Five reasons why Steam sales don't make a difference to India

Ah, summer. The time of the year when the Internet is abuzz with rumors about when Steam’s summer sale starts. Summer is hot, and with a great temperature rise comes great price drops.

But over here in India, this is monsoon season. In fact, it’s raining right now. Much like the word summer is redundant for us Indians, so are Valve’s generous discounts. Here’s why:

1. The F-Word

Get your head out of the gutter, I’m referring to FUP, also known as fair usage policy. What this means is Internet speeds in India are downgraded after a stipulated amount of data has been downloaded. While this is true in other countries as well, it appears as if Internet service providers here are professional luddites. Although you can get 50 Mbps speeds for as low as INR 599 ($10) per month it’s useless when it’s downgraded to a mere 512Kbps after using just 10 GB of data. Sure, there are better plans. But they’re cost prohibitive to the point where they work out to almost a month’s worth of rent. Good luck buying Wolfenstein: The New Order at half price on Steam considering you’ll be spending a similar sum just to download it.

50Mbps for 10GB. I can’t make this up.

2. Expensive hardware

India is home to roughly 25 million PCs. But barely one percent have a decent enough dedicated graphics card to run modern PC games. The reason for this is simple: hardware is brutally expensive, with video cards supposedly positioned for mainstream use such as Nvidia’s 750Ti costing as much as a PS3 or Xbox 360. Due to this, most PC gamers end up playing games such Need For Speed: Most Wanted. No, not the 2012 game from Criterion, the 2005 game that started it all. Older games remain insanely popular. Be it Grand Theft Auto 3 or Call of Duty 2 anything that fits into racing or action genres (or both) has a seemingly immortal lifespan here so as long as it’s playable on ancient PCs sporting integrated graphic chips. Forget playing Metro 2033, you’d be lucky to play Vice City.

Probably cheaper than most of Nvidia’s offerings here at the moment.

3. Cheap local market

In the event you do have a solid gaming PC and a good Internet connection, Steam would still be your last port of call. Why? It’s because unlike console game pricing which is all over the place here, PC games are priced pretty low. There’s the the odd exception or three (Bethesda, Activision-Blizzard and EA), but by and large, INR 499 (approx.$8) will get you Hitman: Absolution, or GTA IV, or even Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. Want to spend less? INR 399 (approx. $6.60) gets you every Splinter Cell game barring Blacklist. Even new games like Watch Dogs and Murdered: Soul Suspect are decently priced at INR 1799 (approx. $30) and INR 999 (approx. $16.50) respectively. So, what is this “Steam sale” you speak of?

PC gamers at a store in India.

4. Dwindling PC audience