundtables – June 27th to 29th
From Tuesday to Friday: 10am to 10pm / Saturday and Sunday: 2pm to 10pm
Centro Cultural São Paulo – Rua Vergueiro, 1000 – Paraíso, SP
Free entrance

The post (BIG) Festival 2018 Opens Registrations appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Robot Cache is the first decentralized PC video game distribution platform that benefits publishers, developers and gamers.

Utilizing blockchain technology, Robot Cache will reduce the fees publishers and developers pay by 80% and allow gamers to resell their digital PC video games. In addition, gamers can opt in to mine digital assets (IRON) that can be applied towards the purchase of games.

“Just a handful of companies dominate the multi-billion dollar digital download PC video games market. Robot Cache plans to revolutionize the industry by launching the first-ever workable decentralized video game marketplace that benefits both the creators of video games and gamers. All of this is accomplished by expertly leveraging the power, flexibility, safety, and transparency of blockchain technology,” said Lee Jacobson, CEO, Robot Cache.

Robot Cache is a victory for digital PC gamers and the publishers who create games. The Robot Cache platform is created by industry veterans who understand the dynamics of what is needed to be successful and have the relationships necessary to bring the right partners to the table.  Best of all, Robot Cache will be a full featured and live platform when gamers first come to it. Robot Cache expects to offer the latest and greatest video games on the Robot Cache platform for gamers’ immediate enjoyment.

Developers and publishers benefit from the lowest transaction fees of any digital PC video game distribution platform. Everyone from the smallest indie team to the biggest publishers, will retain up to 95% of the sales proceeds, which is 25% higher than the current industry standard. In addition, Robot Cache’s revolutionary digital resale market allows developers and publishers to set resale pricing and earn 70% of the resale proceeds. Additionally, game makers will be able to control the parameters of resales, receive payment in minutes (not months), maintain secure ownership rights (due to decentralized blockchain management), and have a full suite of sales and marketing tools at their disposal.

“Earning any money on the video game resale market is unheard of for game publishers, and earning up to 70%, which is equivalent to the best margins publishers and developers currently receive on today’s most popular digital distributions platforms is crazy. Allowing creators to keep 95% of new game sales, and 70% on game resales, provides developers, like us at inXile, with a strong financial stream.  This gives us more resources to create new content and new IPs for fans,” said Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile Entertainment and Founder of Robot Cache.

Gamers greatly benefit from Robot Cache’s unique distribution approach. Previously, gamers could only resell physical retail copies of a video game, but now they can resell digital games purchased on the Robot Cache platform using the blockchain and retain 25% of the proceeds from the resale. Selling their digital games earn them digital tokens, named IRON, Robot Cache’s cryptocurrency, which they can use toward the purchase of another  game on the Robot Cache platform. In addition, gamers can opt-in within the Robot Cache client to mine IRON which they can then use to buy games on the platform.  Robot Cache has also created an IRON reward  program to incentivize gamers to use the platform.  When various individual or community milestones are reached, Robot Cache will reward additional IRON to the gamers using the platform.

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The National Association of Software and Services Companies today announced that India’s premier games development conference, the NASSCOM Game Developer Conference 2015 will take place from November 5th – 7th, 2015 in Pune, India at The Westin.

Featuring over 1300 industry delegates, 70 speakers, 50 games, an Expo promoting Indian video games and a dedicated day for workshops, the three day conference showcases the creative talent and upcoming industry trends in interactive entertainment in India. NGDC has also opened their Call for Speakers and early bird registrations for the conference.

“The NASSCOM Game Developer Conference 2015 in Pune, is this year’s most important Indian gathering of indie and games development studios”, said Rajesh Rao, Chairman of that NASSCOM Gaming Forum, “We are incredibly excited to announce that the NASSCOM Game Developer Conference 2015 will return on November 5th – 7th, with a truly international and domestic speaker line-up, a home-grown games expo and delegates from games developers throughout India and beyond”.

The 2015 speaking agenda will feature two days of dedicated tracks focused on Indies, Game Design, Publishing/Advertising, Game Art and Technology.

Previous speakers at NGDC 2015 have included Ed Fries, Yoichi Wada, Trip Hawkins, Rami Ismail and Ian Livingstone. Those interested in becoming a speaker at NGDC 2015 can now submit their presentation proposals for review.

Speakers will receive a free pass to the show and excellent exposure at India’s premier games development conference. Speaker submissions for NGDC 2015 will be open until 31st July 2015. Those interested can begin the submission process by visiting here.

The NGDC 2015 Expo will give Indian developers and publishers, the opportunity to showcase their games throughout the conference on the expo floor and is increasing its size to promote 50 plus Indian games. The NGF 2015 Awards will also recognise achievements in Indian games development and encourage the creation of building original IP in India. To submit a game for the Expo visit here.

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