Steam Now Shows The Monthly Price History For Games In Some EU Countries

The new feature is implemented to comply with The Omnibus Directive in a select few EU countries.

By Shahmeer Sarfaraz June 3, 2023

2 minutes read

Story Highlights

Steam has rolled out a new feature that adds the 30-day history of the lowest pricing for games to comply with the new rules. It has only been added in a select few countries in the EU.
The feature has been implemented to ensure the bad actors are unable to trick users by raising the price of games before creating a fake discount to attract an audience.
The storefront is complying with The Omnibus Directive. It is an initiative by the EU, which was started in July of last year to modernize the consumer protection rules.

Steam has recently started to roll out a new feature that shows the monthly price history of games to comply with the new laws in the European Union. Only the countries that have adopted the new law have started to receive the new feature on Valve’s digital storefront. The new feature has been added to ensure that consumers are not tricked by sellers that often raise prices before putting the games on a discount.

Steam now shows 30-day low price in some European Union countries to comply with the Omnibus Directive. pic.twitter.com/BbTsNn2Zsp

— SteamDB (@SteamDB) June 3, 2023

The new change is because of The Omnibus Directive, which seeks to provide better protection to buyers in the European Union. While it was initiated in July of last year, only a few countries have recently accepted it, explaining why the new feature is only rolled out for a select few regions. All in all, it seeks to improve Steam for users by providing more info about a game’s pricing so they can not be tricked anymore by any bad actors.

The directive in question modernizes the consumer protection rules in the European Union to ensure they are up to standards, like adding enhanced enforcement measures and increased transparency needs. One of the stated rules in the Omnibus Directive is to “inform about the prior price in case of price reduction,” which Steam has already started to enforce in a few places. We could see it implemented in more countries in the future.

It would be great for the digital storefront to implement the change in more countries to protect its users, but its scope remains to be seen. Moreover, there are many alternative methods to check the old pricing history of games before making a purchase. The site IsThereAnyDeals is among the most popular choices for gamers, which effectively does the same thing as the new change in Steam, but on a much larger scale.

There is also an extension offered by the popular Steam tracking site, SteamDB, that lists out the pricing history of a game. However, the new Steam change will be a better choice for the less experienced users who do not know the inner workings of the aforesaid options.

Steam has proven to be a technical marvel in the world of PC gaming, serving as the most notable marketplace for gamers around the globe. It is constantly improving through updates, recently adding a new set of rules for the game developers to follow to make the games more eye-catching for users. Moreover, Valve’s store is still breaking records after two decades of actively serving gamers, crossing over 30 million users only recently.

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