Since the 11th of November, South Africans have been able to make Steam purchases in Rands. We found that in some instances you actually save quite a bit of money thanks to what appears to be a favourable conversion rate, but does this hold true during Steam’s massive sales as well?
On Wednesday, Steam’s Exploration Sale went live, and there are currently 7 852 titles on sale including Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise and Ark: Survival Evolved. The Fallout franchise, excluding the latest Fallout 4 game, is also on sale but South Africans are still unable to purchase these titles.
We decided to compare prices on the Steam Exploration Sale against local brick-and-mortar retailer BT Games and online retailer Takealot, to see how much South African PC gamers actually save on Steam’s sale.
Title | Original Steam Price | Steam Sale Price | BT Games Price | Takealot Price |
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | R589 | R294.50 | R565.90 | R542 |
Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth | R489 | R180.93 | – | R361 |
GTA V | R799 | R479.40 | R755 | R720 |
Dying Light | R699.95 | R237.98 | – | R412 |
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 | R799 | R663.17 | R755 | R699 |
Mad Max | R589 | R294.50 | – | R479 |
Assassin’s Creed Unity | R699 | R349.50 | R379 | R420 |
While many of the price drops are negligible, such as Call of Duty Black Ops 3’s rather slim 17% discount, it is nice to see some low prices from South African stores. That said, there are savings to be had on Steam particularly if you’ve been waiting to play Techland’s Dying Light or CD Projekt Red’s highly acclaimed, The Witcher 3, which are both at their lowest prices yet.
To see whether PC gamers really do score since the currency change we compared the South African price of games with the US price of games only available online.
Title | Original Steam Price Rands | Steam Sale Price Dollar | Steam Sale Price Dollar Conversion | Steam Sale Price Rands |
Cities Skylines | R319 | $14.99 | R213.95 | R159.50 |
Ark: Survival Evolved | R319 | $17.99 | R256.17 | R191.40 |
Ori and the Blind Forest | R219 | $11.99 | R170.73 | R131.40 |
Endless Legend Collection | R589 | $20.39 | R290.39 | R200.26 |
Given the current exchange rate (R14.24), South African PC gamers actually save as much as R90 on some titles compared to their Steam sale dollar prices.
The Steam Exploration sale is on right now and will run until 1st December, so grab these bargains while you can.