As you are know I'm from SEA region
If I make a giveaway for other region I bought it from online stores like bundlestars, greenmangaming, indiegala store, humblebundle store, etc

For one of my latest giveaway
I bought the game from greenmangaming

What I know is the sites I listed before is known to sell region free games the other of giveaways I made from greenmangaming is fine, but that giveaway is region locked for the winner from Czech Republic, and honestly I don't know what exactly is the region of the game I bought, and there is no description at all that the game I bought is region locked from that site.

I already contacted the support here is their response :
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It is not my intention at all to giveaway region locked games to you, if it is region locked I will create region locked giveaway.

I bought the game when it is on sale, and I worry if I buy another game it is region locked again.
I have plan to ask for the support, if possible I'll ask the winner to keep the game, and let him create a giveaway from winning my game.
Greenmangaming customer support said that "This game has 3 different versions, an RU/CIS/IN as well as an Asia version. Your purchase should activate everywhere apart from Japan and the countries these other two versions cater for"

So I wanna ask you what should I do?
what the support think of this kind of problem? it is a first for me to know a game with that kind of region locking.
what region the game is considered to?

9 years ago

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im sorry thats kinda fked up m8

EDIT: Are you using any VPN or proxy?

9 years ago
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No, I never use it, it is not allowed by steam standard.

9 years ago
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GMG are know for being awkward on this matter. They do sell region locked keys and their typical response is if you bought them for anyone other than yourself and they happen to be locked - tough shit.

9 years ago
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the thing is if what they said is right

"This game has 3 different versions, an RU/CIS/IN as well as an Asia version. Your purchase should activate everywhere apart from Japan and the countries these other two versions cater for"

I'm from Asia and it should region locked for me too.

9 years ago
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Is the key you've received region locked or region restricted? They do sell locked keys but the issues is they never indicate the region of the keys they sell. They claim that all games are matched to the region of the purchaser but their terms and conditions don't indicate this and only state that using a VPN will cause the purchase to fail.

This issue has come up several times before and the only response I've ever seen from them is that if the key matches the region of the purchaser they'l do nothing about it.

9 years ago
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What I only know is the answer from the customer service "This game has 3 different versions, an RU/CIS/IN as well as an Asia version. Your purchase should activate everywhere apart from Japan and the countries these other two versions cater for"

Dunno what region that means (and dunno about restricted or locked).

9 years ago
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Well if you are from SEA region and they say that your purchased keys should have no problem activating in the region
you bought them from, you seem to have your answer.

9 years ago
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Not sure though, SEA is South East Asia, and the game should activate everywere except Asia, Japan and RU/CIS/IN.

9 years ago
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Well I really don't know then what you could do. Creating a regional giveaway and trying to guess the region is not an option either.
So you ended up with a kinda useless key :D

9 years ago
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They responses make absolutely no sense. At least state whether a key I buy is region locked or not.
The fact that I buy a key from a X region doesn't mean that I necessarily want to use it myself in that particular region.
Anyway hope you find a way to solve this issue, but as it seems GMG is not willing to help you any further. So good luck with w/e you decide to do with that

9 years ago
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This is pretty worrying for us. No one wants to unknowingly buy a game and give away here that is restricted. I hope GMG and other resellers make it a habit of showing the region info on the game page.

9 years ago
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I had a lot of problem buying games (for myself) on GMG. Once bought a Dishonored key and steam said it was unavailable in my region. After messing with the support for almost 2 weeks they finally provided me with a key that I was able to activate. But now in my steam library it shows (RU) next to the games name. I was also unable to achieve playfire rewards later because it was "Dishonored (RU)" and not "Dishonored"...

9 years ago
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In this case, you can thank Bethesda. They made some serious bullshit and some of their games (Fallout, Dishonored) where they put some countries in Central Europe into Russian Zone - some stupid deal with publisher for that region.

9 years ago
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idk about fallout and dishonored, but there was an issue qwith skyrim for like 1.5 year from release. They made a deal with Cenega (Polish-based publisher publishing generally in central europe countries) and made a special Poland-Czech-Slovakia-Hungary lock for Skyrim Game was unavaiable from other sources in these countries, even ROW keys wouldn't work, and the worst part was that DLCs couldn't be bought from steam as well and they were slacking releasing locked DLC versions. Luckily this is now over - deal time ended and Skyrim copies got unlocked, but yeah, they are known from pulling out shit like that :/

9 years ago
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Similar stuff happened to New Vegas and Dishonored. And it was caused by Cenega's owner - which is Russian game publisher. Hence this strange "Polish, Czech, Hungary, Russian" versions that are now tagged with RU.

9 years ago
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I found out myself that GMG keys are region locked depending on the publisher, probably because they do have some regional pricing. Plenty aren't (I believe TellTale games and most indie games are currently region free) but other keys are (like most Bethesda games such as Skyrim). Worst thing is I haven't found any way to be sure before buying the key. So I know I stopped using GMG keys for giveaways.

Edit - This is the FAQ I was directed to when I had an issue. Basically they only guarantee games will work in the region they are purchased in.

9 years ago*
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Bump

9 years ago
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This is why I stopped using GMG Not only do they create problems for their customers, they are inept at addressing those problems when the customers complain.

As for SteamGifts Support, we could delete the giveaway for you if you wish. Make sure you find out the region to which the gift is restricted so that you can make a region-retricted giveaway with it (if you want to do that).

9 years ago
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Thank you very much for your offer and assistance in this matter,
The winner already mark it as received even though he don't really get it.
You don't have to delete the giveaway, but please do so if necessary.

I'll be careful next time, maybe not creating giveaway from GMG is a start.

As for the key I don't plan to make any giveaway with it or use it, it is the property of the winner now.
If he discover the region and make region restricted/ private giveaway with it, please let him if possible.
I'm sorry for the trouble.

9 years ago*
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No trouble. You have made an unintentional mistake, but you have done nothing wrong.

However, if the winner marked the game as received despite not receiving it, that is a big no-no. When Support sees that a won game has not been activated on an account,, we suspend the person. Never mark a game "received" until after you have redeemed it to your account.

Of course, deleting the giveaway would solve the problem just as well.

9 years ago*
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The winner added the game via VPN is that count?

9 years ago
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If that is what happened, you are done. Go enjoy your freedom. D

Oh, and you don't want to use a VPN, yourself. Steam bans people for that.

9 years ago
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It's not the first time I see GMG involved in selling region-locked keys without telling the customer. By the way, it is illegal for EU customers. I avoid this store as much as I can - they still do have the best price on a particular game from time to time :)

9 years ago
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I see many games that at the end of the name say (NA), and is not for "Not Availble", so yes there'r many titles in GMG that seems to be region locked, i only see NA - North America - as far as i know many of this game also work on LA - Latin America - region, but im not sure about EU, CIS, RUS.
They must be more clearly in the way they specify if a game (key) is region locked or not.

9 years ago
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??? im blacklisted? why?

9 years ago
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Region locked keys are forced by publishers, it's best to check steamdb for locked keys.

It sucks but nothing they can do (expect not sell in that area).

Unofficial sellers are good choice in those regions as long as you're careful not buying illegit/stolen keys

9 years ago
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