I won a 10 EUR voucher giveaway from a "grey market" well-known steam key seller. It's the first time I bought from them and from a shop like that.

Well it was free, lucky me!

All keys worked fine but one was announced has Resident Evil 0 / Biohazard 0 HD Remaster Steam CD Key and it activated as Resident Evil 0 / biohazard 0 HD Remaster (ROW Launch).

I know ROW stands for "rest of the world" but I failed to find where this specific key is not available to be played.

I'm from Portugal I think I will be able to play, still the seller should have placed the ROW limitation.

Can some kind soul tell me what the (ROW Launch) means for this game? I couldn't find it. Thanks in advance!

6 years ago

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I'm confused. If the key activated fine on your account (which makes sense if it's a ROW key) what's your question ?

I'm no expert on the matter but I think if there are no region locked packages ROW means the same as Global.

6 years ago
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Activation and run locks are separate things. Being able to activate a key doesn't necessarily mean you can run the game.

6 years ago
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Well, worst case scenario OP should be able to play it in 12 weeks after the (potential) run lock expires.

6 years ago
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Though are there any more significant run locks besides the german IP-block for some banned games (mostly because of them containing Nazi symbolism)?

6 years ago
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it basically means it's not region locked and not censored because it's not region or country locked

6 years ago
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it basically means it's not region locked

WW (Worldwide) is actually the code to indicate something isn't region-restricted or locked.
ROW is the "rest of world" not covered by specific region-restrictions. ie, "Here's our EU region (and its restrictions), here's our RU/CIS region (and its restrictions), here's our Germany region (and its restrictions), and here's our Rest-of-World region (and its restrictions)."
Quite a few games don't set special restriction codes, but still release with region restrictions in mind, so ROW for those games acts equivalent to WW. For other games, the ROW region doesn't have any special restrictions set, and again acts equivalent to WW.
However, for some games, ROW is exclusive, and can't be activated within regions contained within other region codes- as such, you can't ever fully assume ROW is always going to be activatable in every region.

and not censored

Likewise, NONE of the codes relate to censorship, only to publishing restrictions. (To explain that simply, even if a publisher is willing to allow a key to be activated in a region, that region itself may prohibit that version of the game from activating. Region codes only factor in the publisher side of things.)
At times, this may mean that you're able to activate a game, but the game ends up not allowing you to connect to download servers for the game while your location is within a prohibited region, regardless of what code it has. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record's store page offers a good example of that type of consideration- note the warning box at the top of the page.
Again, usually not an issue, due to keys for such regions typically also being activation-locked- but, as with ROW labeling, it's a potential risk to be aware of.

6 years ago*
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Well, it's best to look up the package, which is this one, and I don't see any activation or run lock on it, so technically, the game can be bought (outside Steam) and activated practically anywhere in the world, and can be run anywhere without restriction.

The name of the package usually tells us something about region lock, but not everything. Better check steamdb for the details.

6 years ago
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I did check that but it doesn't say any limitations. Since it says ROW it should have limitations, probably 1 or 2 places I assume?!

Steam should tell us these things more clearly... I find it a mess.

6 years ago
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If SteamDB says there is no limitation, then there is not. Period. The name of the package gives some initial information, but it is not as reliable as what SteamDB says.

6 years ago
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I didn't know SteamDB was that trustworthy, I don't use it that much.

They chose a real bad name for the package then. Thanks for your help.

6 years ago
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If it got activated on your account then it should be in your library for sure, try to input the key again does it say "you already own this product"? If so then it got redeemed on your account. Check the "recent" tab at top left under Library>games (click games and you can find recent catgory)

6 years ago
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It's activated on my account I just didn't try to play it yet because I'm not home. I assume it will work.

I asked for help because I'd like to give feedback on the seller on that site. He should have said that the key had limitations (if it has any), someone could have bought it and after not be able to activate or play the game. I'm being picky :)

I wanted to give the seller a positive feedback but warn him that the key was ROW and so he should have told on the description it couldn't be activated in the "X country". I guess no one knows where the key can be played or not, it's a mess, I'll just ignore it.

6 years ago
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Well, even if the key is region-restricted to ROW, ROW is (as I detail above) inclusive of all regions not contained within other restricted listings. As the only special regions for the game are JP, BR, EMEA/ANZ, and RU/CIS, and as Portugal is in none of those regions, you can automatically assume it will be covered by ROW. Of course, (as per my censorship explanation above,) that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to connect to download the game. Then again, that is (as far as I'm aware) an extremely rare situation, and one that can be true for any ROW activation.
In short, unless you see a PT or EU special region set for the game, you really shouldn't have to worry about a ROW key unless there's a warning box on the store page (as per the example above).

If what's throwing you off is the 'Launch' part, that's just the publisher's own personal notation. Variations to the region code like that aren't really important from a consumer-side perspective (at least not that I've ever had chance to encounter); so we can just go off the region-code alone. To support that assumption, note that (ROW Launch) is the only (ROW) typed key offered for this game.

https://steamdb.info/app/339340/subs/

6 years ago
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Thanks for the explanation :)

6 years ago
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