ALL Steam games are now region-locked in RU/CIS, South America, South East Asia and Turkey

Looks like Ill be getting most of my games from Humble Bundles or humble stores. Kinda didnt expect this especially since Valve promoted cross regions for so many years. Sad day indeed.

was fun while it lasted , fuck it time to dust off the old utorrent app :d

Well... That sucks.

Speaking as a Brazilian myself what bothers me is not the fact that i won't be able to give any gifts anymore to people who live in US (specially here in Steam Gifts even if i know i have been away a long time now, but still), but the fact that the whole reason that South America is going to have the same lock it's just because of the prices here. And for that matter, the prices here haven't been THAT cheaper since Steam changed from $1 = R$1.5 to $1 = R$2 (yeah, they did this without any warning but it was kinda obvious they would do that soon or later). The hate that my country is getting for this is just...sad. And the worse of all, we're not even the ones to blame. It was Valve's decision (probably forced because of some developers, but you get the point) and it shows how much power they have over us. I guess this is the end of trading for me, it has been fun. And just to inform you guys, a local newsletter said this:

"Previously, Steam users of other countries were allowed to buy game keys from markets with lower value - like Brazil or Russia - and from websites or re-sellers like Nuuvem. They were also allowed to receive games as gifts from the players that are from those regions.

Now the KEYS will only work on those countries and in some near places. User gifts in places like Brazil won't be able to be activated by users who have an account in regions like US or EU."

Yes, you just read that right. They said keys. A lot of people are saying this won't affect keys, but this seems to say otherwise. I'm not 100% sure about that information because it's not coming directly from Valve, but there's that.

Well... It's a sad day, indeed.

I just sold all of my tf2 keys lol couldn't find a russian trader to get cheap games from :P

It affects Brazilians, but not all of South America (as far as I know).

EDIT: I am wrong : ((

fuck you Steam
I pay the same bloody prices for your games as most of the americans
I don't even live near Brazil to have the same stupid region block

If only russians left ukraine alone ....

Is that means its the beginning of the end of the Steamgifts.com?

Is it possible to kill in second time someone with Avada Kedavra spell if i already casted that spell on him previosly? I already used my mass Avada Kedavra on greedy steamers when they applied that trading lock for items.

Another strange changes O_o Just 2 questions:

Let's say i live in Russia and i bought 100 games. After month, half year, year i will move to England and study or work there. As i know all my 100 games will be locked and unplayable in England, because i bought them in Russia for low region price. Is that fair? I think it's not. And what if i'm so mobile because of my work, that after half year i will leave England and move to Asia? All my games will be locked again and i will be forced to pay money again? O_o For me Steam is great because i can save all my games at one place. I can change PC, login into Steam account and get access to all my games. I don't need discs. I have Steam. It seems like new changes will harm Steam customers.

My second question is about gifting system. With these new changes it must be renamed to "Gifting System for your region friends". How many of us have friends from another countries? 100 people? 1000? 1000000? Many of Steam customers have friends and many of us would like to gift copy of games for friends. If no, than why Steam has gifting system? =) 4packed games? What's the point of creating 4pack games if you can't gift 3 copies, which you can't use? =)

Maybe i misunderstood something, but these new changes are very disappointing. Someday people will just point their eyes to similar platforms as Steam if owners of Steam will not stop this "let's lock everything for use, trade & joy" changes.

There goes the Golden Age of Steam trading.. let's see what's next.

I wonder if regions paying "the right" price will make up for the lost sales from traders, both in games and tf2 keys. I know I already have moved away from buying most things in Steam towards either buying keys from other sites (Gamersgate, Humblebundle, Indiegala, etc) as well as just completely jumping ship to GOG, due to its current stance of "DRM is a bad thing".

Maybe from this Valve will eventually think to give Eastern Europe halfway fair pricing. I'm sure it won't happen, but countries like Poland sharing a price with Germany, etc, is complete bullshit. I just know that the day I can't give my Polish friends games via steam is probably the day I just jump ship from Steam completely and use it solely to play what I already have in my library and a so-so instant messaging service.

This will affect Steam's profits too. Every year people were buying hundreds of games they don't need and hundreds of copies of them from resellers from Russia. It won't be the same again. Diminishing marginal utility will kick in this time. After buying a game for $30 once or even twice, a user will not be willing to buy a third one at that price but they would buy many times over if the price was $10. Perhaps that was one of the reasons that Valve games were never region locked before. When CSGO just came out (there were already lots of new region locked games), it was not locked. Trading/Selling across regions was satisfying a certain part of the market and giving Valve a slice of it. Valve is greedy but the big game publishers are greedier and probably twisted Steam's arm to do this (if Valve wasn't "intelligently greedy" it would have locked all its new games and tf2 stuff before this). Big companies got scared of the rouble hype and decided to make changes. Steam's greedy instinct kicked in after that and they decided to lock their own games too. But here is the truth, "stupidly greedy" companies. Buying your 10th copy of a game from Russia will not inflict you 10 times more losses (from opportunity cost) because people would be buying only one copy at the expensive price and only games that they really want. Moreover, companies make most of their money from when the game is just released and somewhat less money from later sales (and a big part of cross-region trading/selling are older games that were on sale as new games were locked anyways). The rouble thing is just a pretext. There are many other countries in the CIS that use the US dollar (prices are lower but unaffected by the rouble). Some games were also only a few dollars apart in price when 75% off, so for just a few dollars less per game, Valve and big publishers were making much more money from their older games (with people buying more and more). And let us not forget that these are all digital goods. Even selling millions of copies for $1 will bring some big profits (after maintenance costs, hello humble bundle). Well, Steam let us see how you do this Winter Sale and whether it will make you change your mind (as you have done before).

It's really interesting to see how the market moves in response to each of these developments. Gem prices just made a rebound because people in region-locked countries just realized that the only way now to still get gifts outside of 2- or 4- packs is through the Auction. Definitely going to see some heavy bid inflations incoming, I predict.

I hope the new region-locked is for winter sale only

Until the price in ruble recovers back to $1usd=35-45rub don't expect Steam to just change back. Yesterday it soared up to 1usd=80rub. If Valve were to sell games to the Russians at the same price as before, Valve would lose a lot of money. If they raised the price, there would be no russian traders because it would be too expensive to profit for the russian traders. So all of you complaining about the region locks in Russia needs to stop and read the news. However, the region lock in South America or whatever seems a bit unfair. I don't think they are related to the rubles.

Edit: I mean raise the price but with the same region locks as before

I've been reading the comments, to my understanding this wouldn't be a problem if there was:

1. A EU Tier 3 with fair prices.
2. A South American store with fair prices for the rest of South American countries that aren't Mexico or Brazil.

Should I add anything else? let me know.

i don't get it, why are so many people freaking out over this? lower priced games are meant to help out russia and those other places, not the rest of the world. everyone just take a deep breath and calm down, this isn't valve's fault. from a business standpoint this change makes sense. Praise GabeN!

Thank god, now people from countries that aren't poor have a chance to make a slight profit on good game deals they come across others in the same region miss out on. The majority of trading is crappy bundle games anyway, tbh.

THIS IS STUPID I AM NOT MOVING TO ANOTHER COUNTRY JUST TO PLAY A GAME

"Tip: A gift in inventory may become region locked. If you bought it from a foreign country trader remember to redeem it as soon as possible."
From Steamlock checker

May... shit. But its just speculating.
When I think about it... they cant do this can they? Well ofcourse they can, but legally?

Man, so many whiny people. You know, you never had "the right" or "deserved" a way to get cheap prices/games. You do not have the money to buy games? Then don't buy them. Or just wait a few months/years, until they are on sale. That's what I do. And yes, I am from the EU tier 2, where a new game would cost me a third of my salary. Still, do you see me complaining?

Yes, it's a little bad considering the giveaways, but that's the only thing you can whine about. Yet only a few people I see commenting about that. Minous2 signing out.

fck volvo!

Okay, I understand they had to do something about Russian Store.But why lock the others too ? We buy for like %20 discounted and it isn't much of a difference.And some games are %200 expensive for us.

Anyway, it won't affect me since I started buying everything from my Steam Store after recently added currencies.I still buy cheaper but I pity those who will have to pay twice the amount for a game now.

Sincerely, somoene who once loved Steam.

Some time ago I thought than everything good will come to an end, including Steam. Well, now it's the time, probably.