Steam has quietly region-locked all games, regardless of publisher settings. This means that people are no longer able to trade or gift Steam titles outside of their respective regions, which has raised concerns that trading between gamers is at an end.
While there was no official release about the change in policy, many gamers took to reddit to express concerns about the future of key trading. Many online communities have gamers who trade for golden keys from Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 to open chests. These trades often involve buying titles in exchange for the keys, which will now be limited to people within the same geographic area.
It also puts an end to swapping of titles for people who have managed to end up with more than one copy (for instance those who buy the Humble Bundle), and has effectively killed the SteamGameSwap subreddit. It has also ended any practice of buying games for friends in other countries.
A Steam developer mentioned that the reason behind the change in policy is the tumbling value of the Russian Ruble, and the strengthening of the US dollar. This has lead to a large market of Steam key resellers who buy the games at Russian prices and resell them at lower prices. It was also mentioned that Steam is monitoring the situation and will make adjustments as necessary.
Malaysian gamers are still able to buy games in Ringgit, which tends to be cheaper than the market value in the US. That being the case, this means that there will no longer be buying games for friends who are in distant countries.
[Source: Reddit]
