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[Collateral22]

Sorry for the muddled title but I couldn't think of anything better this early.

I think this is something that needs to change with PSN. More of an EU problem than NA and it's very annoying. In Europe, each country has specific codes for PSN that they use. You cannot use a code outside of your countries PSN account. I live in Ireland, and we use Euros (€). Most countries in Europe use it too. Say I buy a Spanish €20 card online, I cannot use it with anything but a Spanish PSN account. Now, you might just say go to a local shop and get a card there, but when that isn't an option there are very little online retailers that will email an Irish PSN code to you. I spent hours one day trying to find one in stock and it was a lost cause.

It's one thing I love about the LIVE store. I can buy a €50 card from anywhere in Europe and have it work. I can even buy a £50 one if I wanted and have it convert to Euros just because it's within Europe. I don't know how hard it is for them to change it but the way it is at the moment is quite a pain. Hope that makes sense, haven't had my morning coffee yet.

 

[LewieP]

Sony's whole handling of different regions needs reworking.

It is insane to me, just from a marketing perspective, that a developer can tweet a link to their game, and the link is region specific. It can't redirect you to the appropriate store, or a holding page if the game isn't out in your region. Madness. They will be losing sales because of this.

Devs also need to submit their game multiple times, once for each region. Again, seems like madness to me, increasing the workload for devs for no real gain. Just because of how their infrastructure is set up.

It's no secret that PSN needs an overhaul, I hope these kind of flaws are eventually ironed out.

 

[Eolz]

Yep, and same for PS+ subscriptions or the inability to change countries several times (as steam let you do).
Terrible service options and rules compared to steam, xbox or even nintendo.

 

[TBiddy]

Won't Sony be making quite a lot of money on this?

I mean, instead of everyone buying cheap points in Spain/Russia/wherever, they are forced to buy them in the PS Shop at full price?

 

[Eolz]

Won't Sony be making quite a lot of money on this?

I mean, instead of everyone buying cheap points in Spain/Russia/wherever, they are forced to buy them in the PS Shop at full price?

Seems for the reverse to be working quite well for Microsoft and other companies, and they have better reputation for their services too!

 

[Coen]

Yes, it is indeed utter nonsense. I'm Dutch and when I bought my PS3, I was still iving with my parents. Naturally I created a PSN account and bought some stuff. Since then, I've moved about 40 kilometers across the Belgian border and nothing much has changed. But I can't change the country on my account and was forced to make a new account. I've even contacted Sony about it, and although they were pretty nice about it, there's simply no alternative. I decided to stick with my Dutch account because I didn't feel like spreading my digital content across yet another account and I'm now using a dingy website called psncode.nl to buy prepaid cards from. Sony won't even let me use my paypal or credit card, both tied to Belgian addresses, on my Dutch account.

 

[shotgunbob04]

I'm from NA and was unaware of this situation, but I agree with you, OP. They should have a more open policy with their EU PSN cards. Especially since their consoles which use PSN play games region-free.

 

[Caayn]

Won't Sony be making quite a lot of money on this?

I mean, instead of everyone buying cheap points in Spain/Russia/wherever, they are forced to buy them in the PS Shop at full price?

A Spanish € is no different than a German €. And MS seems to have no problems with you buying cards in a different EU country and then convert it to a different currency for you.

 

[Desmond]

Sorry for the muddled title but I couldn't think of anything better this early.

I think this is something that needs to change with PSN. More of an EU problem than NA and it's very annoying. In Europe, each country has specific codes for PSN that they use. You cannot use a code outside of your countries PSN account. I live in Ireland, and we use Euros (€). Most countries in Europe use it too. Say I buy a Spanish €20 card online, I cannot use it with anything but a Spanish PSN account. Now, you might just say go to a local shop and get a card there, but when that isn't an option there are very little online retailers that will email an Irish PSN code to you. I spent hours one day trying to find one in stock and it was a lost cause.

It's one thing I love about the LIVE store. I can buy a €50 card from anywhere in Europe and have it work. I can even buy a £50 one if I wanted and have it convert to Euros just because it's within Europe. I don't know how hard it is for them to change it but the way it is at the moment is quite a pain. Hope that makes sense, haven't had my morning coffee yet.

I know exactly how you feel. I went into GameStop looking for a 20 quid card and they said they don't stock them anymore. Checked Amazon and they only have cards in Sterling. What a joke.

 

[TBiddy]

A Spanish € is no different than a German €. And MS seems to have no problems with you buying cards in a different EU country and then convert it to a different currency for you.

No, I know the € is the same in both countries, but the price might not be.

Sony is/was not exactly the richest country in the world (although the PS4 certainly helped them), and I don't think this was at the top of their priority list, since it would be expensive.

 

[Collateral22]

I know exactly how you feel. I went into GameStop looking for a 20 quid card and they said they don't stock them anymore. Checked Amazon and they only have cards in Sterling. What a joke.

I used to get them here if it helps: http://cardscodes.com/Playstation_Network_Live_Card_euro20_Ireland-141.html

Takes like 30 minutes to deliver though.

 

[Baalzebup]

No, I know the € is the same in both countries, but the price might not be.

Sony is/was not exactly the richest country in the world (although the PS4 certainly helped them), and I don't think this was at the top of their priority list, since it would be expensive.

The Sony-nation is real?

 

[El-Suave]

Sony is really protective in Europe to maintain prices in markets where people usually pay more. In the PS3 era they went through the trouble of removing other languages from the UK versions of first party retail games. So they actually had different versions of the same game to keep people from importing games cheaply from the UK which was a thing last gen. So I wouldn't hope for changes on that front.

 

[dex3108]

My opinion is that Sony first needs one account for at least all PlayStation services if not all Sony services no matter where are you on this small planet (for example you need to make new account for PS Rewards program and then link it with your PSN Account). If Valve can do it Sony can too. Even with one account they can have regional stores. Also you can buy Steam Wallet card anywhere in the world and use it on any account (as far as i know), Steam will automatically convert value to your currency.

This is 2015 and Sony is still doing things old way. I really have feeling that PSN is hold with duck-tape and they don't want to mess with it or they will broke it.

 

[TBiddy]

The Sony-nation is real?

Kaz for president!

 

[Bittercup]

PSN really feels like it was designed for a region locked system with the split between US/PAL/Asia/Japan regions with huge differences in available content.
Splitting Europe into separate stores with country specific codes that aren't compatible is even worse and completely ridiculous.
It's sad that it doesn't seem like Sony is putting any effort in fixing it.

 

[dex3108]

PSN really feels like it was designed for a region locked system with the split between US/PAL/Asia/Japan regions with huge differences in available content.
Splitting Europe into separate stores with country specific codes that aren't compatible is even worse and completely ridiculous.
It's sad that it doesn't seem like Sony is putting any effort in fixing it.

Well they can't do something to make Usernames changeable and we expect that they do something more. Even UPlay, service that 90% of people hates find a way to make Usernames changeable. They just introduced legacy ID that is your first Username so they know who you are even when you change your Username.

They really, really need to start working on PSN , if not for PS4 then for PS5.

 

[JaseC]

Sony's whole handling of different regions needs reworking.

It is insane to me, just from a marketing perspective, that a developer can tweet a link to their game, and the link is region specific. It can't redirect you to the appropriate store, or a holding page if the game isn't out in your region. Madness. They will be losing sales because of this.

Devs also need to submit their game multiple times, once for each region. Again, seems like madness to me, increasing the workload for devs for no real gain. Just because of how their infrastructure is set up.

It's no secret that PSN needs an overhaul, I hope these kind of flaws are eventually ironed out.

Yeah, that each PSN store is entirely its own, separate thing is incredibly inefficient. Steam does it best: the store is universal but publishers themselves can control availability and pricing at the country level.

Well they can't do something to make Usernames changeable and we expect that they do something more. Even UPlay, service that 90% of people hates find a way to make Usernames changeable. They just introduced legacy ID that is your first Username so they know who you are even when you change your Username.

They really, really need to start working on PSN , if not for PS4 then for PS5.

I think it's quite clear at this point -- more than nine years after the PS3 launched -- that Sony can't implement name changes because the account id and online id are not separate a la Steam. The question is: Did this egregious oversight carry over to the Vita/PS4 or is the inability to change one's PSN name in 2016 simply a consequence of Sony continuing to support PSN for the PS3?

 

[Hamster Plugin]

Well they can't do something to make Usernames changeable and we expect that they do something more. Even UPlay, service that 90% of people hates find a way to make Usernames changeable. They just introduced legacy ID that is your first Username so they know who you are even when you change your Username.

They really, really need to start working on PSN , if not for PS4 then for PS5.

That's not how legacy ID works. Your "legacy ID" remains your username for every Ubisoft game that came out before 2012 and will be shown to all players in multiplayer.

If PSN was to do the same thing, your old PSN name would still be visible in every game that came out before a certain date and your new name in new games only.

 

[Alkastelca]

OP just create USA profile and buy there. It's madness to buy anything on EU store.
Use it to buy stuff and then play it on your normal profile.

 

[Liamario]

Counter strike GO never released in the EU on PS3.

 

[JaseC]

Counter strike GO never released in the EU on PS3.

I'd love to know the story behind that.

 

[Daedardus]

It has probably to do with the different VAT rates accross the countries and the need to clearly seperate it for bookkeeping purposes. Nintendo does the same with their eShop cards. I have no idea why Microsoft can do it though, so it could still be some database structure they deliberately constructed.

 

[Bittercup]

Well they can't do something to make Usernames changeable and we expect that they do something more. Even UPlay, service that 90% of people hates find a way to make Usernames changeable. They just introduced legacy ID that is your first Username so they know who you are even when you change your Username.

They really, really need to start working on PSN , if not for PS4 then for PS5.

Yeah I thought with the PS4 release or Vita earlier this would be a good time to implement a workaround like Uplay did if the PSN naming issue really can't be fixed. All games for the new system use the new user name, PS3 games keep the locked legacy name. But this didn't happen.
I have very little hope that the flaws with PSN will get better in the foreseeable future.
It would be nice though if games media would be a bit more critical about it, but that probably won't happen either.

OP just create USA profile and buy there. It's madness to buy anything on EU store.
Use it to buy stuff and then play it on your normal profile.

Unfortunately only a solution for consoles. Not possible with the Vita and its stupid account restriction.

 

[Realyn]

Oh come on. Read the replies so far and are you people really this naive or just playibg along to get cheap stuff?

"But the Euro is same in country A and B". Yeah I am sure average wage and prices are as well, right?

Someone said that Sony is gaining money this way. No, what they are doing is not losing money. Two very different things.

 

[danowat]

Regions need to be removed really, what we really need is a unified currency that transcends borders..........

 

[mocolostrocolos]

For a company who adopted the region-free philoshy, It has a lot of region lock issues.

I really love how Microsoft manages it better, specially the languages within every game.

 

[Joey Ravn]

No, I know the € is the same in both countries, but the price might not be.

Sony is/was not exactly the richest country in the world (although the PS4 certainly helped them), and I don't think this was at the top of their priority list, since it would be expensive.

Nah, the price is the same. € is €. You should have used the UK as your example. Buying Sony credit in Euros would be cheaper for British people, since the Pound is much stronger than the Euro.

 

[Eolz]

Regions need to be removed really, what we really need is a unified currency that transcends borders..........

Like € in the EU?
But seriously, there's no excuse. At worst they could even divide europe in tiers like Steam is/was doing.
The "but different wages" excuse would make sense if they didn't put the same price for everything everywhere.
Sad to see the old "but Sony gotta make money!" one come back too, thought that disappeared once the ps3 wasn't a failure anymore.

 

[Portugeezer]

Yes, it is indeed utter nonsense. I'm Dutch and when I bought my PS3, I was still iving with my parents. Naturally I created a PSN account and bought some stuff. Since then, I've moved about 40 kilometers across the Belgian border and nothing much has changed. But I can't change the country on my account and was forced to make a new account. I've even contacted Sony about it, and although they were pretty nice about it, there's simply no alternative. I decided to stick with my Dutch account because I didn't feel like spreading my digital content across yet another account and I'm now using a dingy website called psncode.nl to buy prepaid cards from. Sony won't even let me use my paypal or credit card, both tied to Belgian addresses, on my Dutch account.

Wow that's horrible.

 

[danowat]

Like € in the EU?

I know it's not popular, but I liked Microsoft points........

 

[Collateral22]

OP just create USA profile and buy there. It's madness to buy anything on EU store.
Use it to buy stuff and then play it on your normal profile.

I used to do it a lot more when the currencies were different a year ago but now the dollar is nearly equal to the euro. I gameshare a lot too with my uncle so we usually split digital games €35 each.

Counter strike GO never released in the EU on PS3.

Yeah I was really annoyed about that. Had it on 360 and although it was a god awful port, the ps3 trophy list was a lot better and easier than the 360 achievements.

 

[stan423321]

Oh come on. Read the replies so far and are you people really this naive or just playibg along to get cheap stuff?

"But the Euro is same in country A and B". Yeah I am sure average wage and prices are as well, right?

Someone said that Sony is gaining money this way. No, what they are doing is not losing money. Two very different things.

Look, their prices in different €-regions are roughly the same, heck even out of Eurozone they're pretty similar. Regardless of that, look at Steam. Steam Wallet cards will convert the currency when you use them out of region (even Nintendo apparently figured that one out within EU), and Steam URLs for various games are generally the same all over the world while the price can vary wildly unless publisher specifically screws URLs up.

 

[KaoteK]

They could also do with getting rid of region locked dlc, makes no sense when the actual games are region free, and it's a right pain in the arse for people like me who end up with games from all different regions.

 

[EmSeta]

I'm pretty sure it's because of how Sony works with different distribution partners in different countries. It's a mess.