EA may have just returned to Steam after a long hiatus, but many of the company's older titles have been available on Steam for years. Yesterday, Steam users reported that the prices of quite a few games have jumped.

The price jumps seem to be region-specific; prices in the US have not changed. For example, Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition, for example, is £24.99, a £5 price increase. One of the most outrageous jumps is the 16-year-old game "SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition," now at £17.99, almost double the previous price.

On SteamDB, you can see the price changes by clicking on the currency.

Price increases are not that uncommon, and publishers sometimes raise the price of a game just before a sale so that they can claim to be offering a much bigger discount; "Dead Space 2," which increased in price from £14.99 to £17.99, was July 2018 This is the second time the price has been raised, as it had been less than £10 until.

On Reddit, MJuniorDC9 posted several examples of other games that have seen price increases in the UK, Canada, Europe, Brazil, and Russia. Not all currencies are affected, but the lack of consistency makes it hard to tell. For example, "SimCity 4" and "Dragon Age" have gone higher in New Zealand, but "Dead Space 2" has not.

Looking at EA's list of games, it appears that most games are affected. Rather than preparation for a sale, this seems more like a change in EA's approach to Steam's regional pricing, which does not explain the discrepancy. With the exception of the recent Fallen Order, there is no clear reason why some games were changed and others were not.

In some cases, the prices are double what they were on Origin, but since some were already more expensive on Steam before the price increase, it does not appear that EA is matching the regional prices of its own platforms. Whatever the reason, if you were planning to buy something from EA on Steam, you might want to shop around.