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PSA - SF5 might have region/account locked dlc

Nuszka

Member
Just a heads up, i know there is a OT for the game but it moves so fast right now that any posts get buried very quickly.

Ok so i pre ordered the game back in august on my purchasing US psn account, but i play on my EU account, its just so much cheaper.
So today i started the game and beyond the issues i noticed the lack of Chun Li dlc costume. Firstly i blamed the servers but then checked the game on my US psn account, logged in and the costume was there, went back to my EU account and nothing. Seems like its region/account locked but the real problem is where it leaves me for any future dlc drops the game has, worst case scenario i might have locked myself out of it completely.
The only way to check it is to get my hands on a EU dlc costume code, i would gladly buy it if anyone has a spare one for sale. Bay only has them on bid and we know how this would end. Thank god i didn't get the season pass.
Btw i can't play the game on my purchasing account as it would mean i would need a US psn plus subscription, so online is out of the question. Any help would be much appreciated.
 
You should be ale to play the game online with your US account, even if it doesn't have a PS+ subscription. But what you say is worrying, considering I mostly play on my US account but have an EU copy of the game.
 
ALL PS4 games have region locked DLC!

If you buy any US game, it is only compatible with US DLC.
If you buy any EU game, it is only compatible with EU DLC.

It's been like that since the PS3 days... :/
 
Only one account on ps4 needs plus. I moved from EU plus to JP plus and can play online fine. The only issue is that I lost access to all the EU plus games.
 
ALL PS4 games have region locked DLC!

If you buy any US game, it is only compatible with US DLC.
If you buy any EU game, it is only compatible with EU DLC.

It's been like that since the PS3 days... :/

The dlc is ACCOUNT locked thats the problem.
 
That has always been the case with PSN games. If your DLC is just an unlock code you might only be able to use it with the account that used it. That's why stuff like pre-order items sometimes do not show up if you play with a different account.

It's a risk you have to be willing to take if you do this stuff.
 
ALL PS4 games have region locked DLC!

If you buy any US game, it is only compatible with US DLC.
If you buy any EU game, it is only compatible with EU DLC.

It's been like that since the PS3 days... :/

This is not true, Digimon Cyber Sleuth doesn't have this. I bought it on brazilian PSN and I have access to the DLC on the american account, which is the one I play.
 
That has always been the case with PSN games. If your DLC is just an unlock code you might only be able to use it with the account that used it. That's why stuff like pre-order items sometimes do not show up if you play with a different account.

is it not like xbox where everyone on my xbox can use the stuff? my son gets everything I buy and we have 2 xbox ones
 
That has always been the case with PSN games. If your DLC is just an unlock code you might only be able to use it with the account that used it. That's why stuff like pre-order items sometimes do not show up if you play with a different account.

Not normally. If the DLC region matches and is downloaded on the system it usually works for every user on the system. This would be brand new restriction if it is happening for everyone.

is it not like xbox where everyone on my xbox can use the stuff? my son gets everything I buy and we have 2 xbox ones

That is how it always worked for me. The only difference for PSN is that a US game can only use US DLC and same with EU and JPN.
 
I think there are two types of methods to do DLC.

Download files that are a few mb or kb and those work across every account.

And Entitlements. This isn't so often used but seems to be the case here. For people that buy on one account and play on another those are annoying.
 
ALL PS4 games have region locked DLC!

If you buy any US game, it is only compatible with US DLC.
If you buy any EU game, it is only compatible with EU DLC.

It's been like that since the PS3 days... :/

Nah, read his post again. He bought and redeemed with his US account, and for most games if you play with your EU account, you can play the US game, and it's US dlc just fine.
 
The dlc is ACCOUNT locked thats the problem.

I don't think it's account locked. If you created another US account now, the DLC would work there.

Also, if your Plus account is set as primary, every other non-Plus accounts on the same console can play online for free.
 
That has always been the case with PSN games. If your DLC is just an unlock code you might only be able to use it with the account that used it. That's why stuff like pre-order items sometimes do not show up if you play with a different account.

I understand but i got other games with pre order bonuses like for example destiny and it was ok, even the expansion packs worked fine. I haven't seen a dlc data for that costume so maybe its a tie in license , hope you are right.
 
Not normally. If the DLC region matches and is downloaded on the system it usually works for every user on the system. This would be brand new restriction if it is happening for everyone.

It's not new. I definitely had PS3 titles where this happened as well. Don't ask me which ones though.

I think there are two types of methods to do DLC.

Download files that are a few mb or kb and those work across every account.

And Entitlements. This isn't so often used but seems to be the case here. For people that buy on one account and play on another those are annoying.

This is exactly the difference.

I assume they do this because all things are stored on their server, including which costumes or colors you have unlocked.
 
I think there are two types of methods to do DLC.

Download files that are a few mb or kb and those work across every account.

And Entitlements. This isn't so often used but seems to be the case here. For people that buy on one account and play on another those are annoying.

So they can tie these to individual accounts. I had never run into that before.

It's not new. I definitely had PS3 titles where this happened as well. Don't ask me which ones though.

Strange it must be fairly rare since I never ran into this with all my importing. So Capcom might have locked them to an account due to the fight money stuff? I wonder if the season pass is locked to an account.
 
I think there are two types of methods to do DLC.

Download files that are a few mb or kb and those work across every account.

And Entitlements. This isn't so often used but seems to be the case here. For people that buy on one account and play on another those are annoying.

Ok that sums up my problem perfectly , now all i need is to pray that Capcom doesn't go the "entitlement" route for its dlc.
 
Ok that sums up my problem perfectly , now all i need is to pray that Capcom doesn't go the "entitlement" route for its dlc.

They most likely will. Like Is aid everything is server side for them. You can get a permission by FM or real money so they probably have to do it this way.
 
They most likely will. Like Is aid everything is server side for them. You can get a permission by FM or real money so they probably have to do it this way.

Now i wonder if those "permissions" are region locked, will try to buy one of those EU dlc costumes from eBay.
 
The only case I had to deal with this was with Gundam Extreme VS Full Boost on PS3. The online pass for that game only worked with the account it was redeemed on.

They most likely will. Like Is aid everything is server side for them. You can get a permission by FM or real money so they probably have to do it this way.

If they do that I might as well throw the game in the trash.
 
Account locked is troubling, at least for those that got the game from another region, but far as I know DLC for a few previous Capcom games weren't account locked on PS4, like the DMC4 DLC (I have the Asia ver. and last I checked I can access the alt. outfits).

Try setting your EU and US account as your primary accounts on PS4 and see if the DLC shows up this time?
Also try playing while in offline mode after you finish downloading the DLC.
 
this isn't new
every game works this way on psn

You're misreading his post. Of course you can't redeem codes on different stores or buy DLC from the EU store and expect it to work on an NA game. But that's not what's being discussed here.
 
Quite a bit of stuff on SFV seems to be server side due to cross play. So yeah, gonna guess its a matter of the game authenticates at an account level for the DLC because you aren't really "Downloading" anything as much as authenticating your ability to use it.
 
ALL PS4 games have region locked DLC!

If you buy any US game, it is only compatible with US DLC.
If you buy any EU game, it is only compatible with EU DLC.

It's been like that since the PS3 days... :/
That's not what they're saying. In-game content is region locked, yes, but if you have a download that is listed as an add-on in the library and your PS4 is set to primary anyone can use that add-on. But in-game bonuses that do not use the add-on feature of PS4 are ACCOUNT locked.

The Chun Li costume appears to be an in-game bonus that does not appear as an add-on in the PS4 library so therefore it is account locked.

Evolve did this for a while, with DLC being account locked, before changing to a region locked system.
 
You're misreading his post. Of course you can't redeem codes on different stores or buy DLC from the EU store and expect it to work on an NA game. But that's not what's being discussed here.

woops, yup, i see whats going on here
thats a bummer
 
Checked on the EU Psn info about the season pass and it states that it will be available to all sub accounts, so we will probably have to wait until march to know what the issue will be.
 
I think there are two types of methods to do DLC.

Download files that are a few mb or kb and those work across every account.

And Entitlements. This isn't so often used but seems to be the case here. For people that buy on one account and play on another those are annoying.
This is spot on.
OP, if you want to confirm SFV uses entitlements for its DLC, you should check your US account information. There's a tab somewhere called entitlements or services IIRC that lists that stuff (usually network passes and that kind of stuff).

It's surprising Capcom would go this route as it means that only one player would get costumes when playing local versus.
Then again, have you tried launching the game with both accounts logged in ?
 
This is spot on.
OP, if you want to confirm SFV uses entitlements for its DLC, you should check your US account information. There's a tab somewhere called entitlements or services IIRC that lists that stuff (usually network passes and that kind of stuff).

It's surprising Capcom would go this route as it means that only one player would get costumes when playing local versus.
Then again, have you tried launching the game with both accounts logged in ?

You play local versus in only one account.
 
This is spot on.
OP, if you want to confirm SFV uses entitlements for its DLC, you should check your US account information. There's a tab somewhere called entitlements or services IIRC that lists that stuff (usually network passes and that kind of stuff).

It's surprising Capcom would go this route as it means that only one player would get costumes when playing local versus.
Then again, have you tried launching the game with both accounts logged in ?

Yeah i checked its a type of service, tried having both accounts logged or swapping between them, that didn't help either. Worst case scenario i will just play on my purchasing account and get any future stuff from it if i get really into the game.
 
So from what I'm understanding the real issue here is (since region locked DLC has always been a thing on ps4) that any costumes and DLC you earn in the game, will not be unlocked/usable by other users if they start up the game, even if the account that got the stuff was a primary on the ps4.

That sucks.
 
You play local versus in only one account.
I had forgotten about this particular implementation. A lot of PS3 games worked like that but that's honestly the first PS4 game I see doing this.

Yeah i checked its a type of service, tried having both accounts logged or swapping between them, that didn't help either. Worst case scenario i will just play on my purchasing account and get any future stuff from it if i get really into the game.
That sounds pretty final. Hey, at least it didn't happen with a Vita game (good luck swapping accounts there).
 
This sucks. I can't justify purchasing DLC if my brother can't use it too. Assassin's Creed III did something like this with its online pass (it was tied to a PSN). I just ended up not playing the multiplayer.

Thanks for the warning OP. I think I'll wait a few years for them to bundle DLC.
 
So from what I'm understanding the real issue here is (since region locked DLC has always been a thing on ps4) that any costumes and DLC you earn in the game, will not be unlocked/usable by other users if they start up the game, even if the account that got the stuff was a primary on the ps4.

That sucks.

Each user has their own SFV account and have to obtain the extras on their own. If you have ever played League of Legends, Dota 2, or any other "Service Game", you'll see that it works the same way. It doesn't matter how many people use your computer / PS4, only the account that bought or earned the content can use the content. If another account wishes to use the same content, they must obtain it on their own.
 
From what I have seen SFV dlc is account locked, but region agnostic. Which means you can play the EU version, but use US dlc when playing on the US account and vice versa.
 
From what I have seen SFV dlc is account locked, but region agnostic. Which means you can play the EU version, but use US dlc when playing on the US account and vice versa.

Is this actually confirmed? I've been digging around online and have not been able to find a clear answer on this.

I am waiting for a copy of the japanese volcanic edition to show up at my door, and am already discouraged to hear that most of its extras might only be useable in my throwaway non PS+ japanese PSN ID.

If the japanese DLC can be redeemed in a US account, then that would be golden!
I think I'm going to try to 'sacrifice' my Bison costume code tonight to find out.
 
If its account locked it kind of makes sense considering that some people could think about having 2 accounts and play the single player content of the game twice to gain enough FM to buy, for example, characters with one and costumes with the other.
 
also if its true what you are saying op im fucked then, goodbye Bison costume

I think there are two types of methods to do DLC.

Download files that are a few mb or kb and those work across every account.

And Entitlements. This isn't so often used but seems to be the case here. For people that buy on one account and play on another those are annoying.

this. very few games are like the latter and so far mostly japanese based devs ' games are the ones i found this problem myself (and Darksiders 2 {ps3} though at the very least i could gift items to my other account)
 
Yup, seems to happen with a bunch of games but before this it was mostly UbiSoft games.

I'd avoid buying the season pass for anyone playing on a different account from the one that buys it too. Just in case.

EDIT: Although as mentioned above, it may be used with sub accounts. Still, best to wait for confirmation.
 
Is this actually confirmed? I've been digging around online and have not been able to find a clear answer on this.

I am waiting for a copy of the japanese volcanic edition to show up at my door, and am already discouraged to hear that most of its extras might only be useable in my throwaway non PS+ japanese PSN ID.

If the japanese DLC can be redeemed in a US account, then that would be golden!
I think I'm going to try to 'sacrifice' my Bison costume code tonight to find out.

I got EU retail, but when I play on US PSN where I preordered digital I am able to use the Chun Li preorder costume. The costume does not appear on other acconts, even with the main console shenanigans.

You most probably won't be able to redeem your code on US PSN, but you can still play with your JPN account if you want to use the costumes. If your PS+ account is registered as main console you can play online with your JPN account.
 
I got EU retail, but when I play on US PSN where I preordered digital I am able to use the Chun Li preorder costume. The costume does not appear on other acconts, even with the main console shenanigans.

You most probably won't be able to redeem your code on US PSN, but you can still play with your JPN account if you want to use the costumes. If your PS+ account is registered as main console you can play online with your JPN account.

Thanks for that! While not ideal, I might be able to live with this. I'll report my results back when I get the game.
The volcanic edition comes with some zenny included too, so I'd like to be able to use that...
 
this account locking thing has me worried as well. this sort of thing really ticks me off, as paying customers shouldnt have to do research as to whether their legally bought DLC is compatible with their game. I may just swear off spending any money on the PS4 version I have and just go ham on the Steam version when I eventually pick it up.

also, just FYI: region locked DLC is not a guaranteed thing on PS home consoles, although it does happen often enough to be annoying. just off the top of my head, from the PS3 era - some notable examples of Region 1 (USA) DLC that works on Region 3 (Asia) versions of the game:

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - R1 Adachi and Marie
Dragon's Dogma - R1 Weapons Packs
Bioshock Infinite - Both episodes of the R1 Burial At Sea DLC
Dynasty Warriors - The majority of, if not all released DLC
 
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