90 days region unlock ?

[I AM SYNTH]

hi everyones, as the title says, i need to know more about the 90 days region unlock
1 - fake or true ?
2 - sources ?
3 - how does it work ?

thanks for your answers.

[I AM SYNTH]

anyone ?

[Ogami]

1. True

2. Nothing offical, only user observations but i can confirm it myself. Often bought regionlocked games during the holidays and activated them on my account.
For example all the Wolfenstein games who are geolocked in Germany and cant be activated/played in their uncensored versions.
After 90 days i could install and play them like normal on my German Steam account.
Overall i did it with around 20 region locked games by now.

3. Simple, if you buy a game while you are in another country and that game is region locked to that country you can only download/install/play the game as long as you in that country.
If you try it in another country you get a error message.
But 90 days after being added to your library the game will download/install/play like any other game without any restrictions no matter where you are in the world.

[I AM SYNTH]

Originally posted by Ogami:

1. True

2. Nothing offical, only user observations but i can confirm it myself. Often bought regionlocked games during the holidays and activated them on my account.
For example all the Wolfenstein games who are geolocked in Germany and cant be activated/played in their uncensored versions.
After 90 days i could install and play them like normal on my German Steam account.
Overall i did it with around 20 region locked games by now.

3. Simple, if you buy a game while you are in another country and that game is region locked to that country you can only download/install/play the game as long as you in that country.
If you try it in another country you get a error message.
But 90 days after being added to your library the game will download/install/play like any other game without any restrictions.

ty man, but does it unlock also languages restriction ?

[Ogami]

Originally posted by I AM SYNTH:

ty man, but does it unlock also languages restriction ?

No. Some publishers only release certain languages in some countries, for example Ubisoft or Activision only add the Russian or Chinese language for releases in the eastern regions.

While those games will be playable after 90 days outside of those restricted countries, the languages stay restricted to only those available in that version of the game.

[I AM SYNTH]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by I AM SYNTH:

ty man, but does it unlock also languages restriction ?

No. Some publishers only release certain languages in some countries, for example Ubisoft or Activision only add the Russian language for releases over there.

While those games will be playable after 90 days outside of Russia the languages stay restricted to only those available in that version of the game.

thanks for your replys

well now just gotta wait...

[Shadow]

I got a gift while I was in Ukraine and now when I got home in Romania I get the message that the specific game isn't available in my territory. Will it dissapear in 90 days?

[]|[-Gaben-]|[]

Originally posted by interlopul:

I got a gift while I was in Ukraine and now when I got home in Romania I get the message that the specific game isn't available in my territory. Will it dissapear in 90 days?

no, the gift remains perminantly locked to the store/ user country who gifted it to you.
this only applies to games bought in a country/keys.
:|
in terms of the lock i think its fair personally. but it does suck when you are gifted it, as its sometimes hard to tell if it's a region locked game.

[mariogames]

'

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by |-GabeN-|:

but it does suck when you are gifted it, as its sometimes hard to tell if it's a region locked game.

The purchaser is told that upon checkout.

[]|[-Gaben-]|[]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by |-GabeN-|:

but it does suck when you are gifted it, as its sometimes hard to tell if it's a region locked game.

The purchaser is told that upon checkout.

:qr:

oh i didnt know that.

[Red[Noise_Bomb]]

Sorry for necro, but I would like to clarify something. There are two types of locks for steam gifts: games that can only be REDEEMED in certain countries and games that can only be PLAYED in certain countries. I know that this 90-days rule applies after the game is activated. so, will this rule work with both types of restrictions or it concerns only REDEEM restriction case?

[Ogami]

Both, but of course you need to be able to activate the game in the first place.
The 90 days timer only starts after a game is added to your library so if its a restricted Steam key that cant be activated in your current region then there is really nothing you can do about it.
It will never activate, no matter how much time has passed.

[I AM SYNTH]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Both, but of course you need to be able to activate the game in the first place.
The 90 days timer only starts after a game is added to your library so if its a restricted Steam key that cant be activated in your current region then there is really nothing you can do about it.
It will never activate, no matter how much time has passed.

damn this thread is still active,
i asked first because i had bought prototype 2 on a website but instead of a general copy, i got a russian one. so the game was playable but not in my language, it is in russian and does support english apprently, (wasn't able to get to work with eng language)

anyway i now know that the region unlock only enables you to play outside of region, but it won't unlock the copy for it to became a what i call general one

[Red[Noise_Bomb]]

I have quite a different problem. I am in CIS currently (lived there more than 18 years) and I'm about to get a CIS restricted gift, the game of which can be PLAYED only in CIS. But most of the time I live in Europe. This why I'm asking. There is no problem activating the gift, but there is one with actually playing it. Anyways, thank you, guys, for your unexpected responses. Much appreciated!

[]|[-Gaben-]|[]

Originally posted by RedNoise_Bomb:

I have quite a different problem. I am in CIS currently (lived there more than 18 years) and I'm about to get a CIS restricted gift, the game of which can be PLAYED only in CIS. But most of the time I live in Europe. This why I'm asking. There is no problem activating the gift, but there is one with actually playing it. Anyways, thank you, guys, for your unexpected responses. Much appreciated!

if you live in cis it will work other areas it will not work. unless a vpn is used so i've heard from other threads over the years, (i've never tried this). but i am not condoning this nor would a recommend.
but im sure if you bought it in the region you live for most of the time, then i don't see why it's a bad thing. i would only assume steam would get upset if you were buying from 3rd party sites for low cost etc. im pretty sure there have been more restrictions put up to stop that in recent years.