Hi gamers,

I come from a little-known place called Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and I am a passionate gamer, game developer, artist and nerd. If you have trouble finding it on the map, don't worry, here is a summary:

 

 

 

 

Little has changed from then, sadly...

Recently I have become frustrated by the ever-growing prices in the gaming space, from hardware that enables us to dive into new worlds, to the software which is increasingly more buggy on release.

To most people in the west, that is also an issue, but I see it hit my friends and relatives especially hard. Here is a chart comparing the prices of a AAA title to the average income per country:

 

 

 

 

As you can see, a AAA title is at 10% of monthly income in BiH, and only 1% in Germany. I think this is not fair.

Currently, this is how prices are set for the EU as well as the Balkans:

 

 

You might say: "Oh, boohoo, poor man can't afford to game, so what?" . Well, this has major ramifications across the whole industry. If you wonder how... It's piracy.

But let someone who worked in the industry explain it to you:

 

 

 

 

TL;DR: Make game cheaper in poor country -> more profit -> happier gamers.
It would be a win-win-win situation for gamers, Valve and the gaming industry!

What needs to happen:

• Valve needs to treat Balkan countries separately from far more developed countries, economically.
• Game developers need to adjust pricing of their games for the Balkan region 
  
• Gamers need to stop pirating games after the change happens

If you too support making games more accessible to everyone and improving the gaming industry, please sign this petition.