The Epic Games Store has been updated to support Indian rupees. Browsing the store from India shows INR pricing for all its games right now. However this does not mean that there are regional subsidised prices for all games. Borderlands 3 for example, is priced in line with what you’d pay for on Steam which in itself is not a regional price while The Pathless does at Rs. 968 versus its global $40 price. It’s similar to Steam but not exactly what $40 games are on Steam like Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin which is Rs. 899 on Valve’s store. It is possible that the slightly higher price on Epic Games Store may be a decision to pass on conversion fees and other costs to end-users. Payment methods remain the same though. No sign of any local payment options like PayTM or cash on delivery.
To put it into perspective, Steam started displaying games with Indian rupee pricing in late 2015 despite being around since 2003. A broader number of payment options including cash on delivery (yes, cash on delivery for purchase of digital goods) was implemented at the end of 2016.
Previously, Epic Games had said that INR support would be making it to India in 2021. This was revealed by Epic Games Director of Publishing Strategy Sergey Galyonkin on Twitter. Replying to a user query on India currency support and local payment options, he said “it would be available next year”.
It is also unclear if this feature was executed by Epic’s US team or its India office or if like Valve, it’s outsourced to a third-party like Nodwin. We had reached out to Epic Games for comment when Galyonkin had tweeted when INR pricing would be available but received no reply at the time. Regional pricing has been in effect for some games on the Fortnite creator’s storefront since its launch in December 2018. Much like Steam, it’s likely that Epic lets publishers decide if they should partake in subsidised pricing for specific markets based on their standard of living.
With game pricing seemingly going up across the board slowly, some platforms like Steam have allowed developers to let players in many countries with different purchasing power continue to buy games thanks to regional pricing. Xseed Games has been consistent in sticking with Valve’s recommended regional pricing in India with its releases ranging from Marvelous-developed games like Daemon X Machina and licensed releases like Nihon Falcom’s Ys and Trails games.
“All that credit has to go to Valve as they did all the research into the local markets, allowing us to simply input our price in US dollars and have their pricing matrix automatically suggest an appropriate price in various other countries and currencies,” Xseed Games’ Ken Berry told us. “Their pricing matrix has definitely helped grow sales internationally. There are times when we have to manually input our own price in certain currencies to be in line with the pricing of our local publishing partner.”
