Steam Drops Turkish Lira: New Dollar Prices

Steam Says Goodbye to Turkish Lira! What Are the New Game Prices in Dollars?

Oyunfor looked into Steam dropping Turkish Lira support on November 20 and moving forward with sales in dollars.

Back in October 2014, something happened that delighted Turkish gamers: Steam, one of the world's largest digital game storefronts, started pricing its games in Turkish Lira; and on top of that, the dollar exchange rate was set at 1.5 TL.

Beyond making purchases with a credit card easier, this kind of localization also let publishers selling their games on Steam set their own pricing. The importance of localization became especially clear as the gap between the Turkish Lira and the dollar widened. For example, a game's 30{{tooLongContent}}rsquo;s sale price wasn't simply multiplied by that day's exchange rate; instead, the publisher could list it at whatever price they saw fit for Turkey, maybe a listing of 30 TL in the store. This special localization, combined with Steam's major discounts, made Steam an extremely accessible source of games for Turkish players.

However, it was announced in late October that Steam would drop TL support as of November 20. This "switch to dollars" move, which applies to Argentina and Türkiye, left players deep in thought. With the dollar exchange rate now hovering around 29 TL, a 60{{tooLongContent}}rsquo;s game showing up with a price tag of roughly 1,800 TL signaled the start of a very difficult period for players.

The fact that publishers can set their own prices on Steam was a glimmer of hope. It was entirely possible for a game that used to sell for 100 TL to be priced at 3.5{{tooLongContent}}rsquo;s, but all publishers would need to reprice their games, and it wasn't clear whether they would.

Ten days after Steam started selling in dollars, here's how the price changes for some popular games showed up in the store:*

What Are the New Game Prices After Steam's Switch to Dollars?

While the list could go on, the new prices of some notable games worth highlighting are reflected in the table above as they appeared. Looking at the bigger picture, the steep price increases for indie games in particular stand out.

Oyunfor General Manager Mehmet Dumanoğlu notes that while automatic pricing during the switch from TL to dollars led to big jumps for some games, he sees it as a notable move that Crytek, known for Crysis, managed to keep its Crytek Action Pack — which includes all the Crysis games, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Hunt: Showdown and runs to around $70 — accessible by pricing it at 16{{tooLongContent}}rsquo;s.

Mehmet Dumanoğlu says it's still too early to say for certain how this transition on Steam will affect Turkish players. Publishers big and small will review their games' sales figures in Türkiye after this switch and adjust their prices accordingly. Still, given the constantly shifting dollar exchange rate, and even though the price adjustments publishers are attempting seem reasonable enough, Steam currently seems to have lost its old appeal for Turkish players for the time being. Epic Games, which offers TL support, could take the right steps to draw Turkish players to its platform.

* Prices are approximate, based on the dollar exchange rate on November 30, 2023.

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