Steam is now Regionally restricted

[NuclearKangaroo]

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

games redeemed in cercain regions can no longer be played in other regions

great freaking job valve, i mean its not like people ever move out of a country


easily the worse fucking decision valve has taken in the last 5 years, is utterly disgusting and anti-customer

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

My question is what if you take your laptop (or even big boy PC) on a big trip to a another region and the trip last longer than the two week time limit for Go Offline Mode? (Is GOM still a thing?) Or, you want to buy a game with on vacation/business in another region?

Steam should just look at the person's address on file and compare to where they are. If the regions match, let the stuff work. If the regions don't match, but the computer was registered in the address's region, let them at least play their games, if not also buy new games. (Safety measures would have to be in place so no one can cheat the system by purchasing games for cheaper than what they would normally play.) Finally, there should be a way to keep (most of) your games but change your region because you moved. That one should have severe limitations but at least allow you to do it at least every so often, even if it was a hidden option and you had to contact Steam Support to do so. (Think about business people, military personnel and families, diplomats and their families.)

 

[Fappy]

Don't you just love it when companies treat their customers like criminals? If this is as bad as it looks I hope Jim calls them out on Monday.

 

[Zontar]

This is uncharacteristic of Valve. Not the being anti-consumer part, but the part in being so clearly anti-consumer. Usually the things they do that are anti-consumer are more subtle, and usually logical in some way or form. This though, this is just an all around lose for the consumer.

This also hurts my March Mayem. I didn't eliminate them in the first few rounds, now I've done messed up for sure.

 

[Magicite Spring]

Edit: I understend why they are doing Th is I'm just not sure it's the best way to combat price scalping don't know what would be better though

 

[Rayce Archer]

If you move, you could always use a proxy. This is just to keep people from buying outside region and has been implemented in the laziest, most ham-fisted way possible.

The obvious solution to me is to simply disable activation by manual code entry, at least for new games, although I'm sure that would still piss off a lot of people.

 

[veloper]

Shit, this is bad.

Can't support Valve this time.

 

[SoreWristed]

My previous job had me out of the country a lot, often for weeks on end. If I was still doing it, that would have meant I'd be unable to play my games on my laptop, which was often the only thing to do in the crappy hotels in the middle of nowhere.

C'mon valve, what the hell?

I hope at least you'll be able to change your region when you move.

*edit : Just read the article again, they specifically say they can't remove restrictions.

 

[Mister K]

People are so easily bought. Tell them you are selling big games for half the price and they are willingly puting on DRM leash (which Steam has always been). And only after the collar becomes too tight to breath in they start to understand.

 

[CrystalShadow]

~facepalm~

So... Now a large section of my steam library could just stop working? Why? Because I have the audacity to move countries on a regular basis!

And I thought Nintendo forcing me to keep my Wii U set to the UK was annoying. At least everything still works if I leave it set like that... >_>

I know for a fact I have no choice whatsoever on what steam is set to...
They use my IP to decide...

Ugh. Now I remember why I was looking for alternatives to steam several years ago...
I'm glad so many of my steam games actually come from humble bundle purchases where the steam key was an extra...
Between that, and my GOG collection some of my stuff may actually keep working in future...

 

[chozo_hybrid]

What about when you buy keys from GMG or Humble Bundle and stuff like that? Will it screw with those too?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well once you get as big as Valve you don't really see or care about all the ants that might end up under your boots.
Publishers want region pricing and to make the pricing stick you also need to do region lock, sure the customer might get screwed but publishers are happy which is at this point the only entity that can affect them.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Am I reading this right? Are they actually stopping people from playing games that they let them play just the day before? Do they get a refund at least?

This doesnt seem like Valve to me, theyve always been smart businessmen. I understood the reasoning behind not letting people exploit price differences between countries. But to take peoples games away after you let them pay for them? Thats just stupid!

 

[fix-the-spade]

I smell class action lawsuits, I hear and feel them, many and terrible just over the horizon.

I really hope Valve gets forced into a climb down over this, restricting future sales is one (scummy) thing, but retroactively applying it to accounts is completely another.

Of course, abandoning regional pricing would work much better...

 

[Vlado]

Did anyone notice this applies to gifts only? I still don't like it, but the intention is probably to thwart Steam market trades where you circumvent a higher price for your region by buying from somebody who got the game for cheaper. But yeah, ideally they should have left that alone.

 

[CommanderZx2]

Ah as I expected the thread is full of hyperbole and clearly people haven't actually read the post.

This is to do with gifted games rather than just games in general, such as moving your PC to another country your games will still work fine.

The reasoning behind this is simple, companies were mass buying keys at cheap rates in 3rd world locations and then selling the keys for a profit to people overseas.

Now this restriction isn't actually new, Valve spoke of this ages ago, but this is the first time they have decided to implement a block on the gifting across greatly differing price brackets.

 

[Alfador_VII]

This has been a long time coming. It's basically been forced on Valve by unauthorised key resellers like G2A and the like, who sell keys from cheaper regions in Europe and the USA (when they're not just selling stolen keys)

Even if you travel a lot it won't affect most people. Like for example games bought in the USA will work in Western Europe and vice versa.

 

[Prince of Ales]

Strangely written article. Mostly it refers to gift redemptions only, then there's a tiny paragraph saying "The restrictions may also apply to more than just gifts" (note the word "may") citing a single Reddit user. If the regional restrictions apply only to gifts, then that is a slightly different thing.

 

[Maximum Bert]

In one way Im not surprised I have never been particularly fond of steam on the other hand it is uncharacteristic of Valve to be so blatantly anti consumer as Zontar said previous they are usually more subtle about their anti consumerism practices (still dont know how they get away with the no refund policy).

It should be an age where things like DRM, regional restrictions and pricing are broken down instead Valve put them front and centre it seems I know why of course moneys involved and to hell with the consumer they can like it or lump it.

This is the problem when one company gets to much of the market share they start to get greedy. Hopefully people will start expolring other sites more to buy their PC games I find it unlikely though as many will willingly accept such BS simply because of the well im ok attitude so who cares (they care when it effects them).

This is unlikely to affect me but its a horrible decision badly implemented by Valve and is just them testing the waters of peoples (imo undeserved) goodwill toward them. I thought Nintendo was backward for keeping regional locking in place but damn if Valve havent one upped them with this.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Did anyone notice this applies to gifts only? I still don't like it, but the intention is probably to thwart Steam market trades where you circumvent a higher price for your region by buying from somebody who got the game for cheaper. But yeah, ideally they should have left that alone.

I was beginning to think I was taking crazy pills, since no one else seemed to notice the fact that it only applies to gift. It is not like this is a new problem for Steam either, remember a few years back when they suspended accounts that gifted too many games from low price regions to loads of accounts in high price regions?

It isn't ideal by any means, but considering how the gifting system has been exploited, I can't really blame Valve.