We don’t have £ prices on itch.io for A Short Hike, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that price. The developer only sets a price in USD and then whatever payment method you use is doing the currency conversion. I’m currently looking at their USD price and it matches itch.io. Do you think they set a regional £ price on Steam that’s much cheaper than the USD version? You can see what prices they have on Steam here: https://steamdb.info/app/1055540/ I’m not entirely sure how Steam does regional pricing for this, if it’s auto generated or the developer’s choosing.
Viewing post in Game prices discrepancies
The Itch price in £ I'm quoting is simply the converted rate. As offered by PayPal in the UK when going through the checkout.
Steam allows the developer to set regional prices - and presents the cost as per regional expectation (tax excluded in US, included in Europe). This is why the USD price is the same on Itch v Steam.
I assure you the UK final price is different, by some way, I have been through the checkout for both. I have seen this for a number of different games, usually smaller indie games (A Short Hike, Baba Is You). All I can think is when the developer has set the UK price on Steam they have not realised that tax is included in the upfront price, hence the final price being a fair amount higher on Itch.
On that steamdb page you linked it shows the UK price *including* tax versus the US price *excluding* tax. That doesn't seem like a fair comparison.