I noticed the “1 USD = 1 EUR” policy on Steam when we were suddenly forced to pay in EUR only, however I decided to buy only cheap stuff anyway (weekend deals, packs I like, etc.). I will not buy game for 50 Euros whatever it is. If you want to read more about this topic, just google for “steam 1 usd is 1 eur” or go directly to this discussion that contains also links to other sources, opinions, etc.
Truth is that it’s stupid but a few games have lower prices here in Europe (Bioshock for example). Anyway, Steam should do better to have prices under the retail level I think. I like Steam, I like that it updates the game, I like their weekend deals (I’d buy Left4Dead for 20€ last weekend… if I had already played all games I have 
)… I don’t mind. I just don’t wanna see the price in $ and while it’s OK in EUR.
But when I hit this banner/price combination I considered it to be funny:
At least, please, don’t show us. 
While back in the time when this rip-off started the EUR/USD ratio was more serious, it’s not a big deal now really. Count with me. VAT here is 19% – so the final price would be ~$23.80. That’s not a big difference – thanks to current exchange rate. UT3 is good example how silly those prices are set. You can buy international version of UT3 here for 26.52€, but CZ version is under 15€. I prefer English version (especially after few “professional complete Czech translations” ruining the game experience), that’s also another good reason for Steam in my case – but why it has to be more expensive…
I don’t think it’s hard to understand the game industry marketing. I think there is nothing to understand actually. I presume European prices are higher because of VAT and customer protection laws and similar stuff, but why can’t I buy international version for the very same price? On-line content delivery systems make this more and more obvious – I hope it’s just the matter of time when the prices will be more real – which in most cases means lower, of course.
