Major warning: Do not buy this game if it does not appear in the Steam Store for your region.

[igniz12]

Update 10th Jan---Game released.

For now if you can somehow manage to get this game on your Steam games list it will run. How to do that is discussed already in this thread. Use http://isthereanydeal.com to find a retailer that will sell you the copy of the game without region restrictions. Most retailers will prevent you from buying the game if you try to buy it from a restricted region, there are ways around this but you're better off just looking for somebody to sell you the copy without jumping through hoops.

How long you will be able to play the game is another matter. Even though its playable now, that might change in the future. Seeing how strict they wish to be with this region lock thing, I wouldnt put it pass them to go ahead and implement the final layer of region locking which will prevent you from playing the game unless you use a VPN. Be prepared to have your money go down the drain if you wish to risk it is all I'll say.



All efforts to get this game truly region locked have ground to a halt.


--------
So in the last day Konami has added a restriction on the MGR app that refuses to activate the games on your account if you're in one of the region restricted countries, regardless of where you bought the game from.


AllowPurchaseFromRestrictedCountries - No
PurchaseRestrictedCountries expand - AF BD BT BN KH CN HK IN ID JP KR LA MO MY MV MN NP PK PH SG LK TW TH VN IE

Source: http://steamdb.info/sub/36077/#section_info


This means that even if managed to buy the US version of the game or got gifted the US version of the game you may not be able to activate the game on your account :/

Basically the whole of Asia is screwed(including Japan...wtf) and Ireland stands at the sole UE country on the list(double wtf).....Wth Konami?! How can anyone be so adversed to earning money? This is beyond ridiculous now. People need to start bombarding Konami's twitter account for answers.

What does this mean for you? Well if you are in one of the region restricted countries but you managed to buy the game elsewhere but did not recieve your keys immediately or before the change was implemented, your purchase is now basically null and void! Money down the drain essentially. Even if you bought the game before this change was made and are waiting for your keys to arrive you are at risk since now as all the keys given out will have this amendment made to them.

I managed to buy mine and activate it before the change occured and I already have the game preloaded but idk if they will even let me play the game since Im in a region restricted country.

This is just crazy on all levels. Maybe someone with more experience will be able to give better answers cause I have never had to deal with something so obtuse in my years on Steam.........Holy hell Konami! You better hope Kojima keeps cranking those MGS games or your spiral into irrelevancy will be swift and unremarkable.....

Like I said, people need to start demanding answers from Konami on twitter or FB or w/e. Potentially huge amount of customers with dud keys now :(


More info from Gaf:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=736471&page=21

Post #1043


http://savygamer.co.uk/2014/01/05/konamis-consumer-hostile-region-locking-is-a-bad-thing/


Some possible good news perhaps.....
https://twitter.com/PG_jp/status/420076381473488896

[Captain Picard]

I bought a copy in the EU1 can i gift that copy to a friend in the US or brazil or russia? And can they activate it?

[Zardax]

Originally posted by Cloonaid:

I bought a copy in the EU1 can i gift that copy to a friend in the US or brazil or russia? And can they activate it?

Yeah they can .

[igniz12]

Cross region trading is not allowed so no.

AllowCrossRegionTradingAndGifting - No

You can send him the Steam key maybe but if you try to gift someone the game who is not from the same region you will not be able to :/

[rikiohipman]

Purchase Restricted Countries

AF Afghanistan
BD Bangladesh
BT Bhutan
BN Brunei Darussalam
KH Cambodia
CN China
HK Hong Kong
IN India
ID Indonesia
JP Japan
KR Korea, Republic of
LA Lao People's Democratic Republic
MO Macau
MY Malaysia
MV Maldives
MN Mongolia
NP Nepal
PK Pakistan
PH Philippines
SG Singapore
LK Sri Lanka
TW Taiwan
TH Thailand
VN Vietnam
IE Ireland

ouchy

[Zardax]

Originally posted by igniz12:

Cross region trading is not allowed so no.

AllowCrossRegionTradingAndGifting - No

You can send him the Steam key maybe but if you try to gift someone the game who is not from the same region you will not be able to :/

My friend from US gifted me the game a while ago and it activated just fine , and I'm from EU .

[ShaDoW]

Why the hell did they restricted the game in Japan?

[igniz12]

Originally posted by Zardax:

Originally posted by igniz12:

Cross region trading is not allowed so no.

AllowCrossRegionTradingAndGifting - No

You can send him the Steam key maybe but if you try to gift someone the game who is not from the same region you will not be able to :/

My friend from US gifted me the game a while ago and it activated just fine , and I'm from EU .

*Shrugs* If you're not in the region restricted countires then I dont think you have anything to worry about. Only hard evidence of region restrictions is RUS/South American versions being gifting locked. Ayway Im talking about countries with region restrictions, not about the rest. As long as you're not under those countries listed maybe you can get away with it.

[Comrade Suhov]

Some do speculate that AllowCrossRegionTradingAndGifting - No will also mean a launch lock as steam store for South America and Russia+CIS countries says that "This game will only be playable in xxx". I'm not going to risk buying a region-locked game for myself.

[igniz12]

More info from Gaf:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=736471&page=21

Post #1043

[Dfactor]

If GFWL games are region blocked - that I can undesrtand. But this... this is simply stupid.

[AlucarD]

wtf are you serious o_O japan ???? Do they hate steam or PC gaming over there ?! Or is evil Sony behind this ? xD

[Nakari]

Originally posted by AlucarD >:):

wtf are you serious o_O japan ???? Do they hate steam or PC gaming over there ?! Or is evil Sony behind this ? xD

Actually, PC gaming is a small market over in Japan. Can't say I know why, though.

[AlucarD]

I watched a documentary some years ago where they said that japanese people are very used to consoles because they dont want to deal with PCs and drivers and updates, they work a lot during the day and all they want is to go home fire up a console and game away I can understand that :D PC gaming was considered for geeks years ago but finally it opens up with steam and, big picture and with the upcoming steam boxes but still... there are also a ton of awesome japanese console and PC games that never made it to europe or USA :[ one of these I can remember was Parasite Eve 1 which never came to europe but to North America and I learned about it after PE2 was released in Europe :D but that was back during my oldschool Playstation golden days :X

[Ellen]

That is really bad, here I thought that the whole region restriction business couldn't get any worse (as I live in a region where it is quite frequent too.). I symphatise with those who cannot get this because of Publisher shenanigans. I hope they reconsider, but that I doubt that will be anytime soon.

[AlucarD]

I also deal with a lot of this weird BS here in eastern europe romania :[ for example most of the Games for Windows Live games are locked away from Steam like for example Lost Planet 2, Ace Combat Assault Horizon and so on but strangely enough if you go here to one of the stores you can buy the retail version of these games and they play fine even MP :D I played the hell out of the retail version of Lost Planet 2 on GFWL but its just locked away from steam WTFFFF, LP1 and LP3 are available thou but they are not GFWL. And the biggest BS is the freakin region lock on the Xbox 360 seriously that one needs to go ASAP.... it locks away Resident Evil Code Veronica HD away from my region, I could cry :[ and that one is digital download only no retail version available, but thats freakin MS what can I do :S Not such a BS on the new consoles or on any sony console...