Valve makes changes to Steam Store to combat VPN use

There have been a number of efforts to crack down on VPN use to access cheaper prices for games on various digital stores. Nowadays, doing this is more difficult on Steam but not impossible. That could change soon, however, as Valve has issued a new update to Steam account settings. 

As reported by SteamDB, Steam now requires users buying games in different countries to use a payment method from that country. Steam will also monitor the country specified in a user's account settings and only show prices and Steam Wallet funds in that currency, so if you are based in the US, you will only see USD prices, here in the UK, we'll see everything in GBP etc.

Valve has recently made changing your store country more strict, which requires completing a purchase using a payment method from that country.

This should hinder the ability of using VPNs to buy games cheaper. pic.twitter.com/IozwoO6gsi

— Steam Database (@SteamDB) July 29, 2020

Those moving or relocating to another country can have their settings changed by completing a purchase in that country using a payment method from the same region. If this can't be done, your Steam account will remain tied to the original country you selected when setting up your account.

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KitGuru Says: Some countries have a much lower average income and as a result, sometimes publishers will lower prices of games accordingly. However, fear of VPN abuse can stop a lot of publishers from offering this. With that in mind, measures like this seem like the fairest way for Valve to enable regional pricing while protecting publishers. It isn't a perfect system though, making it somewhat of a pain for Steam users to buy games if they are away on holiday or visiting family/friends in another country. 

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