Valve enables region locking in Steam, to stop you buying cheap games from Russia
8 replies, posted
[url]http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/196079-valve-enables-region-locking-in-steam-to-stop-you-buying-cheap-games-from-russia[/url]
[QUOTE]Steam, one of the sole bastions of sanity when it comes to digital games distribution, has enabled region locking on games. This means if you buy a game in one territory, you can no longer use it in another territory — much like DVD region locking (but more effective, as Steam’s region locking hasn’t been cracked). With no official statement from Valve, there are two possible reasons for the region locks: Unstable currencies, like the Russian ruble, caused by the crashing price of crude oil — or maybe Valve (and publishers) are just sick of people buying games cheaply in other territories, then redeeming them in their (more expensive) home countries.
Steam’s region locks appear to have been applied early this morning, without a public announcement by Valve. One of the developers of [I]Euro Truck Simulator 2[/I], Tomáš Duda, [URL="https://twitter.com/tomasduda/status/545031478242205696"]tweeted about[/URL] a region lock affecting Russia and members of the CIS (Ukraine, Belarus, etc.) — and later, he said that similar blocks were in place for Southeast Asia and South America. As always, there’s also [URL="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=953686"]a NeoGAF thread[/URL] discussing the issue — but be warned that there’s a lot of misplaced vitriol in there. Games that were redeemed before the region lock seem to be unaffected.
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I though you couldn't anyway
This has been a thing for awhile. Valve doesnt actually set cross currency prices anyway
[QUOTE=Map in a box;46736099]This has been a thing for awhile. Valve doesnt actually set cross currency prices anyway[/QUOTE]
Article says it's about only being able to play a game where you bought it - e.g can't play a game in the U.K if you bought it in Russia. Like DVD region locking.
If it's true, wouldn't that suck if you moved country?
[QUOTE=ferrus;46736164]Article says it's about only being able to play a game where you bought it - e.g can't play a game in the U.K if you bought it in Russia. Like DVD region locking.[/QUOTE]
They're wrong as far as I can tell.
When you make a Steam account and add funds for the first time, it sets you into the region you are in at that time (and/or your billing address). If your account was made in Russia, you'd be in RUB, in the US in USD etc.
The change made now is so that someone in a cheaper selling area (t.ex Russia) aren't able to buy a game for RUB and trade it to someone in the USD zone -- basically saving the USD buyer a lot of money.
Everyone can still play their games and buy new ones using whatever zone they are in. You just can't trade them to people in other zones. So it changes nothing other than stopping people from getting games for cheaper via reselling, which Valve didn't allow in the first place.
I don't mind Region Locking because of prices as long as the game is actually available in my region.
Metal Gear Rising isn't available in my region for whatever weird reason
Fuck you steam
[IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/c8a945125cb46380862680a136777d5c.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/1f734451ed21cd8a3ab681a1372d85b1.png[/IMG]
Couldn't you just jump on a proxy and get around this..?
[QUOTE=pip12345;46737335]Fuck you steam
[IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/c8a945125cb46380862680a136777d5c.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/1f734451ed21cd8a3ab681a1372d85b1.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Wait, did you receive that before or after you bought it?
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