Steam now has Australian pricing, but lots of big games are unavailable
You can no longer buy Ori and the Blind Forest, Metal Gear Solid V, Undertale, Fable Anniversary, and the list goes on.
When it was revealed last week that Australian currency would be supported on Steam come November 21, the good news was accompanied by a worrisome caveat. If publishers and devs failed to update Steam's database with a specific Australian price, their games would no longer be available to purchase for Australian customers.
It's now November 21 in Australia, and as promised, Steam is showing AU dollar prices across both its client and its website. But many publishers and studios, including big names like Microsoft Studios and Konami, have apparently failed to provide an Australian price, meaning the likes of Fable Anniversary, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Metal Gear Solid V can not be purchased by Australians at present.
For example: Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition still has an accessible store page for Australian viewers, but the option to purchase the game is absent. Of course, if you've already purchased any game in the past it'll still be in your library. But unless the likes of Microsoft and Konami (not to mention the potentially hundreds of other studios and publishers) go in and set a price manually, the games are impossible to buy.
Plenty of other games aren't available too, as per Kotaku, including Undertale, Return of the Obra Dinn, Celeste, Don't Starve Together... the list goes on.
As for what's available, at a glance the new prices seem generally reasonable, though I've not checked every single game in Steam's inventory. To pull one example out of the air, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is AU$79.95, while the US price is $59.99, which converts to roughly AU$83. I'll keep an eye out for any ongoing anomalies. In the meantime, I've contacted Valve or comment.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.
Steam has changed its policy on DLC content and season passes, so now players are entitled to proper compensation if future plans fall through: 'Customers will be offered a refund for the value of unreleased DLC'
Indie distribution platform Itch.io now requires asset creators to disclose the use of generative AI in their work