• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Steam region detection. How can I beat it?

Cataferal

Digital Foundry
It didnt take long for me to react when I heard both Beyond Good and Evil and Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit for us Europeans) were available on Steam. Up until that point I had no idea...

Alas, there's a reason why.

Whenever I search through the Steam app, it comes up with no result for either title. Furthermore, whenever I try through the website, it cuts me down with the line: "This product doesn't appear to be available in your region."

Naturally, I'm wondering how to bypass this region detection; but first I need to know how it's achieved. Is it determined via ISP checks? Is there a secret registry setting I need to change for Steam? Does anyone know of a work-around for this?
 
Wait for the uncensored(European) version or Farenheit, instead of cheating your way to the cut-US release... or is the PC version the MA director's cut?
 

dejan

Member
Cheeto said:
Find a VPN server in the US? I'd imagine you'd also need a US source of the funds too.
You'll definitively need both. I spend like 3 days trying to bypass Steam's region protection, but without success. With a VPN server setup you'll be able to browse the content, but you won't be able to actually buy stuff. Really deflating ... it's like they don't want my money.
What about donations? Can you donate someone a game that is elsewise not available for that person?
 

Thomper

Member
Someone at GAF was kind enough to help me get the cheaper US version of Bioshock, back when it was the weekend deal, by gifting it to me and that worked, so it might be possible to have the game gifted to you. Not sure, though.
 

Gowans

Member
I wanted to pick up IL2 just for the convenience of steam updates etc but I'm in teh same situation.

If there's ever a solution let me know
 

Cataferal

Digital Foundry
Thanks for the responses. So it does seem to be a tedious, long winded affair at best. It's a real shame that these companies don't want our money.

Fortunately, I've spotted some boxed retail copies of both games going for an even cheaper price on amazon. While I'm disappointed I can't organize my PC game collection under Steam's orderly umbrella, I guess I'll have to make do.

Here's hoping someone does find a solution though.
 

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
Thomper said:
Someone at GAF was kind enough to help me get the cheaper US version of Bioshock, back when it was the weekend deal, by gifting it to me and that worked, so it might be possible to have the game gifted to you. Not sure, though.

PM me to get me Beyond good n evil, earn 5 bucks (paypal) for a total of 5 minutes of work :D

I sure hope this works.
 
Cataferal said:
Thanks for the responses. So it does seem to be a tedious, long winded affair at best. It's a real shame that these companies don't want our money.

Fortunately, I've spotted some boxed retail copies of both games going for an even cheaper price on amazon. While I'm disappointed I can't organize my PC game collection under Steam's orderly umbrella, I guess I'll have to make do.

Here's hoping someone does find a solution though.

Just get a No CD crack and add a shortcut to Steam, the end result will be pretty damn similar.
 

Thomper

Member
brain_stew said:
Just get a No CD crack and add a shortcut to Steam, the end result will be pretty damn similar.
It's not just that you don't need a CD, the fact that you can delete the game and reinstall it at any time without having to find a CD every time is also very convenient.
FoxSpirit said:
PM me to get me Beyond good n evil, earn 5 bucks (paypal) for a total of 5 minutes of work :D

I sure hope this works.
I'm stuck with European Steam myself, otherwise I'd have bought the game from Steam already. Seriously, 10 bucks? Awesome. Let's hope Ubisoft makes its games available for Europe soon. Region restrictions for digital downloads are stupid.
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
skinnyrattler said:
Region codes for downloadable services seems, retarded. Is it just me or should the world wide web be confined by publisher's whims?
That's exactly the reason FOR region locking.
An example: STALKER isn't available in Germany via Steam because it's 18+ and THQ doesn't want to handle the risk of a minor seeing the game advertised.
Another example: Doom3.

And so on. I hate it, but there you have it: Game is 18+ in some country, advertising 18+ titles towards minors is illegal, Steam is available for minors, boom.
 

Stitch

Gold Member
but the region locking isn't for all mature games. buying call of juarez and painkiller works fine and they're are also uncensored :D
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Stitch said:
but the region locking isn't for all mature games. buying call of juarez and painkiller works fine and they're are also uncensored :D
Yeah, but still, the publisher has to make the call and sometimes doesn't approve of Steam publishing in 18+ land.
They're doing it wrong, basically. Showing a game in a catalogue isn't advertising, but they seem to misunderstand that or something.

Or maybe they hesitate because you can buy games on Steam via PayPal, which includes the direct debit paying option for Germans. There is no age verification involved in this, so you could hypothetically be 16 and buy STALKER that way.

So far, there are no official statements coming from publishers that lock certain titles for certain regions, so all I can do here is talk out of my ass anyway. It's a wild guessing extravaganza par excellence.
 

Igo

Member
It annoys me that steam uses US dollars (i live in the UK) and yet the prices are still inflated compared to the US cost.

If I find a way to get the actual US price on steam i'll be sure to let everyone know.
 

dejan

Member
I made my peace with Steam ... I finally bypassed the region detection. Just bought Manhunt from Steam ... from germany to be precise :D

- Your freedom + ProxyCap as a tunneling software grants you access to the region specific content (OpenVPN "should" work too, but somehow I couldn't get it to work properly under Vista anymore)

- To actually purchase stuff from the store you just need an EntroPay (a virtual VISA debit card) card. With EntroPay neither personal information nor credit card details are given to the merchant.

That's it!
 

DrXym

Member
A VPN is about the only way you could fool it. An open proxy probably wouldn't work. I don't know of any US VPN services but I imagine that they exist.
 

phants

Member
Gifting should work - the Rockstar bundle isn't available in NZ but a friend of mine gifted it to me from the UK with no problems.
 

psy18

Member
dejan said:
I made my peace with Steam ... I finally bypassed the region detection. Just bought Manhunt from Steam ... from germany to be precise :D

- Your freedom + ProxyCap as a tunneling software grants you access to the region specific content (OpenVPN "should" work too, but somehow I couldn't get it to work properly under Vista anymore)

- To actually purchase stuff from the store you just need an EntroPay (a virtual VISA debit card) card. With EntroPay neither personal information nor credit card details are given to the merchant.

That's it!

Question:
Most online stores (including steam) will require you to enter billing address. How can you bypass that?
 
psy18 said:
Question:
Most online stores (including steam) will require you to enter billing address. How can you bypass that?

Entropay don't check for a US billing address (why would they the whole point of the system is to avoid it) so you can just make one up and so long as it matches up to the one on your Entropay account you're home and dry. 90210, has served me well with Gametap and PSN.
 

psy18

Member
brain_stew said:
Entropay don't check for a US billing address (why would they the whole point of the system is to avoid it) so you can just make one up and so long as it matches up to the one on your Entropay account you're home and dry. 90210, has served me well with Gametap and PSN.

Thanks! Now I can freely empty my wallet :D
 

psy18

Member
Still can't access the x-com games in steam.
I've made a new account and log in through vpn, but still not available.
Do I need to delete or reinstall something from steam?
 

dejan

Member
psy18 said:
Still can't access the x-com games in steam.
I've made a new account and log in through vpn, but still not available.
Do I need to delete or reinstall something from steam?
Did you check your VPN setup? Browse to http://www.wieistmeineip.de/ and check the entry at "Herkunft" (Origin) at the top of the page. Btw, when I say OpenVPN should work I actually mean OpenVPN in conjunction with Your Freedom.

The OpenVPN + Your Freedom setup didn't work for me on Vista64. So I tried this http://www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=111 and it worked perfectly.
 

Nander

Member
psy18 said:
Question:
Most online stores (including steam) will require you to enter billing address. How can you bypass that?

I usually enter the address to Fort Knox :) Entropay won't check up on it.

And, dude. Sign up for Gametap, you get Beyond Good & Evil and 1000 more games for $60. And seeing how weak the dollar is, it's ridiculously cheap.
 

psy18

Member
dejan said:
Did you check your VPN setup? Browse to http://www.wieistmeineip.de/ and check the entry at "Herkunft" (Origin) at the top of the page. Btw, when I say OpenVPN should work I actually mean OpenVPN in conjunction with Your Freedom.

The OpenVPN + Your Freedom setup didn't work for me on Vista64. So I tried this http://www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=111 and it worked perfectly.

Wohoo! it worked :D thanks a million!

Nander said:
I usually enter the address to Fort Knox :) Entropay won't check up on it.

And, dude. Sign up for Gametap, you get Beyond Good & Evil and 1000 more games for $60. And seeing how weak the dollar is, it's ridiculously cheap.

Of course! I'm not gonna pass that up.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Sorry to bump this ages old thread but I am absolutely desperate to get Steam working for my holiday gaming. Problem is that I live in UK and have UK credit card, but am currently in Finland for the summer and cant seem to buy anything from Steam store. Hotspot Shield gave me only an US address and I havent been able to figure out how to get Your Freedom work with Steam client.

Halp?
 

Finguo

Member
I'll just post the quick step guide I once posted in another thread, hope it helps.

Basically you need two apps, Your Freedom and Sockscap. A quick guide on how to use those two for Steam can be found here: http://www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=111&L=1
I found it rather confusing the first time so I'll try to give you an easy step-by-step guide:

1 Download YF: http://www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=3&L=2/"
2 Download Sockscap: http://files.filefront.com/sc32r240e.../fileinfo.html
3 You'll need an YF account, create one at the YF website: http://www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=170&L=0
4 Install and run YF, enter your YF account data under "Status/Configure/Account Data"
5 Under "Status/Configure" click on "Use Wizard" and follow the instructions. When it's done, select a server in the UK from the list.
6 After that go to the tab "Ports" and set up everything like shown here: http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6...9234501ix1.jpg
7 Under "Status" click "Connect", your PC should then connect to the selected UK proxy server.
8 Now install and run Sockscaps, under File/Settings set everything up like shown here: http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3...9234859at3.jpg
9 In SCs main window, click new and add the path to your browser.
10 While YF is still running in the background, start your browser through Sockscap. From now on you will surf the net using a UK proxy, i.e. a UK IP address, which will grant you access to the UK store.

The connection will be slow, but after the game has been purchased and added to your account you can exit YF and SC, start Steam and download the game using your regular ISP settings (and speed).
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Finguo said:
I'll just post the quick step guide I once posted in another thread, hope it helps.

awesome, that worked! also, it seems the region is needed only in the purchasing step, so I can download the actual file from my Finnish (much faster) connection.

Thanks!
 
Bringing this back from the dead to ask if the method has changed for 2010. I'm stuck in Italy trying to figure out how to buy stuff from U.S. region. It's funny, in Afghanistan I could access the U.S. store no problem, but Italy won't let me. :lol
 

mclem

Member
Last Christmas I was in the interesting position of being in France wanting to purchase content (from the sales) with my UK credit card for use in the UK. I wasn't allowed to do that thanks to region restrictions, but I was able to get around it using portforwarding from a machine in the UK; I doubt anything's changed since then.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I'm not sure if it's possible for be to do port forwarding in my situation, so if any rad deals pop up I'll try to use the gifting thread. Thanks again.


NIN90 said:
Get it gifted by a US gaffer.
Pay back via Paypal.
Success

It's so easy

Yeah, I just wish I hadn't added $100 to my Steam wallet last week in preparation for Black Friday/Christmas. Oh well, it'll get used eventually...
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
I'd like to know if it is possible to make the actual steam client believe you are in another region. I bought Duke Nukem Forever through a UK store because it was released there.I got a steam code, entered it, and it downloaded the game. Unfortunately it's a Steamworks game, and my copy is locked for 5 days. It already downloaded the game to my system. Is there a way I can temporarily make Steam think I'm in a different region so the game will unlock?
 

onken

Member
Yeah gifting is most pain-free process if you can find someone nice enough to do it (though throwing on a couple dollar incentive usually gets results a lot faster).

Finguo said:
I'll just post the quick step guide I once posted in another thread, hope it helps.

Sweet I might have to try this.
 
Top Bottom