Valve has made it more difficult to use VPNs that take advantage of Steam's regional pricing by introducing an additional hurdle before changing country settings.

Steam's regional pricing, which ostensibly takes into account the cost of living and economic conditions in a region, means that in some cases the price of a game can vary widely; Steam makes suggestions, but it is the publisher who ultimately determines the price.

What prices are displayed depends on your country's settings, but by using a VPN, you can trick Steam into thinking you are logging in from elsewhere. However, Valve is trying to put an end to this and initially made it impossible to change countries unless you have a payment method registered in that country. Another step, the completion of the purchase, was also added, which seems to have been mandatory for some time, but has received more attention recently, as highlighted by SteamDB.

"If you have moved to a new country or have lived abroad for an extended period of time, you can update your Steam country settings the first time you complete a purchase using that country's payment method. If your region of residence is different from the store settings in your current Steam account, you will be given the option to change your store region while viewing your cart or when completing a purchase."

This is more time-consuming than downloading a VPN.

[10] Some VPN users, however, say they are not simply looking for cheaper games, but are using VPNs to make VPNs, piracy, and key resellers more attractive because regional pricing is not supported in their country and games are prohibitively expensive.