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Russian Nintendo eShop "loophole"
- Thread starter Negotiator
- Start date
I don't know. Is breaking contract illegal?
nephilimdj
Member
Record yourself buying a eshop game while drunk, sue nintendo when they close your account
SteveWinwood
Member
welcome to digital distribution nintendo
Stereogatari
Banned
Wow I had no idea about this, always assumed US prices or bust. The prices are incredible. Makes me even more frustrated that I didn't bag that £99.00 WiiU deal the other day >_<.
Keep an eye on HotUKDeals. I think they had a £125 Shopto deal yesterday.
justsomeguy
Member
They don't, at least not so far as far as I know. I've bought from Canada, Hong Kong and USA just by flipping region on my console. You just needed a valid payment method for that region.
People got banned a while back for changing region to download games that were on a region specific free promotion, I believe..
Weren't the game licenses just revoked?
There's a difference between what's legal and what's allowed by a platform holder.
Example: you cheat in a competitive online shooter. This is obviously legal, but the dev still have the choice to ban you for it. Not being illegal just means you can't go to jail or be fined for it. Bans in accordance to TOS breaches can still be in order.
Maintenance
Member
OP is actually from Nintendo trying to fool gaffers into changing stuff and getting banned, thus needing to buy the games again.
Negotiator
Banned
You can change the console's region setting as many times as you want. That's also how XBL region-hopping works.
Even if the console tells me that the services will not work? Is this just scare tactics?
Stereogatari
Banned
GAME's trade-in credit is convenient though. Even though it's £150 there. I just really wish the Black model was available for a similar price, that's the only reason I still haven't taken the plunge (Tesco's £99.00 would have been an exception though).
DirtyLarry
Member
Cause they can. Has nothing to do with being legal or illegal, it is just against their own established rules, the terms of condition.
Nah. They fuck us, we fuck them. Free market etc.
Negotiator
Banned
If, for example, your main account is UK-based and you change the console's region to Russia, then you won't be able to access the UK eShop and the Miiverse via your UK account. That's what they mean.
So, you can switch between Russia and UK (or any other PAL country) as many times as you want.
You'll end up buying an external drive/big flash drive anyway, I would just go for a basic.
aiat_gamer
Banned
So it is as simple as changing the console region ro russia and that is it?!
That's what I'm interested in as well. More importantly, I'd like to know if I can merge the two accounts, so that my main account gets all the games, if necessary (for future console switching etc.)
I created a new user on the Wii U yesterday and all my games from my main user were there and ready to play.
Thanks! Gonna try later today.
Chû Totoro
Member
Maybe I missed something but for me it's only due to poor value of ruble. 1 USD = 70 RUB (it was 35 in july).
So not sure if Nintendo's Russian price were that low (when change was more stable)... and they may increase now (in ruble) to keep Nintendo making profit in Russia.
So not sure if Nintendo's Russian price were that low (when change was more stable)... and they may increase now (in ruble) to keep Nintendo making profit in Russia.
Only if you haven't linked a Nintendo Network ID, presumably. Once you've linked an NNID there's no region switching.
only one NNID per 3DS so probably not, since the NNID canot have the region changed AFAIK
without a linked NNID though, can you even access the eShop?
DarkCronos
Member
there is no way Nintendo would ban people for this. What if you had a russian roommate, He made his own account on your console and he's buying from his own eshop? Nintendo has no means to know if those russian accounts are legit or no
Stereogatari
Banned
I think that's what I'm going to end up doing. I've obsessed about it so much over January and then missed out on that deal, so now I just can't be bothered to wait or think about it anymore.
So this works for everything I expect? VC too? And the Nintendo support can merge two accounts into one?
Maybe I'll try it out and buy some games this way and later merge the NNIDs, so that I can keep my VC games on Nintendos next console (ha!).
Edit: Since my whole Wii U games cataloge is digital, I have to be a bit careful though... I don't want Nintendo to shut my NNID down and not let me play anything anymore...
Maybe I'll try it out and buy some games this way and later merge the NNIDs, so that I can keep my VC games on Nintendos next console (ha!).
Edit: Since my whole Wii U games cataloge is digital, I have to be a bit careful though... I don't want Nintendo to shut my NNID down and not let me play anything anymore...
Uiki
Member
Same here..
I bought hyrule warriors + 2dlc and metroid fusion. Now I feel bad. There's no way that we will keep them LOL
Don't know about that mate. There's no way for them to prove that the second user isn't genuine. I could legitimately have a Russian flat mate that's bought it lol
At the very worst they'll just put the prices up sooner rather than later.
Breach of contract normally is not illegal. Under most circumstances, breaking a contract is not a criminal act.
Anyway they would have to prove that you did not live in Russia at the point when you registered your NNID.
Uiki
Member
I'm gonna go dark and unplug everything as soon as i finish downloading lol
Starwolf_UK
Member
Gee if lots of people are exploiting exchange rate loopholes they are more likely to come down like an iron fist so why not advocate everybody to do it...
I don't want to see another EA of Nintendo being forced to screw over the local market to stop a load of Europeans getting games on the cheap or just IP locking their eShops in general, screwing over people who have moved countries.
Anyway.
Once upon a time the Nintendo exchange rate was 1=~10 rand for retail games and 1=12 rand for digital games. These prices were decided about the time the actual exchange rate was 1=12 rand. Since then the exchange rate climbed to I think it was 17 rand due to platinum mining disputes etc. Nintendo responded a few months ago (no idea on exact date, I don't check that often) and made it 1=13 rand for digital games and a similar change for retail.
To use Mario Kart 8 as a example was 579 rand now 669 rand.
I don't want to see another EA of Nintendo being forced to screw over the local market to stop a load of Europeans getting games on the cheap or just IP locking their eShops in general, screwing over people who have moved countries.
Anyway.
They sure could. I've collected data on the various stores (as a 3DS without NNID is free to change countries and thus browse). Let me tell you about South Africa.
Once upon a time the Nintendo exchange rate was 1=~10 rand for retail games and 1=12 rand for digital games. These prices were decided about the time the actual exchange rate was 1=12 rand. Since then the exchange rate climbed to I think it was 17 rand due to platinum mining disputes etc. Nintendo responded a few months ago (no idea on exact date, I don't check that often) and made it 1=13 rand for digital games and a similar change for retail.
To use Mario Kart 8 as a example was 579 rand now 669 rand.
Interesting. Also points to another solution to the problem of Europeans raiding the shop on the cheap. Force everything through yandex.money as that requires a card from Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, or Ukraine. That does however require offering download code version of more software (there are very few eShop exclusive games available).
I've only heard one case of a merger being made and that was two USA accounts and the brilliant NOA customer services. I can't see the inferior customer services of NOE doing such a thing, especially with regards to two countries.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
I'm confused. What steps exactly do I need to do to make this work?
I tried creating a new user profile, but when I was prompted to select a location, I could only choose from UK regions.
I tried creating a new user profile, but when I was prompted to select a location, I could only choose from UK regions.
New user, log in, change console region to Russia, set up nnid for your new user. And then learn Russian
Buy game, change console region to UK. Log out sign in onto your profile. Boom, game.
Delusibeta
Banned
Yeah, this applies to pretty much everything digital. Except Steam, where they region locked all of the games, and now there's more region locking there compared to the PS4 and the Xbone.
aiat_gamer
Banned
So everything change to Russian?!