why some game developers has region locked for their games

[Shinpool]

i dont understand, why they apply some region locked for certain countries.

if they dont region locked their games unless the country's government said that their game is restricted, they would get more profit. here i cant buy final fantasy series, unless ff vii, this i can buy, but the rest nah. also no Path of Exile here, tho i understand why the dev apply the region locked for PoE in China. but this means i have to go back to my country in order to play which is inconvenient.

I cant get MGR Revengeance, Dragon Quest Heroes, and MGS Phantom Pain. How i wish the devs changed their mind.

[Satoru]

Depends on the game. Some games dont have license to operate in specific regions. Other times its a publishing issue. The reasons are vaired and complicated.

For example the retail version of BO2 in Poland, only has polish if activated on Steam because 1C got the licensing rights by doing teh polish translation, and in return got exclusive language rights via retail

Path of Exile likely isnt available in China since they didn't get government approval (which is code for didnt bribe the correct officials with enough money/cars/prostitutes)

FF series has various things where their servers are already region locked via specific accounts so the games tehmselves are region locked

In the old days GFWL were not sold in regions where GFWL was not 'officially' supported, despite the fact that the games pretty much worked anyway

Again the reasons are so varied and such that there is no 'one' reason why.

[Shinpool]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Depends on the game. Some games dont have license to operate in specific regions. Other times its a publishing issue. The reasons are vaired and complicated.

For example the retail version of BO2 in Poland, only has polish if activated on Steam because 1C got the licensing rights by doing teh polish translation, and in return got exclusive language rights via retail

Path of Exile likely isnt available in China since they didn't get government approval (which is code for didnt bribe the correct officials with enough money/cars/prostitutes)

FF series has various things where their servers are already region locked via specific accounts so the games tehmselves are region locked

In the old days GFWL were not sold in regions where GFWL was not 'officially' supported, despite the fact that the games pretty much worked anyway

Again the reasons are so varied and such that there is no 'one' reason why.

when you mentioned FF servers, what do you mean by it? FF series are not an online games, with the exception of FF 14. Or you are talking about FF 14?

about PoE thats bullseye, either the dev didnt know whom to bribe or the local government afraid that their local mmo games will lose popularity, which will be 100% going to happen. China's game industry is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up.

I have 1 question, lets say my friend send me a gift which he bought in US, can I activate the game in China?

[Satoru]

Originally posted by deadpooh!?:

when you mentioned FF servers, what do you mean by it? FF series are not an online games, with the exception of FF 14. Or you are talking about FF 14?

Basically I was just talking about FF14.

I have 1 question, lets say my friend send me a gift which he bought in US, can I activate the game in China?

It will 'probably' work but it might depend on the game. As an example, many games are delayed for release in Japan. So if a game is release din North America but is not released in Japan, I can still gift it to a person in Japan, they can actigate it. But steam will still say "You're in japan, you can't play the game yet". Despite it being an "American" vesrion.

So the answer is 'kinda sorta but depends'. Not the clearest answer but I don't want to give you wrong information.

[Shinpool]

oh boy, its gonna be like gambling. now i need to think again about buying the game as gift. anyway, thanks for your response mate

[freebird123456789]

that explainantions are all bullcrap - it's all about the money. the prices for games vary on steam depending on the region. e.g. Russians have the lowest prices while western regions/countries like NA/EU/JP have more expensive prices. this allowed people from low price countries to abuse the system, by buying game gifts for cheap for Western people. the western guy pays a little more than the RU price for instance and still saves 80%+, the russian trader gets a little extra payment and can buy games for himself. both parties profit, while the publishers don't make any money. as this became common practice on Steam, Valve decided to implement region locks for game gift, to prevent further abuse.

[Shinpool]

Originally posted by freebird123456789:

that explainantions are all bullcrap - it's all about the money. the prices for games vary on steam depending on the region. e.g. Russians have the lowest prices while western regions/countries like NA/EU/JP have more expensive prices. this allowed people from low price countries to abuse the system, by buying game gifts for cheap for Western people. the western guy pays a little more than the RU price for instance and still saves 80%+, the russian trader gets a little extra payment and can buy games for himself. both parties profit, while the publishers don't make any money. as this became common practice on Steam, Valve decided to implement region locks for game gift, to prevent further abuse.

this explanation if widely known. what i want to know is why some games arent available in certain countries, like FF series, Metal Gear Rising, PoE in China. now steam has implemented the currency change and automatically region locked every country which has their local currency on steam. but, after all these, there are some games that arent available without any reasons (that i know of) in certain country.

well actually i saw some online store in china still selling russian cd keys. and the offer help to activate the game by "lending" them the buyer steam's account and pass, i guess the seller has friends in russia, so they will log in into the buyer account in russia and activate the game, and after that the buyer should change the password. kinda crazy.

[freebird123456789]

^ some publishers havent made up their minds yet to set the game prices for some regions which is why some countries cannot buy game in their local steam store in their local currencies.

never give out your steam account login to some stranger. I've seen some sellers offer a brand new steam account with a certain game in the library. they basically create a new steam account, buy the game in the store and pass on the steam login details. the buyer can log into that account, enable familiy sharing and play that game or play in the new account.

[Shinpool]

Originally posted by freebird123456789:

^ some publishers havent made up their minds yet to set the game prices for some regions which is why some countries cannot buy game in their local steam store in their local currencies.

never give out your steam account login to some stranger. I've seen some sellers offer a brand new steam account with a certain game in the library. they basically create a new steam account, buy the game in the store and pass on the steam login details. the buyer can log into that account, enable familiy sharing and play that game or play in the new account.

nah, man i am not gonna give my acc credential to some stranger. that is a good idea, but i am not planning to creat more than acc.

that might be the reasons, but i cant even find the store page for those games. frustrating sometimes, fortunately holiday is coming, so i can buy it in my country.

[«✮ঔৣ Akumaঔৣ✮»]

different prices? I couldn't care less about that. I want the game, i tried to use vpn, not becuase i want a game to be cheaper, i tried to get it overall since it was ,,unavailable in your country'' but at the end of the day you would need a new payment method, which was the point i aborted the whole try. I wish i could just get the games i want, ven if i have to pay the highest price on the market for it

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by «✮ঔৣ Akumaঔৣ✮»:

different prices? I couldn't care less about that. I want the game, i tried to use vpn, not becuase i want a game to be cheaper, i tried to get it overall since it was ,,unavailable in your country'' but at the end of the day you would need a new payment method, which was the point i aborted the whole try. I wish i could just get the games i want, ven if i have to pay the highest price on the market for it

Are you referring to the new adult games restriction Germany put into place last year?

That had nothing to do with Valve.

[Wren]

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