Region locked game and gifting

[5 Noches Con Alfredo]

I want to buy metal gear rising. Which is for some reason region locked in asia, including the country I live in. However I'm in australia right now and I'm not sure that if I buy the game here and return the the locked country will I be banned for circumventing the restrictions.

If I can get banned for that. Can I get someone from a country that isn't locked to gift me the game.

TL;DR I want to buy a region locked game but I'm scared I'll get banned when I go home

[vgifford]

I'll buy it for you in 249 days.

[Chompman]

As far as I know when you go back to the region it's blocked in then it will no longer work.

However this usually only happens when you are changing regions with a different payment method.

[5 Noches Con Alfredo]

aww that's a bummer. I guess I'll just have to download it somewhere else.

[5 Noches Con Alfredo]

Originally posted by vgifford:

I'll buy it for you in 249 days.

lol I'm good thanks

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Chompman:

As far as I know when you go back to the region it's blocked in then it will no longer work.

However this usually only happens when you are changing regions with a different payment method.

Not entirely correct. Any game that has a play IP lock set will be uninstallable and unplayable for 90 days from the point of purchase. After which, they will be playable regardless of region.

However, in order to buy a game from a specific store, you need a billing address for that store. So unless OP has an Australia billing address and payment method, they couldn't buy the game anyway, even if they are physically in Australia at the time.

[5 Noches Con Alfredo]

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

Originally posted by Chompman:

As far as I know when you go back to the region it's blocked in then it will no longer work.

However this usually only happens when you are changing regions with a different payment method.

Not entirely correct. Any game that has a play IP lock set will be uninstallable and unplayable for 90 days from the point of purchase. After which, they will be playable regardless of region.

However, in order to buy a game from a specific store, you need a billing address for that store. So unless OP has an Australia billing address and payment method, they couldn't buy the game anyway, even if they are physically in Australia at the time.

What if I buy a CDkey and redeem it here in Australia.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Granui:

What if I buy a CDkey and redeem it here in Australia.

If the key has an IP activation block on it, limiting its activation to regions where the game is sold, then it won't work. Your Steam store region would need to match one of the regions the key is valid for.

It used to be that you only needed a matching IP address region, but this hasn't been the case since around 2018.

Now, if you happened to make a new Steam account while you were physcially in Australia, meaning it would have Australia as its store region and would not have been created with a VPN, you'd be able to activate the key on that account assuming the key was valid for Australia. But you wouldn't be able to buy games directly from Steam on that account and you wouldn't be able to family share the game to your main account when you returned home. You'd have to juggle two accounts. And technically, as the purchase is made outside of Steam with a region valid account, you haven't broken any terms of service on Steam.

[JVC]

According to Fanatical's website, if you buy it from them the key should unlock in Australia.

https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/metal-gear-rising-revengeance

[The Ultimate Might]

Originally posted by vgifford:

I'll buy it for you in 249 days.

Did you buy him the game?

[June]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.