Both of those games use GFWL, and for whatever inexcusable reason, it isn't allowed to be used in many countries. You should also notice that you can't get BulletStorm or Age of Empires Online, for examples. What country do you reign from?
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Actually, they should ban GFWL in every country. That way games would have to move away from it... LOL!
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Not nessecarily to do with Batman or GFWL games, theres local laws to abide by - for example Germany doesn't allow the x-ray kill cams in Sniper Elite V2, then i think there was a game a while ago that got banned in (i think) Australia for violence. Then there the publisher's choice, if they dont want the game to be given to people they dont HAVE to sell it there and so they block sale by steam.
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In Germany the legal issue is a bit difficult. There are very very very few games that really can't be sold (and I think Sniper Elite V2 isn't one of them). The problem is, that many violent games are "indexed" (restricted to adults) and a shop has to offer several levels of security to sell stuff that is not intended for minors. The first thing they have to do is verifying the age of their users/buyers. Steam doesn't do that and didn't bother to change anything in the past, so they simply don't sell adult stuff.
However I've read that this might change soon to a change in politics. It may be that German law will require online shops to verify the age of their users even for games that are restricted to 12+ years or 16+ years. This would force Steam to develop an age-verification or Valve may not sell almost any game in Germany.
Games that are distrained in Germany may still have a cut version that can be sold.
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Yea i know that theres not many games that are banned on legal reasons but the x-ray kills is blocked - see the details - but legal grounds are one reason why some games are region restricted just saying.
And like you said, the government tends to allow a cut / restricted version to be sold.
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The x-ray kills are cut due to the publisher, who fears that the title may become indexed.
As far as I know Sniper Elite v2 (uncut international version) is not yet rated in Germany. It might never be, since the publisher denies reselling any international version to Germany. Otherwise it might even get banned, though I think this would most certainly happen due to its WWII references and not the x-rays.
Most publishers truncate their products for the German market to prevent selling difficulties. There is no law that forces them to do so. You can even sell your product, if it is indexed - it is just extremely hard (e.g. minors must not be able to see an advertisement for it etc). So when you say that legal grounds are the reason for region restriction in Germany, it is a bit onesided. The publishers just don't want to deal with a different law, since they are quite understandable afraid of making less money.
TL;DR: I just wanted to stress out, that in most cases it really is the publisher or Steam itself, that is responsible for the region restriction.
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Because some publishers are greedy sons of bithces who don't want to sell games at regional prices.
That's my 1000th comment and I am satisfied with it.
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it's not only publisher or region. for example in germany and france there are some special laws that are very restricted for games, what you can have or not (nazi stuff in GER, english language in FR, and so on). so this is the main problem, in my opinion.
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You know how publishers support the pirate scene? They put their game on GFWL so some people are forced to pirate it since its impossible for them to legally play it.
Its an awesome plan :D They support piracy (by using GFWL) and at the same time blame it for bad sales. Dint know what they achieve with this really.
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GFWL logic : Tries to prevent piracy with ridiculous service..... Blocks people to actually buy the game in a legit way , therefore forcing them to pirate the said game....
After these idiocies , I can't take the rants against piracy from those publishers seriously. Treat those regions ( like mine ) as thieves...then expect me to feel for their money loss which they caused in the first place ? .... I wonder what kind of retard make these decisions.
I would've bought the Batman : Arkham City DLCs if they weren't blocked on my region...Who's fault is that if I have to find ''other'' ways to get the damn things...?
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''GFWL logic : Tries to prevent piracy with ridiculous service..... Blocks people to actually buy the game in a legit way , therefore forcing them to pirate the said game....''
I have no problem with GFWL.
I never understood why people bitched that much about it.
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Maybe that's because you live in Canada while wowlock lives in Turkey. Can't imagine a person who doesn't understand such a simple thing.
In my country GFWL was shit for years since it's launch. They didn't care for years, I will not care either - ever. This service doesn't exist in my eyes. Period.
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That is the problem. Selective service they provide.... while causing the reasons of their own blockings...
As Pyta said , GFWL flat out ignored those regions they blocked for whatever excuse they want and continue to blame those regions for their failures on service....
It is easy to blame a region for harboring ''Thieves'' and not worry about providing a quality service since it will spare them more money than they want to spend.
It is a sad thing that these shameful events go under the radar for those in your region or US ( although they have their own problems) but it cannot be fixed unless people voice their displeasure with this Joke of a service.
I know this system turned off thousands of people from games with great potential like Gotham City Imposters... and this is neither first nor will be the last....
Until GFWL get it's act together...you will continue to hear this ''bitchings'' you so nicely put it....
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İ dont understanf this stiation. I live in turkey and in steam i cant buy dirt 3 and saint row 3. Buy i saw this games in retail stores in turkey. Big game distributor aral game sell this games. If i buy saint row 3 from them how can i play it in steam also i think saint row 3 didnt work without steam.
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It's all 'bout the money
It's all 'bout the dum dum.......
Ops...
Just some publisher don't have agreement with steam and each others about it. For example - all Bethesda titles are not available in russian steam store, cause here publisher of it's games is 1c. But anyway you need to activate Bethesda games (for example Fallout NV or Skyrim) in steam, cause it didn't work without steam.
Another bad thing - russian retail Fallout and original Fallout - it's 2 different games from Steam point of view and DLC are not compatible. And we still not have Fallout NV GOTY here. So sad...
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I would be more inclined to call it Corporate Jingoism.
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Batman Arkham City not available in my region (Argentina), according to Steam
Batman Arkham City in Origin no problem for region (Argentina)
Same whit Dragon Age Origins (is not restricted region) But Dragon Age Origins Ultimate edition is restricted region. wtf?
Steam force me to buy it in Origin
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I ve actually bought Bulletstorm in my local game store, and after few hours of fighting with it, i found out i wont be able to play it because i am from Slovakia :/ They even refused to give me money back in store because (and they knew it, but didnt tell it to me!) that its written on a back side of the cover that it doesnt work in many countries :( So that was my 1. and last game from GFWL. Bulletstorm is still next to me on the bookshelf. :/
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This weekend there is a promo for the Batman games.
Unfortunately, Arkham City is not available in my region. Also I noticed that the recently launched Toy Soldiers is also unavailable.
Why is that?
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