Same here. We’re considering itch as a primary store, but we need regional pricing for two reasons:
- ethical: we want our products to be accessible to the largest amount of people
- financial: by making our products affordable to people in emerging markets, we can sell more
From a purely cynical and interested perspective, not having regional pricing leaves a lot of money on the table. A $80 product is simply out of the reach of half the planet; the same people would pay $40 or $20 happily though, and that can double, tripe, or multiply by ten your addressable market.
From an ethical perspective, regional pricing is necessary for justice and fairness. Otherwise, you send a “poors not allowed” message; this is always true, no matter what the price is. A $3 game on itch is cheap to me, but could really sting for someone in a poorer country. Putting it at 0.22c for them makes it cheap for them too, and they can make a purchase decision with the similar constraints to mine.
Further; regional pricing is challenging to implement, but not overwhelmingly so. You need to detect where people are from, show a banner that allows them to opt-in the regional price, and then create a coupon of sorts. The complicated parts are:
- Deciding on the rate per country. There are databases and heuristics for this, and it could be a communal project. Alternatively, you could leave it completely open to creators. Creators decide which countries get which discount.
- (optional) showing a control panel so creators on itch can decide which discounts to apply (if automatic) or a UI to set the pricing per-country (if manual).
Please consider it!