Valve Cracks Down on Trading - Region Locks Activated in Several Games

[Qtis]

Ah, the good features of GoG.com are becoming clearer and clearer. Oh well, welcome to the console gen #PCmasterrace

 

[the_randomizer]

Ah, the good features of GoG.com are becoming clearer and clearer. Oh well, welcome to the console gen #PCmasterrace

GoG's is an awesome place to get games too

 

[Pedeadstrian]

GoG's is an awesome place to get games too

So are torrent sites. I'd rather trust a torrent from the site REDACTED than trust some dude in Russia with my monies.

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

Foxi4 I can confirm that Metal Gear Rising Revengeance had a cheaper package to Central and South Americas at least at launch, and it was region locked too.

 

[PewnyPL]

*laughs*
Alright people, there is one major flaw in this whole news and comments. It's not VALVE who region locked the games. They don't care. It's the developers or publishers of a given game that CAN do it. So if a publisher goes 'oh noes, we are losing monies by europeans buying our game in russia!' they can just request Valve to add a region lock to the game.
Valve gives the option to region lock games because of LEGAL REASONS. Skyrim is a good example. Originally you couldn't buy Skyrim on Steam in Poland. That's kinda funny for a Steamworks game right? But it's because there was an official polish publisher. So they just went "OK, just block this game from being bought, but allow to activate the CD-Key".

 

[CathyRina]

Region lock is bullshit.
But as far as I saw no games I care about were listed in the main post. I hope it stays that way.

 

[AlanJohn]

Well at least that indian guy will finally stop bragging me how he earns hundreds via steam trades.

 

[Mario92]

I guess everyone is sick of region locking stuff and especially $1=1€ bshit but let's be frank here: there are some regions in world that simply can't handle same prices most US/EU countries does and if games are as pricey there that they are on other countries they simply pirate the shit out of literally everything. Actually for those countries I wouldn't mind about region locking and they usually are if talking about redeeming product key. If you buy it while on vacation however it should activate if steam detects you are in that country so that's exactly how it should go as you shouldn't fear if game works if you buy it while visiting other country. Hint hint Nintendo!

Those taking advantage of those regions should be ashamed and this is also why I'm againts mass trading and buying keys from key resellers. On the other hand that euro milking should seriously stop. Especially EA and Activision are really bad at this as after they do that ridiculous $1=1€ conversion they usually lower US price down the line but keep EU price the same for all eternity which means something like Dead Space 2 ($20, 30€) and COD:BO ($40, 60€) having ridiculous price differences with no explanation for it!

I actually got pretty mad when I realised I would have to pay 8€ more of Payday 2 compared to US so I just bought it from Amazon.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Pardon me if this is a repost or something, I only skimmed the thread.

Didn't this have to do more with the pricing of the games more than anything? Like, I know the Euro is something like $1.4 USD and the GBP is like...$1.70 USD I think, so I would assume developers/Valve wouldn't want someone from the EU or wherever to trade XYZ for a US copy of a game because it's $10+ cheaper (Which I think should be perfectly fine, but meh devs want dem monies yo ).

And I suppose we don't know if it's Valve or the Devs started doing this either, until an official statement appears anyways, but I would assume if it were Valve they would region lock all of their games as well as these others as that's just sort of how they work....

 

[Foxi4]

*laughs*

Alright people, there is one major flaw in this whole news and comments. It's not VALVE who region locked the games. They don't care. It's the developers or publishers of a given game that CAN do it. So if a publisher goes 'oh noes, we are losing monies by europeans buying our game in russia!' they can just request Valve to add a region lock to the game.

Valve gives the option to region lock games because of LEGAL REASONS. Skyrim is a good example. Originally you couldn't buy Skyrim on Steam in Poland. That's kinda funny for a Steamworks game right? But it's because there was an official polish publisher. So they just went "OK, just block this game from being bought, but allow to activate the CD-Key".

That's not the point PewnyPL - they can "Region Lock" games to their heart's content if they feel that it's necessary, they have been for the last two years or so, but "Region Locking" a game after it was released, meaning retroactively, shouldn't even be an option given to the publishers.

Imagine a situation where you and one of your buddies from, say, the U.S. trade a game - you get him something, he gets you something in return, just because. Or that you give him a game gift because it's his birthday - doesn't matter. Everything's fine and dandy, you're both happy with the gifting system... Except the game/s that was/were traded stop working overnight because some suit felt like it. Unlikely scenario? No, it isn't - I have a girlfriend in the UK for example and we buy each other games online - we could've been affected by this if we used Steam. This casts a shadow of doubt on the entire gifting system because unless the person is in the same region, buying a gift suddenly becomes risky.

That's absolutely unacceptable. One of the primary rules of Roman law was "lex retro non agit" - this means "law does not work backwards in time". You cannot introduce a new policy and penalize people for breaking it prior to its introduction - it wasn't forbidden so they did it. Each and every affected person should be compensated by getting a game in their region and should be profusely apologized to, that's the point.

When something is on your account, it's on your account, period. You got it, good game Johnny. No changes to it should be possible whatsoever. When I buy a physical copy of the game, it doesn't magically change regions before I open it, regardless of where I got it from. I'm pretty sure that if Valve wants to continue promoting Steam as a reliable service, they should stop doing such stunts. People don't want their games to become region locked overnight without their knowledge or consent.

 

[PewnyPL]

Imagine a situation where you and one of your buddies from, say, the U.S. trade a game - you get him something, he gets you something in return, just because. Or that you give him a game gift because it's his birthday - doesn't matter. Everything's fine and dandy, you're both happy with the gifting system... Except the game/s that was/were traded stop working overnight because some suit felt like it.

Oh, THAT'S what you meant by retroactive. I thought that you meant that an un-redeemed gift would do that (as in, one in the inventory). In that case it IS bullcrap.

In that case, I kinda need to restate one thing, adding a STORE restriction, without affecting ALREADY BOUGHT AND REDEEMED games, that's something that is understandable under what I said. But if it's also games that were already redeemed, then no, that's just wrong and should not be done.

 

[Foxi4]

Oh, THAT'S what you meant by retroactive. I thought that you meant that an un-redeemed gift would do that (as in, one in the inventory). In that case it IS bullcrap.

In that case, I kinda need to restate one thing, adding a STORE restriction, without affecting ALREADY BOUGHT AND REDEEMED games, that's something that is understandable under what I said. But if it's also games that were already redeemed, then no, that's just wrong and should not be done.

Even when the gift is in the Inventory, it shouldn't be affected. It doesn't matter if I've opened a game or not, it's my game, isn't it? I just haven't played it yet because, I don't know, I didn't have time that night.

I'm okay with Store restrictions, fair enough (even though I think they're dumb anyways), I'm not okay with altering already purchased games. I'm glad that we're on the same page.

 

[PewnyPL]

Even when the gift is in the Inventory, it shouldn't be affected. It doesn't matter if I've opened a game or not, it's my game, isn't it? I just haven't played it yet because, I don't know, I didn't have time that night.

I'm okay with Store restrictions, fair enough, even though I think they're dumb anyways. I'm not okay with altering already purchased games. I'm glad that we're on the same page.

True, true, however, when the game is in your inventory it's not really like a game you own. It was kinda a case in 2012 (or was it 2011, not sure) during winter sale event, where people could get games for free (the whole coal thing). There were people from USA who got European version of Skyrim and vice versa, and a lot of other "So, I got a game from another region" stuff. Valve never changed it and I doubt they will.

 

[Foxi4]

True, true, however, when the game is in your inventory it's not really like a game you own. It was kinda a case in 2012 (or was it 2011, not sure) during winter sale event, where people could get games for free (the whole coal thing). There were people from USA who got European version of Skyrim and vice versa, and a lot of other "So, I got a game from another region" stuff. Valve never changed it and I doubt they will.

Oh, I'm fully understand that the system can be exploited. Thing is, I don't think those problems should be a justification for meddling with people's stuff. When something's already on a given account, it's there - leave it be. It's not like anyone "stole" the games in question - someone paid for them... just in a different region. Unless, as you mention, it's a free game, but that's a bummer for Valve and such is life.

 

[PewnyPL]

Oh, I'm fully understand that the system can be exploited. Thing is, I don't think those problems should be a justification for meddling with people's stuff. When something's already on a given account, it's there - leave it be. It's not like anyone "stole" the games in question - someone paid for them... just in a different region. Unless, as you mention, it's a free game, but that's a bummer for Valve and such is life.

Well, I think it's the first time they really ADDED regional lockout to already existing game. Usually, if you will activate/buy a game, Steam writes into the database not the ID of the game itself, but some different ID that is a combo of the game and the region (dunno how exactly to explain it, best is to look at steamdb.info and see how many times the same game may appear with a different ID). So, when they see that you have a Russian version of X and you are in Poland, BAM, the game is on the list but unplayable. Whenever they REMOVE region lockout, they actually add another ID for the game (it kinda happened with Skyrim, as not only it's in the store now for Poland, and the buy-game ID (one that shows when you hover over the 'add to cart' button) is the same as the USA one, I can play my USA friend's copy via family sharing), and set everyone's game to that new ID. Here however, they seem to have added restrictions to alreayd existing IDs, instead of creating new ones. It MAY have been a mistake and they will fix it, but guess we will have to wait and see.

 

[Kayot]

Buy legitimately -> Things Change -> You're Screwed

Pirate -> There is no second step...

People don't understand. You're not buying games from Valve (publishers etc). You're buying licenses. The difference between owning a physical copy and a digital copy is; the digital copy CAN enforce it's EULA. That's always been my problem with Steam and iTunes etc. Even if I'm payed back when some publisher/band/artist has a fit and revokes all the licenses, I've still lost out. Better to preserve culture the pirate way. I can be the bad guy if it means my grand-children can play gamecube games. DRM hurts us all.

 

[Attila13]

Fuck you steam.
Enough said.

 

[Foxi4]

Glory be to Lord Gaben! Some of the affected games have been unlocked! The main post has been updated, the names of the now-unlocked games have been struck-through.

 

[Mario92]

Just like to point out that steam already has region locking ability to items in steam inventory. Many free to play title items are like this - especially ones that got distributed last holiday sale card crafting. This is why it's bit stupid that already activated games are being locked instead of new lisences in the inventories.

 

[FAST6191]

I shall use this as an example of why I can continue to ignore Steam.