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(Steam) Publishers to crack down on cross-region gifting/trading
- Thread starter JaseC
- Start date
You'll be fine. This particular restriction doesn't apply at the runtime level, and the one that does, MGSR doesn't have.
I hope that retail keys won't be region locked soon too
Retail keys could have been region locked for many years now. It differs from game to game and publisher to publisher.
CosmicQueso
Member
hope this is just trolling.
Actually, they want to be able to offer regional pricing to make games cheaper in countries with lower incomes. Because piracy was a problem when games were simply way too expensive in some areas.
Maybe it will never work because we cannot have nice things on the internet, but it is the exact opposite of them wanting people to pirate the games.
Thanks for the reply. Now I'm less worried.
Hopefully this doesn't affect stores like GMG.
Hold on, hold on - I just wanted to buy South Park from GMG but am from Germany. Are you telling me that won't work?
I read that the German version is cut, so that sucks even more!
ambientmystic
Member
I wonder what the next step would be. Region locked executables that will only run based on your OS's set region and language?
Most of us got PCs so that we wouldn't have to subjected to region locked gaming in the first place lol. Even next gen consoles are a lot more lenient in this respect, except for the Wii U of course.
Most of us got PCs so that we wouldn't have to subjected to region locked gaming in the first place lol. Even next gen consoles are a lot more lenient in this respect, except for the Wii U of course.
Retail key region locks are separate.
Your key will redeem just fine. I was just pointing out that there's no runtime restriction.
blitzcloud
Banned
so um, are people complaining about not being able to circumvent prices that allow a market that is in a serious disadvantage purchase legitimate games?
It seems like many people here used to screw up developers with russian traders? well, consumer is always right or so they say...
It seems like many people here used to screw up developers with russian traders? well, consumer is always right or so they say...
Monado Blade
Member
Ah, I guess I was a bit hasty in posting. I wasn't actually looking at this issue from a regional pricing point if view so I apologise for the confusion.
I'm a little annoyed with this region locking thing, as I'm from the SEA region where not only do our games not get cheap prices, sometimes we don't even get the games at all (Lords of Shadow 2, MGR). The only way I can buy those games is by cross region gifting.
By locking us out completely, the publishers seem to be hinting that they don't want our money. I'm not the sort to pirate a game when this happens but I know many who would now use this as an excuse to freely pirate the games.
If that's the case they should actually start by lowering the prices in all South American stores and if possible match those of Russia.
If not they take away the option to gift games from my region when I pay the same price as anyone in the US.
SteveWinwood
Member
It's still up to publishers. Just as there are those that lock and not there are those that use regional pricing and those that don't.
But I wouldn't be surprised if more of it was coming as Valve will soon be (is?) accepting the real as a currency.
Yeah, honestly it's a bit puzzling to me too. I see how it's an annoyance when it comes to gifting, and I can understand people wanting to pay as little as possible but... I live in one of the countries where they're trying to make regional pricing work and if this is what it takes for me to be able to buy games at a reasonable cost, so be it.
blitzcloud
Banned
yeah, i'm sure that's how it is.
Except the currency fluctuates. With euro and dollar rising and falling each day, it's not possible to adjust constantly the pricing, so they made the uneven 1$=1 which I despise. Don't believe me? watch the UK. 2006. 1 pound=1.5 euro. 2009 1 pound=1.1 euro. That's a LOT.
Either way, they're not trying to destroy the $- gifting, they're trying to get rid of the middleman doing a business off price circumvention.
And while it's not illegal, it's very illicit from a gamer perspective to screw up a publisher that tried to make emerging countries able to buy legitimate games, but to each its own
Stitch
Gold Member
Some games already did this years ago. Some japanese games refuse to start if your region is not set to Japan. Also the uncensored Commandos games don't start if your region is set to Germany. They work fine if you change it to Austria lol.
Ravensmash
Member
Then you should be absolutely fine - I did the same and my copy is still showing up in my library.
When I go to the store it tells me that I already own the game so it's already locked to my account.
Now just have to wait for release so I can play it!
I can't believe I got it for 22 bucks from a gaffer here!! Soo good!!!!
puh
Ravensmash
Member
In the UK it was selling £39.99 on the Steam store.
Traders were selling it for 10 keys, or the equivalent of around £14.20
Ridiculous savings.
Zombie James
Banned
Executive: "Hmm, there seems to be a lot of demand for our products in regions we don't support... Let's make sure we do everything possible so these people can't play our games."
Are you still a little confused? Basically, South Park is region-locked in Germany but if you were to purchase a key from outside of Germany you wouldn't have an issue redeeming it, unless it was sourced from one of these regions. Aimjay was under the impression that rest-of-world sub, which South America uses, is region-locked at the runtime level, but it's not -- the notice is just a side-effect of the gifting/trading restriction, which applies to South American and Eastern European territories.
SteveWinwood
Member
That's sort of the opposite of what's attempting to happen here.
Mr. Poolman
Member
I don't care about the price differences on regions, but I would appreciate if games released simultaneous everywhere.
I had to wait months to be able to buy Arkham City.
I had to wait months to be able to buy Arkham City.
Ravensmash
Member
It's an unfortunate side effect of these restrictions nonetheless though?
SteveWinwood
Member
Yep for some places. That's why I said they're attempting, not necessarily succeeding
Odd to see Banner Saga and Banished there, given that they're on GoG, with its fairly laissez-faire approach to regional purchasing.
BlackBuzzard
Banned
So is there a big chance of it happening to all major games in the future?
I'm thinking that Valve sent out an opt-in alert/notification to publishers, or at least is doing so in batches.
Delusibeta
Banned
Practically guaranteed, considering the big publishers wanted it in the first place.
FrozenCell
Member
greedy fucks
Vlodril
Member
I hope more indie will go the banished route (i just bought it , that is why i am mentioning it not that it is the first dev to do it). If you bought it from his website he gave a steam or gog key and you pay in dollars too (great for us europeans).
I hope that is a trend we see more off. Don't see why not especially with indies since they get the whole amount of the money too (?).
I hope that is a trend we see more off. Don't see why not especially with indies since they get the whole amount of the money too (?).
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
If I bought a South Park key from Direct2Play, do you think that gets affected? Something tells me that it's a non-US site.
The gifting/trading restriction has nothing to do with keys, however South Park is region-locked in a handful of regions so you'd need to ensure any key you buy isn't intended for said regions.
SteveWinwood
Member
I still have to buy banished. I keep forgetting.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Yikes. I don't know how they deal with codes possibly not working so I guess I might just try to cancel.
blitzcloud
Banned
given how exploited the system was... it's not about greed, but rather not being insulted for offering means for emerging gaming markets to purchase games.
Imagine you're earning your salary, and suddenly you're cut to minimum wage. Hey, don't be greedy, you could have no job at all!
Ideally steam could've kept a limited amount of gifts a year .
Example, i'm a 10 year old user, so that would grant me the right to gift 10 games a year over this imposition.
Reasoning behind this: i'm not risking a 10 year old account to begin a limited trading business.
2 year old account would be able to gift 2 games a year to other territories and so on.
razgriz417
Member
IIRC direct2play takes 25% of your order if you cancel and can't cancel if its within 2 days of release
Excellent, more games I'll never buy (except South Park that I already bought)
I can't stand this bullshit, especially due to them punishing the whole region when it's Brazil the only one who has cheap prices.
I can't stand this bullshit, especially due to them punishing the whole region when it's Brazil the only one who has cheap prices.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I got word from Direct2Play about their South Park keys:
CosmicQueso
Member
Well Steam is expanding its use of local currencies, this makes regional pricing easier.
But yeah, you can expect people to act if they think key resellers are profiteering based on loopholes in the system.
Does look like Steam wants to expand use of local currencies and pricing in a big way.
dr_rus
Member
I'm complaining that I seem to be unable to buy an unrestricted game in Steam anymore for any price at all.
Most of new Steam releases are region locked here in Russia in different ways - worse of which is IP launch lock which prevents you from even launching your legitimately bought game if you're connected from a non-Russian IP range. I know a lot of cases when this stopped people from launching their games from Russia too - IP geographical DB isn't ideal.
I myself am mostly buying unrestricted copies as keys for - this is the funny part - less money than the cost of a restricted version in Russian Steam. But I'm ok with paying full US/EU price too for a proper region free version - did this many times already. And I don't understand why I can't do this in Steam and have to use some shady key resellers instead. This is just completely anti-consumer.
wackojackosnose
Member
Maybe it's cos GoG only deal in US$ so everybody pays the same price for each unit regardless of where they're from. I can understand the difficulty / annoyance if everybody takes advantages of currency discrepancies if games are fully region free so I understand why publishers are coming down on region gifting / locking. Sucks but probably the only way for the poorer economies to get the games at locally relevant prices. I'm still waiting on Steam Sales though.
Bboy AJ
My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I bought SP from Strong hammer. I didn't know it was a Russian copy. I didn't even know you could do that. I left the game in my inventory and now I can't redeem it. Weak. I wouldn't have bought it had I known it was gray marketed. Though I guess I should have known.
PMing for refund.
PMing for refund.
dr_rus
Member
Publishers control local prices. You can sell a game for the same price in every region.
Gift locking is a good way to region lock actually. All other Steam restrictions are much worse.
But still - I prefer to have an option of paying more for an unrestricted version.