If it ends up being true we may as well kiss SG goodbye. When locks were manual devs / publishers would eventually just lock cheaper regions - but if it goes automatically for everything it means that if you buy a copy in EU2 you may not gift it to EU1 or US for example, even if all 3 have similar prices. And I guess most devs / publishers will stick to automatical settings, same as they did (hence not locking) before.
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I've been wondering this as well, all I can say for sure is that the tag was applied to MOW: assault squad 2 which I wanted to get for myself and a mate, however I ended up sending him the cash for the game since steamdb noted it wasn't tradable cross region (my friend being in the US and myself being in EU) BUT after purchasing a gift copy to see what'll happen I was infact able to send it to other people, i'm not sure if they would be able to accept the gift but seeing as I was able to select the "send" option and choose which contact to send it to without anything being greyed out I'm led to believe that you are indeed right when it comes to only certain regions being affected by it despite steamdb stating otherwise.
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Huh? So EU2 will get EU1 prices? There are not many differences atm but some older games are cheaper in EU2 atm
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There is something weird about region locks on steam. There is this FPS game from AeriaGames called Alliance of Valiant Arms.
This game is region locked in some countries on Steam. However if you go to the Aeria website and download their launcher, the game is not region locked.
It is even more weird because in this specific game, there is a cash shop item with the brazilian flag (and flags from other countries too), but the game itself is blocked on the Steam Store for brazilians.
It looks like the region lock was not intended by the developer, but by valve...
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Maplestory is locked on Steam for me (can't even use Steamdb install link for it), but I've played it before through the normal download.
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king is based on stolen accounts :|, some prices are lower then russian's price roflmao
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Why do you think their games have a big % of chargeback ? :V
Ho visto tanti casi di gift venduti a 5€, quando il prezzo più basso mai raggiunto in russia\filippine\brasile è 8€ (i numeri sono a caso, è un esempio)
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That simply isn't true, there might be scammers using Kinguin but it isn't "based on stolen accounts" as you stated.
To my understanding (I used to deal with a lot of traders that got tired of ST and started selling on Kinguin) they sell games themselfs, and also offer a platform for anyone who is looking to sell games for a fee, and I think you got that chargeback part all wrong, I know for a fact Kinguin receives payments and holds them for atleast a month before transferring it to the seller exactly for that reason, sure it might still happen every so often but it's not as easy/common as you're making it out to be.
That being said Kinguin is a shitty place to buy games due to their high prices and the fact that you're buying from the same trader that'll sell you the game for way less on trading sites.
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Uhm i didn't know that, so, let's reformulate:
Kinguin is a shitty place to buy games due to their high prices and the fact that you're buying from the same trader that'll sell you the game for way less on trading sites, but if the price looks too good and is lower than the steam lowest price, probably it's coming from a stolen account
TL;DR ignore that site
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That post just says that they need to contact Valve in order to change the region lock... it doesn't say anywhere that all games will come with region lock enabled by default.
EDIT: I'm taking about the image that that reddit post is linking to.
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Sure but why should they do that? Most are probably to lazy or even think they could earn more money that way. The only reason to change the region lock would be because they want to do something nice for their player base and are actually aware of the problem... good luck with that.
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http://i.imgur.com/gZTmRNy.png
It clearly says: "IF the package has any such restrictions..."
It wouldn't say that if all packages had restriction by default.
Nothing to see here... move along.
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Where does it say if a game is region locked? I can't seem to find it.
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If it's not publisher/developer choice about region locks, who decide which packages appear on Steam?
That IF might also come from the fact old games didn't had restrictions by default, so if you check your old game it might not have them, which would allow every new software to have locks.
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Maybe Valve.. but that still doesn't mean they are region locking everything.
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Yeah, I get what you are saying. I'm just saying that it seems to me that it's Valve's decision to region lock or not, but there is no evidence they are region locking everything.
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Nothing in the image linked says that though... In fact, the Valve employee even states "if there are any such restrictions." I don't think it would be a good business move, I don't want to believe it just yet.
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Thing is:
-game publisher/developer wants to change region lock
-Valve tells him "if your package has locks, you can check them there"
Question: if publisher didn't want region locks, who decided to make region locks?
Unless this reddit post has one thing wrong: developer wants to add region locks, while redditor thought publisher wanted to take them down, which would make this whole thread pointless...
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The dev or publisher is looking for the region lock options. Meaning they might want to put a region lock on. Or take one off. Nowhere does it say definitively that there's already a region lock on it. I think they're asking about how to put a lock on it.
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It appears to be true. I don't think it is across the board locking but it appears they are experimenting with a lot more locks of different types on a lot more games. Frozen Synapse Prime is currently locked down to a ridiculous degree and according to some sort dev or spokesperson on their forum they had no idea about it.
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This can't be right, what would happen to humble bundle or any indie bundle sites that hand out steam keys then? those keys need to not be region locked for everyone so they can still have activate the games. Or even sites that sells games like gamers gate or greenman gaming.
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It wasn't an entire bundle but just one game in it, but Humble Sega Weekly, if bought in Germany, didn't include Typing of the Dead: Overkill. It was replaced by Sonic All Stars Racing. But I think it could be activated if someone abroad sent it to you as a gift, so it's not region lock per se.
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It's actually happening. This is awful. Really bad news. I can't see it being a good business decision either tbh.
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Am kinda surprised this wasn't already a thing. Not that I like it at all, but Valve and losing additional potential game sales cut income for such a long time seems...wrong. :D
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Question is, how many people buying from traders will go back to their own regions, and how many will say "duck you Valve, Pirate Bay is The Way"...
But then, Valve won't care. That maybe-five games I'll buy in a year will be same 30% you would get from 30 games I bought from resellers. So, it's only publishers who lose.
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Yea this is definitely a dark omen. If the only way region locks can be removed is by raising prices in Russia and SEA, we can kiss cross region trading goodbye. At the very least its not occurring on older games, but I definitely saw "flags" when the new Game of Thrones game hit Steam for pre-order tonight and was locked. Telltale have not had region locks before.
However, it didnt happen to the new Geometry Wars game which is technically being published by Activision (its Sierra, but Activision own them). So, it remains to be seen just how widespread this really is.
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Yeah there still seems to be a little inconsistency doesn't there. A couple of releases don't have them, but then there's some really weird ones with locks. Like cheap €5 games, that would usually never have locks, are suddenly locked on release. I saw that too with the Telltale Borderlands game. I think it's really bad to be honest. There won't be as many purchases.
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Haha, oh yeah. Got lots of friends in those areas who depend on reselling to make cash to spend on stuff for themselves, they'd have next to no buying ability without it.
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What I hate of that is that we latin americans have region lock because of brazil but we have the same price as USA
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I don't think it's that clear cut.
Geometry Wars 3 - Not locked.
Raven's Cry - Not locked.
Alone in the Dark Illumination - Not locked.
I didnt feel like going through anything but "bigger" named/more expensive games. Obviously they could be locked in the future, but as of now, aren't.
I don't think there's any doubt that 99% of big named AAA titles will be locked going forward. IE there's probably no chance that GTA 5 and/or Metal Gear aren't locked. But, its going to be hard for them to do it with every title. What happens when things start getting bundled? That's going to create issues b/c bundle purchases aren't limited to regions.
It could be that things are locking on release, but then the argument goes to things like the new Telltale Game of Thrones game which is already locked. There's just too many unanswered questions right now to say one way or another which way this going. However, it doesnt look good for the future at the moment.
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Final Fantasy XIII-2 is locked. you have to check all packages on steamdb. you are right for the others though.
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Well my money spent on steam will decrease by 80/90%
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If they want to stop trading games by locking them all, then they should make fair prices in every country. I live in Greece which belongs to europe but still, we don't have the same economy as Germany for example, so why should i pay the same as them? Plus, don't make me start about VAT.
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no way, they are going to change the VAT to the buyer's country? In Hungary VAT is 27% ffs
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You didn't misinterpret it. You're going to have to pay 23% VAT for games next year.
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That's the current one. 1.1.2015 it will change so the VAT depends on the buyer's country in the EU. So for example if you lived in Finland, you'd have to pay 24% VAT instead of the 15%. You can read of the change on Steam's partner page. Unless Valve decides to keep the current prices even with the higher VATs many countries have, the prices for games will rise in many countries in the EU region.
EDIT: Weird that the Steam partner page says it's confidential but can be found through Google, which is where I found it.
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My bad, didn't know this point. Well, publishers will have to decide themselves if they increases their prices or not, but I don't see the reason why they would do that, as a physical copie of a game is already the same price almost everywhere in EU, 50/60€ for a new AAA game. If Steam prices become higher than what we are already paying... well, more people will learn that GMG, GG, Amazon.com and more, are also good places to buy, I really hope for them at least.
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Bad decision, if this keep happening a good sum of people will forget valve in time.
I despise Nintendo because region locking decision too. Well and a lot of children games.
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Except for the german market. Some games are blocked from being activated in Germany because they have too much violence or swastikas. Yep, you as an adult are blocked from viewing certain content. You can go die in Afghanistan for Germany but don't think you can see certain things on your pc.
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It's not the fault of the game makers that violent games get censored or outright banned by German law.
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I didn't say that. However, it is bad when they actively block the activation of a key bought in another country like sega is doing at the moment. It may even contavene EU law.
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They're only covering their own asses. I don't blame them for not wanting to get involved with activating keys on German accounts for games that are illegal there, they could get sued.
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It is their fault when they introduce excessive region locking because they're not familiar with our retarded laws. For example, retail imports for strictly personal use are always legal, even if it were a straight up Hitler life sim.
And buying gift versions from Russians or whatever has no legal precedent as far as I know. Although it makes sense that companies don't want to become that legal precedent.
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They don't want to get involved or take a chance on it. If they play ball with Germany then they're abiding by it's censorship laws, and a lot of publishers and devs don't want anything to do with that.
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That makes no sense. If there are region locks, it's always because the publisher tried and failed to obtain a rating to sell retail copies.
Publishers that don't want to "play ball" just ignore German retail and sell on Steam without region locks. Indies don't care. Killing Floor didn't receive a censored version on Steam until they put that same version on store shelves.
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Maybe it's time to make a second steam account for vpn and region locked titles. That way you can sell it off later even it's against the rules. Alternatively pirated versions ...
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fine for me
never bought any game from this resellers anyway
and you guyz should not forget that you can finally buy cheap games on sales too and sell later in your region when price go back to normal without losing money cause russians kill the price
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Some regions will never have the best prices compared to other regions. I'm from the EU and I don't see any chance we will have better prices compared to ANY regions, it doesn't matter which country "kills the price" (RU, SEA), we will always get the games from other regions.
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Region locking games from countries that get cheaper prices is outright better for everyone involved except for people who buy cheap games from poverty stricken countries. The devs and publishers get more money, and if they don't have to worry about people ripping them off they'll theoretically give us more game for our money. It should have happened sooner. The only people who lose out are resellers and people who want to pay half of what the game costs the day it launches.
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Well, due to region locks devs will gets less money from me, as I won't buy two games, only one - which means one dev will get more, but other will get nothing.
Or none of them will get money, as I'll just skip buying and pirate it after a year.
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You're not entitled to two games for the price of one. If you want to be a thief you can't complain about game pricing, people who steal aren't factored into customer issues.
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Sure, lots of people are, and they've now region locked the low prices to the people who need them.
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That's not how economics work. If they raise the price I'm going to buy less... a lot less. And I'm not alone by any means. The people who will lose out are joe schmo indie dev. And that's why, I think, a lot of them are unhappy that Valve is experimenting on their sales like this... and if they aren't upset they fuckin should be.
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This actually works out much better for indie devs. Instead on making $5 on their $10 game at launch they're going to be making what it actually costs around the globe instead of what 3rd world countries pay.
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Very few people actually took advantage of Russian price trading. They restricted it before it got any worse, if they left it alone for a few more years then eventually most people on Steam would expect half priced games all the time.
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The vast majority of 3rd World countries are charged the same as the USA. The regional price exploitation is mainly from Russia, which is NOT in the 3rd World.
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Call me a cynic, but I'd expect the biggest winners here to be Pirate Bay...
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Insurgency is $7.50 in Russia compared to it's actual $15 price, and Verdun is only $10 in Russia compared to it's actual $23 price. You're not helping those devs out by paying half of what the game costs.
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If they're too expensive for someone then they can wait for a sale, not buy them whenever they want for half it's real price.
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They can get a good deal during a Steam Sale now like everyone else.
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"Everyone else" = you mean everyone will get Russian prices?
Oh, you mean shitty deals Eastern European Union gets, where Steam prices for AAA games are getting close to usual retail prices, while Indie games finally are on level that should be in first place.
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Nope, actually now the only people who are going to get poverty prices are going to be in 3rd world countries. Traders who want a deal on a game can wait for a sale like everyone else.
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So, like I said, Eastern European Union will still get shitty deals, where -50% is barely getting to typical retail price.
Ask yourself why Eastern not-CIS-Europe doesn't buy on Steam, making less than 3% of whole Steam revenue, while Western Europe does around 40-50%.
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you are forgeting people like me that live in Portugal. We have a really bad economy and receive little for our work when compared to countries like germany and france, nonetheless we get the same price as these countries. region locking will mean i'll either turn to piracy or stop gaming until i earn euromillions. Even on sale (-75%) most games cost 5 euro or more, for us that's the price of 1-2 meals.
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Now that devs no longer have to worry about low income county's prices being abused, I'd imagine that a lot more places will have lower prices.
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if that you said were true Portugal and the other "poor" european countries would exit EU2 and EU1 price zone and become another.
What i see is: russia and brasil get good deals and all other "poor" countries get what they neighbours have.
My example: i waste 50 euro for each major sale (winter and summer) on steam. If i'm allowed to trade, around 5-8 devs get my money. If i'm not 1 or 2 may get my money, since i'll only pay for games that have hour upon hours of entertainment
Personally i think this region locking will probably lead either to a new cd-key market or to an increase in piracy
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If a majority of PC users turn to stealing it's just going to bite us all in the ass, unless you like shoddy or no ports that is.
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I'm doubtful that cross region resales via Steamtrades etc count for more than a very small fraction of Valve's PC sales.
Shoddy ports (or none at all) are de rigueur these days, anyway. As PC users, we've come to treat these stunted, semi-aborted runts with something approaching affection. Gawd bless their cute framerate locks, their cheeky little vomit-inducing locked FOV settings, and their utterly senseless, but nevertheless endearing, mouse acceleration.
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It probably only accounted for a very small number of sales right now, but it was just going to get higher as time went on so Steam restricted it right now before it got any worse.
AAAs come out glitchy and half finished now more often than not, and the ports are already pretty bad. They could get much much worse if the majority of PC users go back to stealing games.
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christ, what a corporate shill you are. explain how awesome it would be for us gamers if games became $100 usd each because some publisher decided he could get away with it and there was NOTHING you could do to get it cheaper anywhere else? explain how awesome it would be if internet purchases for ALL products were closed off to you, leaving you at the mercy of whatever your LOCAL stores wanted to charge... because we all know how fucking awesome it is for the consumer, when prices can be fixed by greedy suppliers. ANY fucking consumer should FIGHT for a free market, NOT stand there and support tight restrictions that allow for price gouging and restrictions of consumer choices.. ESPECIALLY on the INTERNET of all FUCKING THINGS! holy fuck!
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A. You're goddamn right that I want the people who make the games I enjoy to get paid enough to be able to keep on making games. I don't support sweatshops, and I don't want the games industry to turn into a sweatshop.
B. You can still get your games from all over the globe, just not from Russia and other poverty stricken countries.
C. Modern day gamers are greedier than any publisher I've ever seen. EA and Ubisoft have nothing on a gamer who thinks they're owed something.
D. An actual Free Market on Steam would just lead to a race to the bottom. If you'd like the Steam Store to look like the App Store, a free market on Steam would be right up your alley.
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A) region locking will lead to less sales since most poor countries will not buy games because everything will be more expensive (portugal, greece, turkey, spain, etc)
B)right now its region locking by zone, if it continues will they lock it to countries or districts?
C)EA , ubisot and activision is what's creating these mordern day greedy gamers. We need to pay for 60-120 euros for a game in a country where you earn 600 euro per month?
D)A free market on steam will not lead to a race bottom. It has been free for quite a awhile and the sales have always been rising.
Mate, your problem is that you live in a rich country. You even have money to waste on badges which have no value in any way possible. Many of us can't afford the price publishers want.
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He's already had that explained to him numerous times. He doesn't understand economics, you're wasting your time.
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Or at least according to this reddit post. The claim is that devs/publishers need to contact Valve in order to remove the lock from their game, since there's no option to do it themselves. If this is true, we'll probably see less and less non locked games.
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