Because there are rich people in poor countries, and poor people in rich countries.

In other words, regional pricing means a billionaire like Carlos Slim in Mexico pays a lower price for a video game he buys than someone in the USA who works at McDonald's and barely makes enough money to pay for rent, food, and medical.

Starting another thread to discuss regional pricing again with the same exact arguments as always is unethical.

OP, please look up purchasing power parity. It doesn't make sense for average Brazilians, for example, who make $11 USD/hr to buy Baldur's Gate 3 after 6 hours of work compared to the average American making $30 USD/hr to be able to buy the same game in 2 hours. We all experience the passage of time equally, so it's more unethical to make average Brazilians pay 3x as much in their time than the average American for the same product.

It also doesn't affect you at all if more people in developing countries are able to buy the game at reasonable prices. You should be asking yourself why don't those McDonald's workers work towards getting higher paying jobs instead. Not to mention that the idea of comparing a few million American gamers to one rich billionaire doesn't solve anything because the billionaires will still be able to afford the game in 5 minutes instead of 2 minutes except that now the game is now out of reach for the few million Brazilians who wanted to play it. And now they go pirate it instead, so that represents lost sales for the devpubs.

The only bad thing about regional pricing is that it's difficult to apply fairly in a cosmic equal way, such as eliminating all differences between developed countries, currency exchanges, and accuracy and lag of average salary data. But the main problem is how some malicious actors exploit the system to pay lower prices that they shouldn't be entitled to. They abuse the system and this leads to storefronts increasing prices to discourage this behaviour and unfortunately displaces the original intended populations from accessing games and services at reasonable real prices.

Depending on where in the US. The actual average minimum wage is $10.50->14.50. Which because of inflation, means very low wage. I just bought a loaf of bread that cost $5. Its all relative. People thinking life is easy in the US, are not going to be any more happy than the mess they are already accustom to.

That said, someone can use a free VPN and not have the op problem.

Good old times.

But there are also greedy publishers who require regional pricing in order to publish games on a digital distribution platform, so I guess it's a necessary evil required to expand the number of titles available on GOG.

I'm fully fine being ripped off as long as I get DRM-free games in return (a bonus, compared to other stores that employ regional pricing anyway), but perhaps that's just me.

As Breja said, this topic has been discussed to hell and back already and it's not like anything we say will change anything, so yes, the GOGBear is making baby pandas cry by being evil, SMH.

And there are publishers who require DRM to release their games, let's drop that too in order to bring more games, eh?

So no, definitely will never be fine with it.

As for not discussing something because it won't change, self-fulfilling prophecy there.

As for the OP, let the regions that get lower prices go, look at those that get higher ones than the US, which can't possibly be justified economically (except perhaps for Luxembourg). And if you look at those that do get discounts, compare them with other poor ones, like most of Africa and parts of Asia, that don't, there lies the bigger unfairness. And if you speak of poor people in wealthy regions, McD employees are a pretty high bar, there are many, many worse than them, and there's no reason to block them from a source of entertainment or maybe simply escapism from their daily suffering when a digital copy in itself costs next to nothing to distribute.

What's your solution to the problem?
Demanding a proof of income of every customer?
Certified copies of their last three paychecks?
And then set the price accordingly?

I won't hang around if they go that far, but that doesn't exactly make it impossible at some point. Let's hope we never get to see it, although arguably some DRM-free rules are already getting bent. Begin fine with something and accepting harsh realities are two different things. This is the latter. Discuss away then :P. But remember, the only "vote" you get is with your wallet. The system was never designed with fairness in mind, it was a means of maximizing income for publishers.

So when a business outsources an American employee's job to India to make more profits, this is acceptable behavior because the business is allowed to shop around globally for the best prices. But when that unemployed American worker wants to shop around globally for better prices on his video games by buying them through a VPN in India, this is somehow immoral? What a double standard. It affects me if I am banned from accessing the same low prices as people in developing nations, which I think I should be entitled to (in the same way as a business is entitled to outsource my job to hire people in those developing nations). If the business can shop around globally, then consumers should be able to shop around globally -- and regional pricing is just a way of interfering with consumers' ability to shop around globally for the best price on games.

Maybe the McDonald's employee doesn't have a better paying job because college is too expensive. Maybe they have a learning disability..? In any case, if businesses can shop around globally to outsource jobs, consumers should have an equal right to shop around globally for better prices on video games. Well with regional pricing, games are out of reach of unemployed people and McDonald's workers struggling to pay rent in the USA so the developer loses sales that way. And no, I think the billionaire example is a great example because it shows how your policies are discriminatory. You act like you're helping the poor or something, but you're actually just screwing poor people who live in rich countries and helping rich people in poor countries. Well then I guess the game publishers should offer Americans the same prices on games that they offer to people in Mexico then so they don't lose sales from people in those regions. Then people in poor regions can afford the game without pirating, and so can McDonald's employees living in the USA who struggle to pay for food, rent, and medical care. Give people in all nations the same prices. And if you need to lower prices in some countries to avoid piracy, give people in other nations the same low price. Zero price discrimination.

OMG...how cute...a romantic dreamer from cloud-cuckoo-land.

Tell you what: you try that.
See, how it works out for you and your business.

I don't really care if it works for the business, tbh. Since when have businesses ever asked: "do our actions work out for our employees?" Do you think an American company asks themselves that before they outsource their factory to India?

No. They don't. They just buy from wherever the prices are cheapest.

I'm simply saying consumers should have the same right to buy from where the prices are cheapest if they want. (i.e. to buy cheap games through a foreign Steam/GoG storefront if they want to get better prices)

I don't care if this "works" for the business in the same way that the business doesn't care if their actions "work" for me.

Well, my little dreaming friend, if "it doesn't work out for the business" - the business closes shop.

Tell me: where do you expect to get your products (be them "cheap" or "expensive") from, when that happens?

do you know what "average" means?

Lower game sales revenues for game publsiher corporations doesn't mean they "close shop," it means they downsize or find ways to operate with less payments from consumers.

Maybe they can cut pay for CEOs & management. You act like that's a crazy solution but actually it sounds a lot more fair than the current system. Discriminating based on income makes more sense than discriminating based on nationality.

I think I'd still prefer a system where everyone pays the same low price though.