Steam regional restriction on purchase, WHY?

[marmanlive]

Hi,

almost every time when I want to purchase a favorite game of mine via Steam I get the following notice,

"Notice: This product is only for distribution in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldavia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Customers will be able to activate and play this game only in these countries."

1. Why do I get this message?
2. What is that restriction for? I pay for the game and I need to access it from wherever I go... can anyone xplain and provide the reasoning behind it?
IT IS NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. Is there ever an option to get an International Steam account (if available) to bypass this regional restrictions?

Thanks

[Black Blade]

If i am not wrong were you are there is a lower price then most places in the world, as of that the publisher wants to block users from going there buying games for really low prices then going somewhere else and sell them or get them for much much lower price

For now there is no way to buy a full account to allow you to play any were from Steam it self, i do think you may find a copy of a game that will allow you to play any were from other sites outside of Steam but i am not 100% sure

And some and some user all ready ask to be able to buy games in full price to allow them to play there games every were, and not just in that area, hopefully something abut that will be done soon to allow that

[HLCinSC]

Are those all members of the Russian Trade Federation or whatever it's called?

[Satoru]

Games are region restricted by publishers

Go yell at them

[marmanlive]

The countries listed in the notice are all former USSR members. But this does not explain the restriction being actual for all of them, of course, if there are no any other political-based issues and policies behind the decision dictated by US. We did not request to buy the games at their half or lower price. It is really ridiculous, imaging buying a t-shirt at a discount then being forbidden to cross the EU border while wearing it...))))))

And of course we can always get the hard copies or sometimes the digital downloads outside of the Steam service (BTW - there are a lot of resources out there in case Steam thinks he is the most favorable one...at least official stores of the publishers would do the trick...)) and surely they are going to lose users after some time. For now, I know some guys who are eager to spend real money to enlarge their collection but outside Steam as they're about to quit Steam for some service issues of that type.

How it feels now, ah ...))))?!

[Black Blade]

I do not think Steam is doing it to just be bad, i do think in some point they will allow to buy games that are ROW from these countries, why they do not do it now? i really have no clue

But i do think you can buy ROW copies from other stores and active on Steam as a ROW

[Silicon Vampire]

Publishers set region restrictions. Ask them.