Steam Pricing Within 10 Different Territories Will Soon Look A Litt...

If you live within one of the 10 countries listed in Valve's new Steam press release, get ready for a price hike! Visibly, anyway. Prices in these select territories aren't actually increasing, but they'll look like they have.

Taking the long-standing - and far more convenient - approach to tax rates, Steam will soon reflect the tax-rates of certain countries within the initially advertised price on each of the games currently up for sale through the system. Much like Europe has done for a long, long time now, you won't go into Steam and see a game for one price before finding out it's actually another at the checkout. Tax will be reflected in the first price you see, with it being separated out at the checkout phase.

EA Slashes The Price Of A Yearly Origin Access Membership To £20/$30

The roll-out of this newly announced change will be staggered across a few months leading into the middle of year with the locations outlined below:

March

South Korea (10%)
New Zealand (15%)
Iceland (24%)
South Africa (14%)
Switzerland(8%)
India (15%)
Japan (8%)

April

Serbia (20%)

Taiwan (5%)

July

Australia (10%)

This shouldn't have any real adverse affect on the pricing of titles within each region, but as VG247 notes, it's entirely possible that specific publishers could absorb the tax rates if they please in case they're worried users might see the final price first and assume that's pre-tax. Either way, prices will either stay the same or go down - it's just a cosmetic change that may ripple to become the benefit of the user.