More Regional Restrictions on Steam gifts come to light.

[Reavantos]

Apparently, gifted steam games can no longer be played outside the country that they were redeemed. This is retro active to 12/2014! If your like me and use reddit steam swap or gift of games. you need to pay more attention to this so you dont get burned!

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/new-regional-restrictions-on-steam-gifts-come-to-light/

 

 

 

 

Reasoning From the article:

 

"Those restrictions were put into place to keep users from taking advantage of localized pricing by purchasing games in regions where they're especially cheap—Russia, say—and then transferring them to accounts based on regions where they cost a great deal more. But now they've been extended to cover not only where games may be activated, but where they may be played."

 

 

 

 

 

Example used:


 

[GhostWindGamer]

Damn

[Prikk]

Left 4 Dead 2 region thing is stupid. I bought one in Thailand when it was launched, now that I am back in Canada I can't play it cuz its locked. Funny thing is, I would buy it again but I can't because I already got it. 

[Trik'Stari]

Apparently, gifted steam games can no longer be played outside the country that they were redeemed. This is retro active to 12/2014! If your like me and use reddit steam swap or gift of games. you need to pay more attention to this so you dont get burned!

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/new-regional-restrictions-on-steam-gifts-come-to-light/

 

Great, more market segmentation.

 

When will they stahp?!

[XTankSlayerX]

The downfall of steam has begun....

 

We only have (Possbly) MS and EA...

[Reavantos]

The downfall of steam has begun....

 

We only have (Possbly) MS and EA...

 

i shudder at the thought, that one day, we may find Origin less intrusive..

[flibberdipper]

This is bullshit.

[XTankSlayerX]

Apparently, gifted steam games can no longer be played outside the country that they were redeemed. This is retro active to 12/2014! If your like me and use reddit steam swap or gift of

Also, update your thread mate

 

 

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[Reavantos]

Done, thanks i missed the quote part!

[Poohy14]

Well glad I got my copy of GTA V  for $30 while it lasted.

[Ostwind]

Interesting, honestly though I don't care much as this won't affect me. I only buy my games through Steam and not from other non-Steam seller, I know that I might end up paying more at times but it enables me to avoid things like this.

[Geekazoid]

It's not surprising that they've done this. It's effectively removing our right to buy games cheaper elsewhere. #Greedy

It's a good thing that I don't buy my games via Steam, so they can't stop me.

[Maslofski]

fuck, this might be bad, gonna be moving countries soon D:

 

they better work though ive i have to use euros to pay even though im in c. america

[Reavantos]

i see what they are trying to do, and i honestly understand. but i feel this is just going to encourage some spiteful piracy...

[Misanthrope]

I knew regional pricing was bullshit.

[nims0c]

fuck, this might be bad, gonna be moving countries soon D:

 

they better work though ive i have to use euros to pay even though im in c. america

 

 

Ya, I wonder what happens when you move to a new country...

[Albatross]

This is insane! Steam is falling and falling fast.

 

I hardly knew ye.

[mr moose]

The only cause of a price difference (after accounting for exchange rates) should be local taxes, e.g sales tax or vat/gst.  In Australia I should be able to buy the game for the same as the US plus the 10% sales tax. nothing more.  Anything above this is basically regional discrimination.

[pbenologa]

Blame those users who buy games on other countries for a much cheaper price. They are the main reason steam did this.

[-TesseracT-]

I've only been gifted a game once, and that was from the forum. I'm honestly not too concerned about how this issue will affect me, but the principles of it make me upset.

[slightlyjaded]

I live in australia. we recently recieved a game that was an 80% markup before currency conversion, on a digital product with no exports fees, distribution, or shipping costs.. Region locking has a place in the case of a currency completely crashing. But honestly get over yourselves. this is old news. games were already region locked. it just wasn't as intrusive as this.

[Carpenoctem]

Left 4 Dead 2 region thing is stupid. I bought one in Thailand when it was launched, now that I am back in Canada I can't play it cuz its locked. Funny thing is, I would buy it again but I can't because I already got it. 

 

But that's actually the real problem here, not the lock itself.

 

I am absolutely fine with that, because I am pretty sure that with the salary I have where live now I can buy many more things in those relative poor countries with a crashed economy.

 

I don't want to sound harsh, but those reduced prices are not for the spoiled kids that want everything as cheap as possible, but it's to legitimately allow people in those poor places to have a chance to buy those things without spending a quarter of their monthly income.

A game is still a luxury item, if you cant afford it, that's unfortunate but you can still move on with your life.

I wont blame you for trying get around the system, but you should not complain if they try to stop that.

 

If Steam wants to do things properly, it has to put in place the support to help people in your condition, i.e. updating your country details to unlock the game, or whatever they can do.

 

I will be fine with those restrictions as long as they can find a way to support and help people in legitimate situations like yours.

 

I wont be upset if they lock something down, but I will be upset if they don't do anything to help someone that legitimately need support.

[Prikk]

But that's actually the real problem here, not the lock itself.

I am absolutely fine with that, because I am pretty sure that with the salary I have where live now I can buy many more things in those relative poor countries with a crashed economy.

I don't want to sound harsh, but those reduced prices are not for the spoiled kids that want everything as cheap as possible, but it's to legitimately allow people in those poor places to have a chance to buy those things without spending a quarter of their monthly income.

A game is still a luxury item, if you cant afford it, that's unfortunate but you can still move on with your life.

I wont blame you for trying get around the system, but you should not complain if they try to stop that.

If Steam wants to do things properly, it has to put in place the support to help people in your condition, i.e. updating your country details to unlock the game, or whatever they can do.

I will be fine with those restrictions as long as they can find a way to support and help people in legitimate situations like yours.

I wont be upset if they lock something down, but I will be upset if they don't do anything to help someone that legitimately need support.

Not Harsh at all. Maybe if they can implement a way for people to have multiple CD keys for a game, like one for different regions. That way, I can have my keys for different places in the world

[Puddleuk]

Quite frankly I'm baffled by this and confused about the fairly casual reception some users are giving. To me this comes across as simply money grabbing, developers (including Valve) have noticed that users will quite happily shop elsewhere to save a few $$$. Placing locks such as these are not for the customers benefit.

 

Also I continue to believe that if I purchase a gift copy of a game on Steam I should have the right to send to whoever I want, wherever they are on the planet. I paid for it, I own it (although the laws on that can be unclear) and I can do what I please with it. OK I get that some people abuse it but they are a very small minority and if Valve wanted to stop that then just place a limit on the number of a gifts a user can send in a certain period (May already be a thing?). Simples.

 

Funny how things have been shifted isn't it, not long ago and still today on some platforms (Wii U) games on consoles were region-locked but now the XO/PS4  are region-free (To clarify physical items are region-free, digital content from store is region locked). So while consoles are becoming more open the PC platform is slowly becoming a closed system dictated (Because that is exactly how I see it) by the largest digital distributor on the PC (Steam obviously). 

[Reavantos]

Not Harsh at all. Maybe if they can implement a way for people to have multiple CD keys for a game, like one for different regions. That way, I can have my keys for different places in the world

 

 

I feel like how Valve is going about this is a classic "right idea, wrong execution".